Miracles As Testified in the Holy Scriptures

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Above: Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee by Paul Bril  (c. 1553/1554–1626).

After having considered in Part 1 what miracles are – and what they are not – we next consider the testimony of the Holy Scriptures on miracles through both the New and the Old Testament. This article is the second in a 10-part series that will explore miracles as proof of the truths of Catholic doctrine.

Drawing from both the wisdom of intellectual giants like Monsignor Joseph Fenton, the catechisms, and objective third-party scientists, there can be no doubt that God confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt the truths of Catholic doctrine through miracles. Since miracles can only come from God and not from natural causes, and since God will never confirm a falsehood, legitimate miracles are validation of a truth by God Himself.

Father John Hardon defines a miracle as follows: “A sensibly perceptible effect, surpassing at least the powers of visible nature, produced by God to witness to some truth or testify to someone’s sanctity.” Along with reason, miracles provide the Catholic apologist with effective tools to defend the veracity of Catholic teaching to those who question or doubt it.

Old Testament Miracles

In the Old Testament, Biblical history records many unexplainable events, some dating back at least for five thousand years. Here are but a few:

• A voice from a burning bush – Exodus 3:1-5
• Ten plagues visited upon Egypt – Exodus 7:14 – Exodus 12-32
• The Ten Commandments given to Moses – Exodus 19:16 – Exodus 20:20 
• Exiled Israelites fed by quail and manna in the desert – Exodus 16:11-15
• A widow’s oil undiminished in quantity and months-old meal not spoiled – 1st Kings 7:7-10
• A dumb animal speaks – Numbers 22:21-32
• The widow’s son raised from the dead – 1st Kings 17:11-24
• Three Hebrew boys delivered from death in a fiery furnace – Daniel 3:16-24
• Daniel saved from certain death when thrown into a den of lions – Daniel 6:11-23
• Jonah, swallowed by a great fish was thereafter vomited up safely after three days – Jonah 6:1-11

During Old Testament times, neither physical science nor the art of medicine had progressed to any degree of sophistication; therefore, none of these supernatural events were verified, except by the writers of the Old Testament texts themselves. But God ordained to reveal them to us, and many more are recorded throughout the Old Testament.

New Testament Miracles

In the New Testament, as well, there is no shortage of signs and wonders testifying to the truth of Christ and His doctrine. According to the scholar Father M. J. Lagrange, OP, the Scriptures document no less than forty-eight occasions on which Jesus is said to have performed manifestly miraculous acts. Here are several you should read from your own Catholic Bible:

The Miracles of Jesus include:

• Jesus heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law (Matthew 8:14-15; Mark 1:21-27; Luke 4:38-39)
• Jesus heals a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:1-11)
• Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11)
• Jesus heals an official’s son (John 4:43-54)
• Jesus cleanses a man with an unclean spirit (Mark 21-27; Luke 5:1-11)
• Jesus heals a centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10)
• Jesus heals a man’s withered hand (Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11)
• Jesus raises a widow’s son in Nain from the dead (Luke 7:11-17)
• Jesus mulitplies food to feed 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15)
• Jesus walks on water (Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21)
• Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45)
• Jesus heals a servant’s severed ear (Luke 22:50-51)

Moreover, Jesus said to His disciples:

Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Otherwise believe for the very works’ sake. Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do. Because I go to the Father: and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  f you shall ask me any thing in my name, that I will do. If you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:11-15).

In speaking on the miracles of our Lord, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once remarked that Jesus performed miracles to authenticate His being both God and man. Secondly, Jesus performed miracles not recorded in the Bible. Not everything is written in the New Testament, as the final lines of St. John’s Gospel even state. But we do know, as Archbishop Sheen also taught, that Jesus performed miracles to give people reasons to believe He was both God and man. They were never done to satisfy ideal curiosity or to entertain. They were all done for a solemn purpose. This is the case with all of the recorded miracles that Our Lord performed in Scripture. Hence, Our Lord refused to perform a miracle before Herod during His Passion.

