According to White, the main pattern found in ancient miracle stories is 1. Description of the situation 2. Action by the miracle worker. 3 The response of onlookers: “Amazement” or other testimonials (pg 175).In Mark 7:31-37, the story of Jesus healing a man both deaf and mute is told. In the story of the deaf and mute man, the ancient pattern is found and all three sections of the pattern are fulfilled. In Mark 8:22-26, the story of Jesus healing a blind man in Bethsaida is told. Similar to Mark 7:31-37, the ancient pattern is exemplified, however, this time, the third section of the pattern is not fulfilled. In both of these stories, Mark is affirming for the people/followers that Jesus has divine power and that he is the Son of God.
In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, these two miracle stories are absent. White attributes this to the stories not being significant enough to promote confidence in Jesus’ abilities due to Jesus having to attempt to heal the deaf and mute man twice rather than getting it right the first time. In Luke, the miracle stories are omitted completely, however, in Matthew they are to appear in a version that consists of Jesus healing two blind men at once. Through this altered version from the Gospel of Matthew, we are able to see the reshaping or manipulation of the stories from the Gospel of Mark as time progresses. This is important because it embodies the significance of Miracle stories in both the past and present narratives.
In the ancient world, the concept of death is heavily associated with fear. White states,
“One concern sometimes in ancient medical discussions is how to be certain the person is really dead. The fear of being buried or, worse yet, cremated alive must have been widespread.”(pg 172). Being that there is no return from death, it is easy to understand how and why fear is associated with death in ancient times. In Luke 7:11-17, a story of Jesus resurrecting a widow’s dead son is told. Through this miracle story, Luke portrays Jesus as one who can sympathize with humans and as a healer of all things feared. This Lukian miracle story, encompassing all three sections of the ancient pattern, illustrates to the reader not only Jesus’ divine abilities, but also further proves that Jesus is the Son of God.
Tag Archives: resurrection
Deeds
Team 6, Question 3
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.
Crucifixion
Team 1, Question 1
Oral tradition was the predominate form of accounting and informing believers and nonbelievers of the story of Jesus. L. Michael White says that there is a known formula in which oral tradition was spoken and passed around. This formula most often starts with the phrases “I handed on to you what I in turn had received…”, and continues on with phrases such as “that” and “next”, which is exactly how Paul starts off and connects his passion account in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 (108). Another clue that points to oral tradition being the source of this passage is the use of repetition in groups of threes (ie: “died”, “was buried”, “was raised”), which was a common component of oral tradition (112).
Although oral tradition was certainly a reliable source, later versions of the same accounts contain distinguished differences (110). This might be attributed to Christian theologian’s additions to stories to fill the gaps of the accounts of Jesus to help better understand the message. The origin of the integration Christian views and theological statements such as “for our sins in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3) is unknown. However, their firm base in the Greek version of the scriptures hints that these Christian statements were added after Paul heard in Jerusalem (111). This leads biblical scholars to believe that oral tradition was already expanding by the time Paul wrote it all down. Although they might be considered minor, the variations in the story of the Passover attest to a flaw in oral tradition. An example of these minor variations is in the account of the Last Supper; in Luke and 1 Corinthians Jesus is recorded as saying to eat and drink “in remembrance of me”, while Matthew and Mark do not include this key phrase (115).
Christians were compelled to develop traditions centered around Jesus’s death and resurrection because this account is, in the eyes of believers, proof that Jesus is not only the Son of Man, but also the Son of God. Jesus’s death was unconventional in terms of the traditional stories of heroic mythological deaths. Jesus was killed on a cross amongst criminals, and that sparks interest amongst believers and nonbelievers alike. There is a vast, condensed amount of Biblical events that take place all in Jesus’s last days and his resurrection (last supper, Passover, Judas’s betrayal, tearing of the veil) that leads Christians to study and create traditions to help fully understand and remember the significance of each event during one of the most important accounts in Jesus’s lifetime.