Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.7
woman being healed by the power which flowed from/through Jesus' garment
(Mark 5.27-30). Here again it is easy to detect magical overtones or a magical
conception of miracle. 361 At the same time, however, we should recall that Luke
saw no difficulty in attributing cures to the power of Peter's shadow and the
power of handkerchiefs touched by Paul (Acts 5.15; 19.12), while at the same
time depicting Peter and Paul as both distancing themselves from and as triumphing
over magical practices. 362 The history of canonizations and relics is too
full of reports of such healings, equally open to alternative critical interpretation,
363 for Mark's account to be lightly dismissed in its description of the healing
itself.
(3) Deserving of separate mention is the point observed earlier that the
majority of the references to faith (or lack of faith) in the Synoptics occur in relation
to miracles. 364 Some sort of synergism is clearly envisaged between Jesus'
healing power and the trust (in God) of those healed. Indeed, according to
Mark 6.5, Jesus' power to work miracles was dependent on or limited by the
faith of those he might otherwise have helped. 365 This too is a distinctive feature
of the Jesus tradition 366 and is almost certainly rooted in memories of Jesus'
work as a healer. 367 That Jesus encouraged an expectant trust is also well
enough attested, not only in regard to the disciples' prayer generally (§ 14.2b),
361. Meier, Marginal Jew 2.709.
362. Acts 8.18-24 (Simon practised magic [mageuö], 8.9); 13.4-12 (Elymas was a
magos, 13.6, 8); 16.16-18 (the girl had 'a spirit of divination' [pneuma pythöna], 16.16); 19.13-
20 (those who practised magic [ta perierga prassein], 19.19).
363. Smith begins with such a report culled from the New York Times (Jesus the Magician
10); see also Crossan, Birth 297-98, and illustrations in my Jesus and the Spirit 379 nn. 19,
21.
364. Mark 2.5 pars.; 5.34, 36 pars.; 9.23-24; 10.52 pars.; Matt. 8.10/Luke 7.9; Matt.
8.13; 9.28; 15.28; Luke 17.19; see further above, §13.2b. Presumably one reason Jesus refused
the request for a 'sign' (§ 15.6b) was that the request demonstrated the absence of faith; the sign
he gives is the call for repentance (and faith)!
365. Matt. 13.58 softens what might otherwise be considered a demeaning admission by
Mark; Luke ignores the Markan passage altogether.
366. Perrin maintains that such a use of 'faith' is completely absent from Hellenistic
healing stories and is 'without parallel anywhere in the Hellenistic literature' (Rediscovering
134-36; see also Jeremias, Proclamation 162-63; Goppelt, Theology 1.149-51); but Aune questions
this, referring to A. Oepke's brief note in TDNT 3.210 and observing that credibility and
trust were inevitably features of any magician's success ('Magic in Early Christianity' 1535-
36). See further Theissen, Miracle Stories 130-33, who concludes that 'the faith associated
with New Testament miracles is based on traditional motifs, but articulates (sic) them in a new
way'.
367. '"Your faith has saved you", which presumably goes back to Jesus, shows an
awareness which is opposed to trust in magical manipulation' (Theissen and Merz, Historical
Jesus 306-307).
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