The Force of Individual Miracles Wrought by Jesus Christ

Turning to the Modern Catholic Dictionary for clarity, Father Hardon categorizes the miracles of Our Lord in five distinct groupings: nature miracles, miracles of healing, deliverance of demoniacs, victories over hostile wills, and cases of resurrection. He further defines victories over hostile enemies as follows:

Under this heading Catholic scholars admit a greater or smaller number of miracles; it is not clear in certain cases whether the incidents in which Our Lord wielded extraordinary power over his enemies were cases of supernatural intervention of Divine Power or the natural effects of the ascendancy of his human will over that of other men. Such are the cases mentioned in John (7, 30, and 44; 8, 20, and 59), where the Jews failed to arrest him ‘because His hour was not yet come,’ or, in the fourth case, because He hid himself from them. There are two cases that appear to most Catholic commentators to involve a supernatural display of power over wills: 1. the casting out of the vendors (John 2; Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19); 2. the episode of the escape from the hostile crowd at Nazareth (Luke 4).

While the Lord’s miracles may seem varied, a key characteristic unpinning each of them was the manifestation of divine power in them beyond the shadow of a doubt. Turning to the illustrious Father Fenton in Laying the Foundation: A Handbook of Catholic Apologetics and Fundamental Theology:

Considered individually, every one of these works was such that no creature could possibly perform them by natural power alone. We must not lose sight of the fact that a creature, as such, is a definitely limited being. One of the obvious manifestations of this limitation is the inclusion of the creature within the single plan of divine providence. Now we do not see that plan as it exists in the mind of God. However, we can know its accomplishment in so far as it applies to the fixed physical laws of the material universe. We know very well that there is a cycle that runs from birth to maturity and to death, and we can see that no agency within the created universe has the power to reverse this cycle. Furthermore, we know very well certain obvious qualities of inanimate nature.

The surface of a lake will not support a man who walks upon it. Earth and saliva will not immediately quicken an atrophied optic nerve. The sound of a man’s voice will not restore a hand that is withered, nor will it call back to life a man whose body is already rotting in the grave. Most important of all a man whose body has been torn by every torment known to the perverse ingenuity of his fellows, and who has died cannot and will not return to life because he wishes to do so. Yet these precisely are the actions which Jesus of Nazareth performed.

Taken collectively, the miracles of the Lord show His complete mastery not over any one substance or demon or situation but over all things whatsoever. Such an ability, which He exercised by His own power and not in the name of another, illustrates the power of His collective miracles as a motive of credibility for His doctrine. And all of these miracles – and all miracles as a whole – are beyond natural causes and are sensibly perceived by us.

The Miracles of the Apostles

All but one of the specific miracles of Jesus’s disciples are recorded in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The specific miracle of an Apostle not recorded in the book of Acts is as follows:

And they seeing him walk upon the sea, were troubled, saying: “It is an apparition.” And they cried out for fear. And immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying: “Be of good heart: it is I, fear ye not.” And Peter making answer, said: “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee upon the waters.” And he said: “Come.” And Peter going down out of the boat, walked upon the water to come to Jesus. But seeing the wind strong, he was afraid: and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying: “Lord, save me.” And immediately Jesus stretching forth his hand took hold of him, and said to him: “O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?” And when they were come up into the boat, the wind ceased.  And they that were in the boat came and adored him, saying: “Indeed thou art the Son of God” (Matthew 24:26-35).

Some of the miracles of the Apostles recorded in the Book of Acts, occurring after the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, through the deaths of the Apostles Peter and Paul in approximately 61 AD are as follows:

• Peter and John healed the lame man (Acts 3:1-11; 3:16)
• Peter’s shadow fell on the sick, healing them (Acts 5:15-16)
• Peter heals lame Aeneas in Lydda (Acts 9:32-35)
• Peter raised Tabitha(Dorcas) from the dead (Acts 9:36-43)
• Paul and  Barnabas healed the crippled man who had faith (Acts 14:8-10)
• Paul and  Silas cast a demon out of a fortune telling slave girl (Acts 16:16-18)
• Paul unharmed by poisonous snake bite in Malta (Acts 28:3-6)
• Paul healed Publius’ father of fever and dysentery (Acts 28:7-8)
• Paul healed all sick people on the island of Malta (Acts 28:9-10)

And miracles did not stop with the death of the last Apostle. To the contrary, let us remember the words of Jesus Christ:

Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do. 

