| Miracles NOT! |
| Miracles NOT! |
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When Miracles are Not Miracles If you have a Bible commentary, review John 5:14. [*] Jesus has just healed 'an ailing man', who apparently had difficulty getting to the healing waters at a Jerusalem pool. The man is confident he'll be healed, but Jesus saves him the trouble, afterward intensionally instructing the man to then violate the sabbath (at least per the evil 'judeans'). Now you'll also notice in this story, if you have one of those 'discount' Bibles, that you're missing the last part of verse 3 and all of verse 4. We'll discuss this. The story has several oddities (thus your commentary): (1) HEALING POOL: The ailing people are there because (per the Byzantine manuscripts; eg KJV etc) an angel flutters the waters, thereby generating its healing powers. But, there's a catch. You have to be in the water first to be healed. So, essentially there's a pecking order of ailments relative to the 'angel of the Lord'. Speed counts. Now, the alexandrian manuscripts (eg NIV, etc) don't have the water-fluttering angel or the olympian race for healing (verses 3b-4). And since the alexandrian manuscripts are older than the byzantine, the byzantines must have added the angel/olympics, right? But that begs the question of why the ailing crowd is there in the first place. Obviously some type of healing was available. Plus, there's nothing in the alexandrian or byzantine versions suggesting that the waters don't heal ... only that you need to be first. To add to the mystery of the story, greek temples at the time also had healing pools, though no fluttering angels of the Lord. So, you'd have to ASSUME the jewish leadership would be concerned about a 'magic pool' right in Jerusalem. (2) CRUELTY: Regardless of the oldness of the fluttering angel verses, SOMEONE thought (along with their whole readership) that the healing olympics, complete with an 'angel of the Lord' made complete sense. Today's readers don't see the obviousness of the cruelty perpetrated by that particular angel, though he WAS 'of the Lord'. If you can't move fast, tough cookies. (3) BELIEF: In the early gospels' healing stories, the 'healee' (or at least the parent/ sisters) FIRST believes in Jesus. But here, the guy just wants to be 'moved'. Indeed, after being healed, it's not clear the guy recognizes anything special in Jesus (though he does finger Jesus as the sabbath-breaking healer). (4) SABBATH-BREAKING: Sabbath-breaking appears to be a favorite of Jesus. For whatever reason, this particular portion of the law shows up A LOT. But in this story, he instructs THE HEALEE to break the sabbath too (instead of just 'arise'). In the other sabbath-breaking accounts, Jesus can do this, since he's 'Lord of the Sabboth' (Mat12:8). Presumably, 'sabbath Lords' can also tell other jews to break the sabbath (sabbath-breaking probably not being a dot or tittle of the law). (5) SINFUL SICKNESS: Lastly, in verse 14 (as above), Jesus says not to SIN anymore, or 'worse' will happen. Now, we don't know what 'worse' might be, but clearly sinning was the source of the guy's 38 year ailment. That's where your commentary comes in. Appreciate their 'dancing'. Commentaries are good. That's why you bought it. What is so significant about this story? NON-JESUS MIRACLES: You're looking at 'a miracle' source that's independent of 'Jesus'. You have obvious witnesses (the ailing obviously thought healing would happen). 'John' doesn't see any problem with the miracle pool. Even 'the judeans' are more concerned about the sabbath, than the oddity of a healing pool. And the byzantines seem to be quite comfortable with an angel of the Lord holding olympic trials for sick people. Now, before you go crazy, alternatively, the pools were fed by intermittent springs, which more than likely had high suphur content (cretaceous limestone). So you 'could' have a palestine version of our 1800s pre-suphide-drug healing springs. True. WITNESSES: Where the real problem comes in, is Jesus' (and his apostles) miracles. If you argue their validity with 'the witnesses', what about the fluttering pool witnesses? Witnesses are witnesses. Then, you have Jesus clearly connecting sin to sickness, just as in the other gospels he connects healing as equivilent to forgiving sins. POOR PROOF: I actually don't doubt Jesus' ability to do miracles. Anyone divine, or divinely empowered can probably violate the totality of 'science' with complete impunity. My issue is that miracles HAVE to be one of the worst proofs of divinity. They are completely dependent on 'being there', and even then you can still be fooled (as Jesus predicted of false messiahs). At the time, good rabbi's were thought to also do miracles. Jews (apparently) believed in these rabbi miracles, just as many believed Jesus' miracles. Quite likely, John's opus tried to show that Jesus' miracles were soooo much better. MIRACLES FOR WHAT? Unfortunately, the NT writers in general really wiggle around on miracles. The stories vary depending on the writer, plus no one seems to know exactly WHAT the 'healees' believed of Jesus. That he was ... what? Of course, there's also the issue of why Jesus would do miracles in the first place. Judging from Paul, the point of Jesus was DEATH. The claim was that Jesus induced the judeans to kill him to make God happy with his misbehaving creation. Remember Paul's long discussion of Jesus' powerful miracles (or teachings for that matter)? No? FAMILY 'NOT': Also remember how Jesus' family didn't 'buy' Jesus as special? Or the Galileans? And they witnessed his miracles. Jesus even said his miracles didn't always work. But after Jesus' death, Mary and the brothers were on-board. Even lead the early church (James). MODERN MEDICINE: This brings us to 'today'. Sunday, our pastor taught on this passage, and I really wondered what path he would take at verse 14. As I listened to the sermon, I saw him inching ever closer to v14. He wandered around the archeological evidence of the pools. He even connected up the Sedona vortexes (vortices?) with the pools. Well, ok. That's certainly a unique catch. Then he hit v14 head-on. The word 'worse'. Yes, worse than ailing for 38 years? Only death is 'worse'. Clearly Jesus was talking about judgement day! And so also the 'dancing' of many modern commentaries (the ancient fathers were more literal; they hadn't the benefit of modern medicine). So, were the Bethesda magic-pool goers complete idiots? And do today's doctor-visiting pastors really BELIEVE what they read? In God's word? Yes, miracles are sometimes not 'real' miracles. |
| Copyright ©, 2008, dmbarnhart |
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