This article is contributed by Ray Konig, the author of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.
By Ray KonigPublished: August 11, 2024.
When the Gospels were written during the first century of this era, they comprised the most detailed set of records that had ever existed about a miracle worker.
Together, the Gospels recorded more than 40 occasions in which Jesus performed miracles that expressed a command over disease, disability, death, and the forces of nature.
The variety of these miracles ranged from calming storms to bringing people back to life, as explained in detail in Jesus the Miracle Worker, by Ray Konig. An online summary of each of Jesus' miracles also can be found at Miracles of Jesus
Some of the people who witnessed the miracles of Jesus spent their lives evangelizing about Jesus, as did generations of other followers.
So it is not surprising that Jesus today is uniquely associated with miracle working.
But, history does provide other examples of people, outside of the Bible, who were said to have performed miracles during ancient times. A review of their stories helps to show the uniqueness of Jesus as a miracle worker.
The most relevant and best-known examples are:
Many of these people lived within a century of Jesus’ public ministry, and a few are even associated with the region of Galilee, where Jesus performed many of his miracles.
As is true for many of the ancient people for whom miracle-working claims are made, these people are generally associated with only a few miracles, in records that were written long after their deaths, and long after the apostles began evangelizing Christianity.
Even so, these people often are brought up as comparisons to Jesus, although their stories show more differences than similarities.
Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa is credited with being a miracle worker from Galilee, who lived during the same century as Jesus.
Like Jesus, he is associated with miracles of healing, although prayer was the means through which Hanina is said to have accomplished his deeds. He is depicted as having the gift of knowing ahead of time whether his prayers would be answered.
Finding dates for the birth and death of Hanina can be challenging. Many sources simply say that he lived during the first century of this era. He was a student of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, a prominent rabbi who escaped the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, so it is likely that Hanina lived all or most of his life during the later part of the first century.
Some details about Hanina are preserved in the Babylonian Talmud, which is a written record of the views and teachings, many of which had been handed down verbally for generations, of ancient rabbis in regard to Judaism and other topics. The writing of the Talmud was a centuries-long process that began sometime after A.D. 70.
The Talmud records at least two miracle stories in which Hanina intervened for people in need of healing. Both involved the sons of prominent rabbis.
In one account, Hanina was called upon to pray for the health of Rabban Gamliel II’s son, who had fallen ill with a fever:
“There was an incident where Rabban Gamliel’s son fell ill. Rabban Gamliel dispatched two scholars to Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa to pray for mercy and healing on his behalf. When Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa saw them approaching, he went up to the attic on the roof of his house and prayed for mercy on his behalf. Upon his descent, he said to the messengers: You may go and return to Rabban Gamliel, as the fever has already left his son and he has been healed. The messengers asked him: How do you know? Are you a prophet? He replied to them: I am neither a prophet nor son of a prophet (see Amos 7:14), but I have received a tradition with regard to this indication: If my prayer is fluent in my mouth as I recite it and there are no errors, I know that my prayer is accepted. And if not, I know that my prayer is rejected. The Gemara relates that these messengers sat and wrote and approximated that precise moment when Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa told them this. When they came before Rabban Gamliel and related all that had happened and showed him what they had written, Rabban Gamliel said to them: I swear by the Temple service that in the time you wrote you were neither earlier or later; rather, this is how the event transpired: Precisely at that moment his fever broke and he asked us for water to drink.” - Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 34b, The William Davidson Edition.
Rabban Gamliel II was instrumental in leading Judaism after the fall of the Second Temple in A.D. 70, about 40 years after the time of Jesus’ public ministry.
There is also an account in which Hanina prayed successfully for the health of Yohanan ben Zakkai’s son, who had fallen ill. That account also is given in Berakhot 34b.
