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| Class Prep |
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- Manifesting the New Age: Jesus' Miracles
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 The miracles reported in the gospels are among the most difficult elements
for post-Enlightenment minds to grasp. Some early rationalists wrote them out
of the story completely, imagining that the historical Jesus was a teacher of
morals and the miracles were added by the evangelists as a gesture of their belief
that Jesus was divine. But however we understand the miracles, one thing we can't
ignore is that Jesus was known as a wonder-worker in his own time.-
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readings focus on some of the most famous miracles, and some of the earliest sources
about Jesus' miracles, in the gospel tradition. The primary early source material
that we'll be looking at comes from the Signs Source (SQ) in the Gospel of John,
Q, and Mark. As you read this primary material, try your hand at applying the
criteria of historicity to the stories. Then, when you read HJFD, concentrate
on the groups of miracles that have the best likelihood of historicity, and be
able to tie these acts that Jesus does to the message that he preached.
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- Assigned Readings
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| Primary: |
John 2:1-11; Q 7:1-10; Mark 1:23-34, 40-45; 2:1-12; 3:1-6; 4:35–5:43; 6:32-44;
8:22-26; John 11:1-44 |
| Secondary: |
Murphy, HJFD 179-94 (Camino); Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? 315-17 [top]; Crossan & Reed, Excavating Jesus 136-46 (chapter 4 up to "Masada and Qumran in the South"), 172-81 (chapter 4 "Radical Nonviolent Resistance" through the end of the chapter); online class prep |
| Lecture Slides: |
Class 8a (pdf) |
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- Presentations
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- Further Reading
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- Meier, John P. "Part 3. Miracles." In
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. 2, Mentor, Message, and Miracles (Anchor Bible
Reference Library; New York: Doubleday, 1994) 509-1038.
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- Twelftree, Graham H. "The Miracles of Jesus: Marginal or Mainstream?" Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 1 (2003) 104-124.
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- Sources
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- Photograph: Tirdad Derakhshani,
Early Images of Jesus: Jesus in Pagan Art, for Religious Studies 002: 601 and
Jewish Studies 122: 601, Religions of the West: Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
University of Pennsylvania, online, http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rels/002/Christianity/earlyart.html.
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