Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

by Craig S. Keener

skeptical, through experience he had grown to affirm continuing healings.[37] Augustine’s many examples of miracles of which he was certain include dramatic cases like healing of long-term paralytics; he freely cites eyewitnesses. Sometimes he expresses his annoyance when someone healed had not yet publicly given testimony to what God had done, because they were acting as if the healing were only for their private edification and not also for God’s glory. He recounts a less dramatic recovery of his own that he regards as miraculous. He reports his own suffering for several days from tooth pain so severe (perhaps due to an abscess, in the days before root canals) that eventually he could not speak. No sooner had his friends prayed for him than it vanished (Conf. 9.4.12).[38] He elaborates at special length on a case involving one of his friends, citing also another close friend who, along with Augustine, was a witness of the event. A former official named Innocent was suffering from a long-term painful anal abscess that a previous surgery and ointments had failed to correct. As anesthesia was not available in those days, patients suffering painful surgeries sometimes went into shock and died, and Innocent was terrified at the prospect of another surgery. Augustine and others prayed for him, but Augustine found himself unable to concentrate on prayer, distracted by