Greco-Roman Magic Compared to New Testament Miracle
Hellenistic Magic |
New Testament Miracle |
| Concrete goals; personal gain | Abstract goals; group gains |
| Based on sympathies of nature | Based on God's nature, power, and will |
| Manipulative attitude: man commands the gods | Supplicative attitude: man prays to the gods |
| No clear demarcation between daimons and gods | Clear demarcation between daimons and God |
| Effected by esoteric knowledge: the power of the name of the god but no relationship implied | Effected by the power of the name of Jesus in concert with a personal relationship |
| Many names used for these gods and multiple gods commanded simultaneously | No other name used; supplication to one God only |
| Professional-client relationship | Shepherd-flock or prophet-follower relationship |
| Personal relationship with deity lacking | Overarching faith-love relationship with deity |
| Effect produced by rituals, incantations, potions, herbs, charms, amulets, etc. | Effect produced by supplication in the name of Jesus; almost never includes apparatuses |
| Uses phylacteries: amulets and talismans | Uses no phylacteries |
| Usually punitive and/or prophylactic | Rarely punitive or prophylactic |
| Spoken words are long, repetitive, sometimes palindromic, and usually include nonsense words and syllables | Spoken words are typically terse and include none of the characteristics in magical incantations |
| Exhalts the magician | Exhalts Jesus |
| No group consciousness | Fosters a group consciousness |
| Meaning is immediate | Meaning is eschatological |
| Syncretistic | Anti-syncretistic |
| Polytheistic | Monotheistic |
| May include bodily purification rites | Never includes bodily purification rites |
| Often sexual | Never sexual |
| Petty, often trivial ends (see list) | Significant ends (perpetration of the gospel, advancement of the Kingdom of God) |
Composite table based on my own analysis and:
Goode, W. J. "Magic and Religion: A Continuum." Ethnos 14 (1949) 172-182.
Hull, John M. Hellenistic Magic and the Synoptic Tradition. Studies in Biblical Theology, Second Series, 28. Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson Inc., 1974.
Hurtado, Larry W. "The Function and Pattern of Signs and Wonders in the Apostolic and Sub-Apostolic Period." Master of Arts Thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (City?), 1967.
Kee, Howard Clark. Miracle in the Early Christian World: A Study in Sociohistorical Method. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Kee, Howard Clark. Medicine, Miracle & Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Mentor, Message, and Miracle. The Anchor Bible Reference Library, ed. David N. Freedman. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
Remus, Harold. "Pagan-Christian Conflict over Miracle in the Second Century." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), 1981.
Yamauchi, Edwin M. "Magic in the Biblical World." Tyndale
Bulletin 34 (1983): 169-200.