(25-27) Back to School: Anglican-costals, Pentecostals & Other Montanists: Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee
If irreformable, bye-bye; if reformable, hello. We say with Zachary Ursinus, "Friend, if entering here…be short and leave…or stay but assist me in my work."
We used [ ] to indicate Hebrew/Greek words which did not survive from pdf to Word to this forum.
A theological study about the nature of miracles and their cessation at inscripturation but the continuation of pseudo-miracles according to revealed religion from the fall of the first Adam till the second coming of the Second Adam.
Now, some words from Mr. Lee:
"Similarly, more often than not, the Greek word thauma (or "marvel") and its derivatives (thaumasios, thaumastos and thaumaz) refer to non-miraculous actions rather than to miraculous occurrences. See, for instance: Matthew 8:10,27 & 15:31 & 22:22 & 27:14; Mark 5:20 & 6:6 & 12:17 & 15:5,44; Luke 1:21 & 2:18 & 4:22 & 7:9 & 8:25 & 9:43 & 11:38 & 20:26 & 24:12; John 3:7 & 4:27 & 5:20f & 7:15-21 & 9:30; Second Corinthians 11:14; Galatians 1:6; Second Thessalonians 1:10; First John 3:13; Jude 16; and Revelation 13:3 & 17:6-8.
Too, the Hebrew word [ ] (a "doing"), is used with non-miraculous meaning at: Deuteronomy 22:14,17; First Samuel 2:3; Psalms 14:1 & 78:11 & 99:8 & 141:4; Ezekiel 14:22f & 20:43f & 21:24 & 36:17; and Zephaniah 3:7,11. Its New Testament equivalent, praxis, is used with non-miraculous meanings at: Matthew 16:27; Luke 23:51; Acts 19:18; Romans 8:13; and Colossians 3:9.
Likewise, the Hebrew word [ ] and also its Greek equivalent erga (meaning "works") are very frequently used to describe non-miraculous acts (rather than specifically miracles). See, viz., the non-miraculous meanings of ma'ath at Genesis 20:9 & 44:15 & Ezra 9:13 etc.
Compare too the non-miraculous meanings of erga at Matthew 5:16 & 11:2 & 23:3f & 26:10 and Mark 13:34 & 14:6 etc. Indeed, note too that ktisis ("creation") and its related words all refer to non-miraculous yet highly remarkable events -- at Second Corinthians 5:17 and Ephesians 2:10,15 & 4:24 & Colossians 3:10 and Galatians 6:15.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word [ ] is translated only twice as: "miracle."
However, it is also rendered 60 times as "sign"; 14 times as "token"; twice as "ensign"; and once as "mark."
For example: at Genesis 1:14, it refers to the sun and the moon; at 4:15, to Cain's mark; at 9:12-17, to the rainbow; and at 17:11, to circumcision. At Exodus 3:12-14, it refers to Moses' repeating the name Jehovah; at 12:13, to the blood of the lambs; at 13:16, to sacrifices for the firstborn; and at 31:13-17, to the sabbaths. In Numbers 2:2, it refers to flags; and in 16:38, to the censers. In Deuteronomy 6:8, it refers to God's laws; in 11:18, to God's Word; and at 28:16, to God's natural curses.
In Joshua 2:12, it refers to a scarlet rope; and in 4:6, to a cairn of stones. At First Samuel 2:34 cf. 4:11, it refers to the slaying of Hophni and Phinehas. At Psalm 65:8, it refers to natural sounds; and at 74:4, to the ensigns of the enemies.
At Isaiah 8:18, it refers to Isaiah and his children; at 19:20, to a pillar; at 20:2, to Isaiah's walking barefoot for three years; at 44:25 cf. 47:13, to astrological charts; and at 55:13, to trees. In Jeremiah 10:2, it refers to signs in the sky; and at 44:29, to a remnant in Egypt.
Whereas at Ezekiel 4:3, it refers to an iron pan; at 14:8, to a disobedient Israelite; and at 20:12-20, to the sabbath.
In the New Testament the word smeion is indeed (some 22 times) translated "miracle."
