Jesus, Magician or Miracle Worker?

Graham H. Twelftree

London School of Theology, London, UK , United Kingdom


Abstract

This paper sets out to answer the question, was Jesus considered a magician? And if so, why? In the face of a current inconclusive debate, using unsuitable definitions of magic, and likely entangled with twenty-first-century definitions, the second-century data is engaged to help re-sensitize a reading of the gospel data. There are clear charges of magic in the second century that enable twenty-first-century readers to see that observers of Jesus’ ministry charged him with magic, but not for the reasons usually assumed. Some contemporary implications of this study are taken up in a contemporary coda.

Keywords:

Beelzebul Controversy, Charismatics, defining magic, Jesus, magic, miracle worker, Pentecostals

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Published
2020-06-15


Twelftree, G. H. (2020). Jesus, Magician or Miracle Worker?. The Biblical Annals, 10(3), 405–436. https://doi.org/10.31743/biban.9769

Graham H. Twelftree  graham.twelftree@lst.ac.uk
London School of Theology, London, UK



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