By Craig A. Evans - Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels (10/31/08)

By Craig A. Evans - Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels (10/31/08)

Author:Craig A. Evans
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: IVP Books
Published: 2008-10-30T00:00:00+00:00


This is also the idea in Jesus' saying. His ability to cast out demons is not through magic or gimmickry, but it is "by the finger of God," the same power that had worked long ago through Moses and Aaron. This is an astonishing claim, for Jesus not only has distanced himself from magic; he has claimed that the greatest power that God ever worked through a human being was at work through him. His opponents could criticize him if they wished, but it was difficult to deny what was happening right before their eyes. Hence their desperate argument that Jesus was in league with Satan (Beelzebul).

Some interpreters try to bracket off the healings from the exorcisms. No doubt some illness and infirmities had nothing to do with evil spirits, but some apparently did. We have an instructive example of this in the Gospel of Luke:

And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity" And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him. (Lk 13:11-17)

What is interesting in this healing miracle is that the main point seems to be a legal one: Was Jesus or anyone else permitted to heal on the sabbath (that is, the traditional day of rest) or not? Contrary to Jewish piety and prac tice, Jesus says that it is permissible. The point isn't the miracle itself. But for the present purposes the important thing is to observe that the woman's infirmity is viewed in terms of satanic bondage. Jesus wishes to give her freedom (or rest) from this bondage, so what better day to do this but the sabbath? The healing of this woman is one more example of the liberating power that the rule of God brings. Among other things, God's rule dismantles the rule of Satan, whether in terms of casting out unclean spirits or bringing physical healing.7



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