Hanina also is associated with a miracle involving rain:
“The Gemara tells another story about prayer for rain. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was traveling along a road when it began to rain. He said before God: Master of the Universe, the entire world is comfortable, because they needed rain, but Hanina is suffering, as he is getting wet. The rain ceased. When he arrived at his home, he said before God: Master of the Universe, the entire world is suffering that the rain stopped, and Hanina is comfortable? The rain began to come again.” - Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 24b, The William Davidson Edition.
Hanina is sometimes viewed as a close parallel to Jesus as a miracle worker. The people who make this argument often point out that Hanina, like Jesus, is associated with miracles that involved the healing of people, and another that involved a command over nature. Hanina is associated with the region Galilee, as is Jesus. And both men lived during the same century, although Jesus lived during its first three decades and Hanina lived during later decades.
One key difference, though, is that the miracles involving Hanina were said to have been achieved through prayer. Jesus performed miracles directly, under his own authority and power.
Hanina is revered for his conduct, wisdom and dedication to prayer. He is also the subject of a number of stories in which he is the recipient of miracles rather than the agent. These include being sustained for a week by a basket of carob beans, receiving a golden table leg from heaven, and remaining undistracted from prayer while being bitten by a deadly reptile.
Vespasian is the most famous person, outside of the Bible, to be associated with miracles, and his claim of miraculous feats might have helped him in building that fame.
Shortly after he was named emperor of the Roman Empire, but before he was to arrive in Rome as the new emperor, a story circulated that he had miraculously healed two men.
Vespasian lived during the same century as Jesus, from A.D. 9 to 79, becoming emperor in A.D. 69, during a tumultuous time in which Rome had four emperors during the span of a year. He was the fourth in that sequence, and his reign lasted 10 years, until his death.
Before becoming emperor, he rose to prominence by distinguishing himself during a Roman military campaign in Britain. He then was given authority in north Africa and used that time to develop political alliances.
Later, but still a few years before becoming emperor, Vespasian was sent to suppress an uprising for independence in the land of Israel. Vespasian placed his son, Titus, in charge of that effort and then left Israel to quell an uprising in Egypt, which was a key source of grain for Rome.
It was during this time in Egypt that Vespasian had been named emperor, and a story began circulating that he had performed miracles.
Perhaps, as some scholars have suggested, this story was meant to bolster his credentials as the new emperor, as Vespasian did not come from a distinguished family.
Suetonius, a Roman historian, alludes to this possibility in his work, The Twelve Caesars, in which he wrote: “Vespasian, the new emperor, having been raised unexpectedly from a low estate, wanted something which might clothe him with divine majesty and authority.”
Tacitus, another Roman historian, provides us with the most detailed account of the story in which Vespasian is featured as a miracle worker.
As described by Tacitus:
“In the months during which Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria for the periodical return of the summer gales and settled weather at sea, many wonders occurred which seemed to point him out as the object of the favour of heaven and of the partiality of the Gods. One of the common people of Alexandria, well-known for his blindness, threw himself at the Emperor’s knees, and implored him with groans to heal his infirmity. This he did by the advice of the God Serapis, whom this nation, devoted as it is to many superstitions, worships more than any other divinity. He begged Vespasian that he would deign to moisten his cheeks and eye-balls with his spittle.
“Another with a diseased hand, at the counsel of the same God, prayed that the limb might feel the print of a Caesar’s foot. At first Vespasian ridiculed and repulsed them. They persisted; and he, though on the one hand he feared the scandal of a fruitless attempt, yet, on the other, was induced by the entreaties of the men and by the language of his flatterers to hope for success. At last he ordered that the opinion of physicians should be taken, as to whether such blindness and infirmity were within the reach of human skill. They discussed the matter from different points of view. ‘In the one case,’ they said, ‘the faculty of sight was not wholly destroyed, and might return, if the obstacles were removed; in the other case, the limb, which had fallen into a diseased condition might be restored, if a healing influence were applied; such, perhaps, might be the pleasure of the Gods, and the Emperor might be chosen to be the minister of the divine will; at any rate, all the glory of a successful remedy would be Caesar’s, while the ridicule of failure would fall on the sufferers.’
