Concept
The miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to have performed seven miraculous signs that characterize his ministry, from changing water into wine at the start of his ministry to raising Lazarus from the dead at the end. For many Christians and Muslims, the miracles are actual historical events. Others, including many liberal Christians, consider these stories to be figurative. Since the Enlightenment, many scholars have taken a highly skeptical approach to claims about miracles. In most cases, Christian authors associate each miracle with specific teachings that reflect the message of Jesus. In The Miracles of Jesus, H. Van der Loos describes two main categories of miracles attributed to Jesus: those that affected people (such as Jesus healing the blind man of Bethsaida), or "healings", and those that "controlled nature" (such as Jesus walking on water). The three types of healings are cures, in which an ailment is miraculous remedied, exorcisms, in which demons are cast out of victims, and the resurrection of the dead. Karl Barth said that, among these miracles, the Transfiguration of Jesus is unique in that the miracle happens to Jesus himself. According to Craig Blomberg, one characteristic shared among all miracles of Jesus in the Gospel accounts is that he delivered benefits freely and never requested or accepted any form of payment for his healing miracles, unlike some high priests of his time who charged those who were healed. In Matthew 10:8 he advised his disciples to heal the sick without payment and stated, "Freely ye received, freely give." It is not always clear when two reported miracles refer to the same event. For example, in the healing the centurion's servant, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke narrate how Jesus healed the servant of a centurion in Capernaum at a distance.