Father Fenton further notes that the ability of the Apostles, and others, to work miracles both before and after Our Lord’s Resurrection is further proof of the truth inherent solely in His divinely established religion – the Catholic Religion:

A very practical way in which Jesus attached miraculous works as evidence of credibility to His own doctrine is to be found in His granting of miraculous powers to the Apostles. He chose these men that ‘they might be with Him: and that He should send them to preach. And He gave them power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils.’ The Apostles exercised that power both before and after the death of their Master. Furthermore, He allowed others to perform miracles in His name, even though these were not members of the apostolic college. The seventy-two disciples received a like commission and attained the same results. Jesus then deemed the miracles as a requisite seal for His own doctrine. His control of the divine power was complete. He could effectively grant men the authority to perform these miraculous works as His agents. The actual performance of these wonders testified to the reality of His control and the genuineness of His claim.

Why the Scriptures Are Objectively Reliable Historical Testimony

All these miracles were beyond human reasoning and many of them are cited in multiple books in Scripture in further corroboration of their historical reality. As Nicodemus himself asserted: “Rabbi, we know that Thou art come a Teacher from God, for no man can do these signs which Thou dost, unless God be with him” (John 3:1-2). And despite the abundant testimony of these miracles, the enemies of Our Lord persisted in their desire to kill Him, yet never denying His miracles as Father Fenton notes as a further proof of their historical reality:

Cold blooded, vicious, but intensely realistic, the enemies of Jesus never attempted to deny His miracles. They considered them as effective signs, performed by the sort of man who was worthy of credence by reason of His intellectual and moral integrity. It was precisely because they were effective and real that they meant to take definitive action against Him. It would have been the easiest thing in the world, from their point of view, to indicate to the people who reverenced and followed them that the hated Nazarene had never performed any miracles at all. The fact that these tireless spies and inquisitors did not do this is most certain evidence that the supernatural character of Jesus’ works was so manifest as to render such instructions ludicrous. The men of the Sanhedrin felt that they could not afford to let Jesus alone. Still less could they afford to make themselves a laughingstock before the people by denying the reality of His signs.

How can we prove to someone that He was a historical person? For this, we have amble evidence from ancient Roman, Jewish, and Christian sources. In fact, the presence of His life documented through non-Christian sources is further testimony of the verifiability of His life since even non-believers saw it necessary to document His impact. One such example is the ancient Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus, who lived from c. 56 – c. 120 AD, and wrote about Christ in his account of Nero’s persecution of the Christians of that era. Ancient Jewish sources further illustrate the historical reality of Christ’s life on earth such as those by Flavius Josephus, whose life overlapped the earthly life of Our Lord. And we have many ancient Christian sources as well documenting Our Lord’s admirable life on earth. We have the Gospels and the books that are in the Holy Bible. We also have the ancient testimonies of Pantaenus, St. Justin Martyr, Tatian, St. Irenaeus, Origen, and Tertullian all supporting the historical reality of Christ’s life on earth. Jesus Christ is an unquestionably real, historical person who lived and walked this earth. To reject this conclusion is to reject the manifestly obvious historical evidence.

Conclusion

To believe in these miraculous events is one important step forward in attaining true faith. Belief in the miraculous is only a step, albeit a giant step. We can also learn about faith by knowing Scripture and knowing the valid teachings of the Magisterium. Having Faith is a different matter altogether. Jesus’s disciples asked Him to increase their faith:

And the apostles said to the Lord: “Increase our faith.” And the Lord said: “If you had faith like to a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be thou rooted up, and be thou transplanted into the sea’: and it would obey you” (Luke 17:5-6).

St. Paul tells us to ask God to give us faith. To find one’s way to true faith in the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church – the Roman Catholic Church – you must also learn about the tenants of that faith and submit to them. If you are out of the habit, commit to adding the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity to your morning prayers. And may the Lord whose miracles are beyond doubt, give us the gift of Faith. Even the beginning of Faith is a gift from God Himself.