It is also (some 51 times) translated 'sign.' It is once translated "token" -- where it refers to Paul's own signature (Second Thessalonians 3:17). Indeed, in some of those 51 cases, this word cannot possibly imply a miracle.
Compare too its use: at Matthew 16:3f (meaning weather indications in "the signs of the times"); at Matthew 26:48 (referring to a kiss); at Luke 2:12 (pertaining to a baby in a manger); at Luke 11:30 (indicating Jonah's preaching to Nineveh); and at Romans 4:11 (having reference to circumcision).
Our conclusion, then -- anent this Biblical word-study -- is as follows. Scripture indeed calls some signs or smeia "miracles" (John 2:11). But the Bible also shows that other smeia were clearly non-miraculous (John 10:41). For Christ's turning water into wine at Cana is authoritatively stated to have been the first of His miracles -- whereas John the Baptist did no miracles.
Now there is no word in Biblical Hebrew or Biblical Greek with the exclusive meaning of 'miracle.' Whenever miracles which occurred were recorded in Scripture, the Bible writers used words which referred to striking phenomena (whether miraculous or not). Such are: [ ]
So whenever such words are used in Scripture, only a careful study of the surrounding context can establish (sometimes easily yet often with difficulty and on occasions only inconclusively) whether the case concerned refers to a miracle or not.
Accordingly, the matters as to what miracles are and when they occur (or alternatively ceased occurring) have to be established from the general investigation of the Holy Bible in particular -- rather than from just a few isolated prooftexts (such as Mark 16:l6f and First Corinthians 13:8f).
3. God alone is truly 'Wonderful'; yet wicked ones often do 'lying wonders'
No man or angel or demon but God Alone can perform true wonders -- either immediately and irrespective of His creatures, or mediately through the agency of His chosen instruments. As the inspired Moses exclaimed to the Lord (in Exodus 15:1-11): "Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises -- doing wonders [ ] "You," says Asaph (Psalm 77:14), "are the God Who does wonders [ ].
Indeed, says David, "there is none like You, O Lord.... For You are great, and do wonderful things. You Alone are God!" Psalm 86:8-10.
Hence the Psalmist (136:4) also urges us to "give thanks...to Him Who Alone does great wonders [ ]
Indeed: "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who Alone does wondrous things.” Psalm 72:18.
Yet there are also some passages of Scripture which indicate that the Lord God not just does 'wonderful things' but is Himself 'Wonderful.' Thus, Isaiah 28:29 says that the Lord of hosts is "wonderful" or hip-pel).
Indeed, Isaiah 9:6 adds that the Messianic Son would Himself be called "Wonderful" or Pele.
In this sense, God Alone is 'Wonderful.' These passages are not saying that the Lord merely performs remarkable 'wonders' (nor even that He Alone performs real 'miracles' which no human will ever be able to explain). These passages are actually saying that God Himself is 'wonderful' -- and would still have been so, even if He had never performed a single miracle.
Yet significantly, we are never told that God is Himself a 'miracle.' And this fact clearly differentiates the 'wonderful' from the 'miraculous' in theology.
Ultimately, all things are wonderful, because God made them thus. See: Second Samuel 1:26; Job 42:3; Psalms 107:8-31 & 139:14; and Prov 30:18 etc. But it is certainly not so that all things are miraculous. For sand, microbes, plants, animals and also most people – are never so described in God's holy and infallible Word. They are all wonderful, but surely not miraculous.
Indeed, also the humanly-inexplicable acts of Satan and his demons and of the various antichrists and especially of the man of sin -- though certainly called "great signs and wonders" or smeia megala kai terata (and so forth) -- are nevertheless not true miracles at all. They are, at the most, merely 'lying-wonders' or terata pseuda.
Thus, even the pagan Egyptian magicians could and did turn their rods into serpents --and also turned waters into blood, and brought frogs upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 7:10f, & 8:7. Note, however -- at Exodus 8:18 -- their powerlessness to bring forth lice in the way that God through Moses did.
No comments:
Post a Comment