“And so Vespasian, supposing that all things were possible to his good fortune, and that nothing was any longer past belief, with a joyful countenance, amid the intense expectation of the multitude of bystanders, accomplished what was required. The hand was instantly restored to its use, and the light of day again shone upon the blind. Persons actually present attest both facts, even now when nothing is to be gained by falsehood.”
- Tacitus, Histories, Book IV, section 81, as translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb.
This account, as related by Tacitus, bears uncanny resemblance to some of the miracles that Jesus had performed decades earlier.
First, consider the ailments of the two people who are said to have approached Vespasian. One is blind and the other has a withered hand. Decades earlier, Jesus had healed several people of blindness and had healed a man with a withered hand, as recorded in the Gospels.
Second, consider the manner in which the men approach Vespasian. In Tacitus’ account, the blind man throws himself to the ground in an act of humility. Decades beforehand, many of the people requesting miracles from Jesus also humble themselves, including a leper, who throws himself to the ground in front of Jesus (Luke 5:12-15).
Third, there is the mention of persistence in Tacitus’ account. This is a key feature in many miracles that Jesus performed. We see examples of persistence with the royal official (John 4:43-54), with the blind man named Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), and with the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30).
Also, there is a segment in the Vespasian story in which physicians are assessing the blind man and the man with the withered hand, providing a context of whether a miracle would be needed to solve their problems. This type of context also is provided in some of Jesus’ miracles, including the one in which Jesus heals a blind man, in Jerusalem (John 9:1-41), and another in which Jesus miraculously feeds 5,000 families (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:1-15).
Then, there is the quality of instantaneousness in the Vespasian story, with the healing of the withered hand. In many of Jesus’ miracles, the Gospel writers inform the reader that the healings were instantaneous, as was the case when Jesus heals a man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:9-14, Mark 3:1-6 and Luke 6:6-11), decades before the Vespasian story.
And finally, the Vespasian story mentions the use of spittle to heal the blind man. We see this previously in some of Jesus’ miracles, including the one in which he heals the blind man in Jerusalem.
If one were to make the argument that the story involving Vespasian was directly inspired by, and lifted from, the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracles, one would have at least six points on which to base that argument.
Long before Vespasian had arrived at Jerusalem, stories about Jesus, and his miracles, had spread far and wide throughout Israel and beyond. In fact, the Vespasian story itself is evidence of that. Vespasian and the people around him would have had opportunities to hear about the miracles of Jesus, including the healings of blind people and the healing of a man with a withered hand.
Given the number of similarities that the Tacitus account shares with the Gospel accounts of miracles, one might consider the possibility that the similarities were intentional, and that they were meant to be obvious to Vespasian’s contemporaries. Perhaps the intent was to invite comparisons to Jesus.
Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, wrote an account in which he says he witnessed a man named Eleazar performing exorcisms in Israel, about 2,000 years ago.
He describes Eleazar as holding a ring with special powers up to the noses of demonically possessed people, while reciting incantations designed to drive out demons.
Those incantations, Josephus claims, were developed by none other than King Solomon, although the Old Testament, which records the life and times of Solomon, makes no mention of this extraordinary claim.
And, Josephus provides an interesting list of witnesses for Eleazar’s exorcisms, including Vespasian and his soldiers, who were in Israel at that time to suppress a Jewish uprising for independence.
Josephus begins his story of Eleazar by first speaking of Solomon:
“God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal in the presence of Vespasian, and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this: He put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately, he abjured him to return into him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he composed.” - Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, chapter 2, as translated by William Whiston.
Solomon, a son of King David, succeeded his father on the throne of Israel, about 3,000 years ago. He is traditionally credited with writing the Old Testament books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. And his life is described in the Old Testament books of 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Chronicles.
These books, as well as the other books of the Bible, never associate Solomon with demonic possessions or exorcisms.
