Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

by Craig S. Keener

Jesus’s miracles have little in common with magic as most frequently defined, especially the magic elaborately documented for us in the third-century magical papyri. Part of the debate about magic and Jesus’s miracles turns on one’s definition of “magic,”[26] discussed earlier, but to the extent that “religion” and “magic” are distinguished, the normal criteria readily distinguish Jesus’s most commonly reported activity from magic.[27] Granted, Jesus was accused of magic by his detractors (Mark 3:22, probably also in Q Matt 12:24//Luke 11:15).[28] This accusation was not, however, surprising, for it was the easiest charge to bring against wonder workers. In Q’s temptation narrative, Jesus rejects the temptation to transmute stones into bread (Matt 4:3–4//Luke 4:3–4); changing one substance into another,[29] like changing one’s own form,[30] was characteristic of magicians. Luke is eager to absolve early Christians as well as Jesus from the charge, by way of contrast with those who misunderstood or opposed them (Acts 8:9–11; 13:6–8; 19:11–19).