According to White, the ancient miracle stories often include the following parts: 1) Description of the situation, 2) Action by the miracle worker, 3) Response of onlookers. Such pattern is often used to describe a miracle-performing event which signifies the miracle worker’s ability/power. In Mark 7:31-37, Jesus healed a deaf man who had a speech impediment and all three features of the pattern appeared within the verses, however, the miracle event presented in Mark 8:22-26 only included parts of “the description of the situation” and “the action by the miracle worker”. Each of these miracle-performing stories engage with the concepts of both “humanity” and “divinity”–through these miracle stories, Mark presented Jesus as the one who is with God, that is, a man with healing power that can only come from the divine being. This is to emphasize Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.

The two healing stories mentioned above are not included in neither the Gospel of Luke nor Gospel of Matthew–according to White, the reason why it is not included is because of the difference between the settings: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus heals two blind men at once as well as a deaf-mute person(9:27-31) because it is more fitting for such set of narratives and thematic interests. To White, all miracle stories play important roles in the Gospels, and they are told in a way which is shaped by the specific ideology that the Gospel tries to get across. Another reason that White pointed out is that whether Matthew and Luke considers Mark’s miracle stories are strong enough to present Jesus’ divinity, according to White: “Either way, it would appear that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke found this miracle to be less than satisfactory as a depiction of Jesus’s miraculous powers, as it was removed in both.”(179)
Another important detail that worth paying attention to is the reaction Jesus has after seeing people’s amazement responding His miracles: in Mark 7:36, “And Jesus charged them to tell no one” after He has healed the deaf man. What’s interesting here is that unlike the descriptions in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, instead of telling people to proclaim His name, Jesus remains quiet and repeatedly asks people to “tell no one”.

The concept of death in ancient world is centered around “fear”–White expressed that the fear of death and the fear of being accidentally buried is widespread among the people of the ancient time. The idea of death is to be understood as a “one-way street” simply because it “marks a boundary from which there is no return.”(172) In Luke 7:11-17, Jesus is being portrayed as a divine being who sympathize with humans: “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.””(7:13) Also Jesus’ ability to restore one’s life is works as a further prove of His divinity and crowd’s reaction actively engaged the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, Son of Man.