Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.7 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
termines them more or less from the first telling, and by those reflecting on
experiences which they interpreted in and by the telling. But even granted the
possibility I doubt whether much weight can be placed on it.
g. Was Jesus a Magician?
The question has been hotly debated since Morton Smith proposed a straightforward
Yes answer. 341 But the debate remains confused and not really capable of
delivering a satisfactory answer. A key problem is the definition of 'magic' and
the range of practices covered by the term; 342 in particular, is the attempt to manipulate
and coerce spiritual powers a defining feature of magic? A correlated
problem is that the overlap of religion, ritual, and magic 343 means that any attempt
to interact with the spiritual realm unavoidably leaves itself vulnerable to a
charge of magic or sorcery. 'Magic' is a social classification, and where the term
is regarded as negative, as is usually the case, 344 its use indicates the polemical
attitude of the opponent more than a factual description. 345
Two points can be made with reasonable clarity. First, if magic is defined
in terms of rituals and practices used to coerce the gods and spirit powers, then
we can certainly say that it was 'omnipresent in classical antiquity'. 346 This
would be true of Palestinian as well as diaspora Judaism. 347 Second, as already
341. M. Smith, Jesus the Magician (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978); similarly
Crossan, Historical Jesus 305 (but with qualifications); good bibliographies in Meier, Marginal
Jew 2.553-56; and Klauck, Religious Context 209-31.
342. Meier proposes a sliding scale, a spectrum or continuum of characteristics, running
from the 'ideal type' of miracle at one end to the 'ideal type' of magic at the other {Marginal
Jew 2.537-52). His discussion includes a useful review of other studies (560-61 n. 26).
343. Cf, e.g., the Introduction to M. Meyer and R. Smith, Ancient Christian Magic:
Coptic Texts of Ritual Power (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994) 1-6; 'Books written
by sociologists tend to have "religion" in their titles, while books written by anthropologists are
often about "magic"' (3). Similar to Meier, Klauck proposes magic and religion as 'antithetical
poles within a continuum, two end points joined by a common line'; in simplified slogan terms,
'coercion is typical of magic, and petition typical of religion' (Religious Context 217-18).
344. E.g., Theissen, Miracle Stories 233, 238-43; Aune, 'Magic in Early Christianity'
1518-19; H. D. Betz, 'Magic in Greco-Roman Antiquity', ER 9 (1995) 93; Crossan, Historical
Jesus 304-10 ('magic as religious banditry'); other bibliography in Meier, Marginal Jew 2.558-
59 n. 19.
345. The point is illustrated by the accusation levelled against Jesus that he used sorcery
to expel demons (Mark 3.22 pars.). Despite recognizing that the accusations are 'polemical
name-calling, not neutral character description', Crossan nevertheless unjustifiably draws from
the accusation the suggestion 'that perhaps Jesus healed in ecstatic trance' (Birth 341).
346. F. Graf, Magic in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1997) 1.
347. See P. S. Alexander, 'Incantations and Books of Magic', in Schürer, History 3.342-
689