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ABSTRACTS
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN - CONCLUSIONS
Although the miracle-working activity of Jesus makes sense in its Jewish context, he stands out as being the only figure in the context represented as being an immanent Bearer of Numinous Power who works a series of miracles (as Werner Kahl maintains). He is also unusual in his concentration on healings and exorcisms, and in attaching eschatological significance to them. At the redactional level the Gospels create links between Jesus' feeding and sea miracles and the great miracles of the exodus tradition, but it seems unlikely that these stories originated with this end in view; it is more likely that they are post-Easter reflections on historical reminiscences of Jesus feeding crowds and crossing the lake. Jesus' miracle-working makes him more like a prophet than any other role known in the Judaism of his time, but nevertheless rather an unusual kind of prophet. One cannot validly argue from Jesus' healings and exorcisms to his divinity, but there may be an implicit Christology in his miracles as well as in his teaching.
