Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T03:09:59.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Traces of Thaumaturgic Technique in the Miracles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Campbell Bonner
Affiliation:
University of Michigan

Extract

It has long been known that familiar features of the ordinary wonder-worker's manner of operation can be detected here and there in the stories of the miracles of Jesus. Nothing is more natural. Miracle stories had been current in the ancient world for centuries before the Christian era, and their number did not lessen thereafter. A type of popular story was developed, varying as to time and scene and as to the persons concerned in the action, but in spite of those variations carrying certain marks which, through their frequent recurrence, came to be expected as a matter of course. For example, the narrator makes much of the difficulty of the miracle and of the thoroughness of its success; and he shows a vivid interest in the behavior of the miracle-worker, carefully noting the various acts and gestures by which the wonder is brought to pass.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1927

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 M. Dibelius in the passage cited below mentions an instance in the practice of the Greek church.

2 Professor Lake's treatment of the passage in this Review, Vol. XVI, p. 197, has been called to my attention, but I can not agree with his conclusions.