Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

by Craig S. Keener

In the seventeenth century, Presbyterian Richard Baxter claims his own healing from a sizable tumor, as well as knowledge of others’ healings.[159] Scottish Covenanters report many miracles.[160] In 1644, a young woman unable to walk unaided suddenly found herself cured as a preacher was speaking about “the miraculous power of Jesus’s name.”[161] One of the best documented cases for a person through whose prayers many were healed is the previously obscure Valentine Greatrakes (1628–83). Starting in 1661, he began curing various disorders, including deafness and paralysis. He became so effective that thousands flocked to him, with hundreds of claimed cures in London alone. Some cures took weeks to complete, and his own wife remained skeptical; moreover, Greatrakes himself did not understand how the healings were occurring. A contemporary eyewitness viewed the cures as psychological, regarding Greatrakes as sincere but uneducated.[162] The witness nonetheless admitted witnessing “deafness cured by his touch,” “running sores . . . dried up,” “cancerous knots in the breast dissolved,” and so forth.[163] The results astonished even a number of skeptics, many of whom were themselves cured. Invited to demonstrate healings before the king’s court, however, he accepted quickly—and failed there. Shaken, he spent the rest of his life in obscurity.[164]