As for why this was their response to Jesus’ miracles, well remember that people in the ancient world were incredibly superstitious and believed magic was a real and active force in the world, even the most rational philosophers and intellectuals fully believed in practices that would be considered superstitious today. The Roman emperor Augustus literally outlawed witchcraft because he feared it would be used against him. Modern English words like “magic” and “magician” derive from the name of the magi (Zoroastrian priests) via Latin and Greek because the Ancient Greeks and Romans mistook them for being actual sorcerers. The Babylonians, despite laying the foundations for modern astronomy, also believed that the movements of the stars and planets were omens because in their worldview there was no difference between astrology and astronomy. There were several alleged “miracle-workers” roaming around like Apollonius of Tyana whose followers claimed had raised the dead, cured the blind, cast out evil spirits, etc. Even the Bible doesn’t deny the existence of magic, instead it attributes all magic to demons and advises that you shouldn’t engage in such practices.
This is why many pagan critics of Christianity often claimed Jesus was a magician. In a worldview where magic is viewed as a real and active force in the world, it wouldn't be odd to believe that Jesus really did perform miracles without viewing it as proof of divinity.
by TheIronzombie39
16 Comments
Order of Hermes: “Poser.”
I think the real interesting thing is the reverse.
Jesus performs “miracles”? Son of God, lets worship him like crazy. Prophets see the future or receive the word of God? Great people, lets listen to them. Random men/women performing “miracles” or predicting the future? Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!!
The bible isn’t exactly clear on the differences between Jesus, prophets or witches
Also being the “son of God” wasn’t that impressive. Like, dude, we worship Zeus/Jupiter, he’s got like thousands of sons.
So much misunderstanding in this one. Magic and the gods, including YHWH, were basically one and the same in ancient times. Furthermore the idea people could be low level gods, because there was a hierarchy of gods, was also not alien. They weren’t saying he was necessarily not a god, just he was not necessarily a powerful god that shouldn’t be worshipped to the exclusion of other Pagan gods.
Pre-Christian civilization was very tolerant of different beliefs because actions mattered. If Christians did the sacrifices to the gods like good citizens the Roman state wouldn’t care that they didn’t actually believe their gods had any power.
technically, Jesus was a lich
“oh, he’s the son of God, is he? How many mortal virgins has he banged?”
I love learning about the transition between paganism and Christianity because you have wierd moments where the vast majority of people convert to Christianity while not fully understanding how it works and church organizations which are not yet as robust as they would become try to deal with that.
Local bishops having power struggles with powerful monasteries and abbies. Wierd pagan/Christian synchrotisims. Newly converted kings treating religious laws like guidelines (Chlothar the old).
I remember hearing a story about the conquistadors getting stranded on America. They ended up getting enslaved by the natives since they had to scrap their weapons and armor to make a boat, I think? And also had to eat their horses because they were out of food. The natives saw them as wizards or divine beings or something due to their Christian healing methods
Unless mage: the ascension exists
What? I thought the Roman’s deal with Christianity is the monotheistic nature of it and that its followers don’t respect other Gods. They don’t care if Christians believe in God, they care that they don’t sacrifice to the Roman pantheon and say they’re fake news.
The Roman’s let every other god slide because they can say erhmm actually he’s actually a minor god or an aspect of an existing Roman God.
The Roman’s started putting Christians to the sword when they said God isn’t an aspect or son of Jupiter and he’s the only real one and your Gods are fake.
He wore robes, had long hair, a beard and could do magic; I mean, that sounds like a classic wizard to me.
The Bible is critical of magic only if sourced from anything that isn’t “the ome true God”.
That logic is based on the foundational tenent that all other sources of divinity are fake and false. An idol like a statue or wooden image of a god, is objectively just a dead piece of stone or wood, no magic to be found. So, the Bible makes the claim that non-Christian magicians are just performers doing flashy tricks. This is why there’s a Mosaic law forbidding Israelites from doing witchcraft. Witches do not source their magic from God, it’s therefore not magic at all, but rather just a trick that makes others “stray from the path” and “fall into a snare/pit”.
Again, I’m not saying all other religions are wrong and dumb lol. I just like the analysis and discussion of Abrahamic literature and philosophy. When you engage with this stuff on a philosophical level, rather than as a zealot bent on Biblical Literalism, this stuff gets way more fascinating.
Tl;dr, The Bible depicts the Christ, as well as all the other Prophets and Judges, as doing literal magic. The logic being that magic sourced from the one true God is the only real magic, and all others are just doing tricks.
Reminds me a bit of the likely apocryphal story of the king of Kent mistaking the missionary bishop Augustine for a wizard
To my knowledge people of Jesus’ time also didn’t think he was a god, only a prophet or the Messiah.
I believe I read somewhere that the ancient Egyptians either would or did think that the god of the Israelites was just Set because Set is the god of foreigners, and a lot of the 10 Plagues of Egypt is just stuff Set would do
Also, the Galilee was full of “wonder workers”