Whatever sources of information that Josephus drew upon for his claims about Solomon, they existed outside of the Bible, and Josephus does not identify them.
There is, as it so happens, a non-Biblical book called The Testament of Solomon, which depicts a fictionalized version of Solomon, several demons, and a magical ring. This book was known to have existed during the Middle Ages, which spanned a period of time between the fifth and fifteenth centuries. Some scholars speculate that an earlier version of this book might have existed during the time of Josephus, during the latter part of the first century. In this book, however, the ring is not used to exorcise demons but rather to summon them.
Josephus’ Eleazar story does share a key detail with a story in Tobit, another non-Biblical book, which was written at least a few centuries before the time of Josephus. In both stories, the exorcist targets the nose of a demon-possessed person while performing an exorcism.
In Tobit, this tactic is accomplished with smoke:
“And as he went, he remembered the words of Raphael, and took the ashes of the perfumes, and put the heart and the liver of the fish thereupon, and made a smoke therewith. The which smell when the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the utmost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him.” - Tobit, chapter 8, passages 2 and 3.
And there is evidence of other non-Biblical writings that existed during the time of Josephus, which he might have used in crafting his non-Biblical version of Solomon, the exorcist.
The Bible’s book of Acts makes a reference to these types of writings, while describing an incident in which a group of sorcerers repent and destroy their own books of magical arts, at great cost to themselves (Acts 19:13-19). This happened a few decades before Josephus wrote his Eleazar story.
In Josephus’ story, he also claims that Eleazar was able to show that the demons had left the people they were possessing:
“And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man.” - Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, chapter 2, as translated by William Whiston.
We see this device again a few centuries later, in Philostratus’ writings about Apollonius of Tyana, who is said to have expelled a demon, which then knocked over a statue as proof of his departure.
Both stories, the one by Josephus and the one by Philostratus, might be borrowing from a Gospel account in which Jesus drives out a legion of demons from a man in Gadarenes. In that miracle, the demons leave the man and inhabit a herd of pigs, which then race into the Sea of Galilee and drown (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39). The exorcism in Gadarenes predates the Eleazar story by about 40 years, and it predates the Apollonius story by about 200 years.
Josephus’ mention of Eleazar is embedded, as an aside, in his writings about the days of King Solomon, in the eighth book of The Antiquities of the Jews. Eleazar was a common name and appears elsewhere within the writings of Josephus, although this story might be the only mention of this particular Eleazar.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, also known by the acronym of Rashbi, was an influential figure within Judaism and is featured prominently in the Talmud.
He was born in Galilee and lived from about A.D. 80 to 160, rising to prominence during the second century of this era.
The Talmud has an account in which Shimon performs an exorcism, and he is associated with a miracle involving food and water.
The exorcism was said to have involved a Roman emperor’s daughter. Although it is not clear which emperor is being mentioned, the story might have intended Antonius Pius, who ruled Rome from A.D. 138 to 161.
In the Talmud’s account, a demon named Ben Temalyon accompanies Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Eleazar Ben Jose as they journey to Rome. The demon later possesses the emperor’s daughter and is cast out by Shimon. The emperor, in gratitude, offers to fulfill any request of the rabbis. They request permission to view the official treasury, where they find and destroy a decree that interfered with the practice of Judaism throughout the Roman world.
According to the account:
“As they were journeying, a demon named ben Temalyon emerged to greet them. He said to them: Do you wish that I will join you and come with you in order to help nullify this decree? When he saw that a demon was coming to help save the Jewish people, Rabbi Shimon cried and said: What, even for a maidservant of my father’s home, Hagar the Egyptian, who was Abraham’s handmaid, an angel was made available to appear to her three times to help her. Each of the three mentions of ‘and the angel of the Lord said unto her’ (Genesis 16:9–11) in the story of Hagar is understood as a reference to a different angel. But I apparently do not deserve assistance from an angel even one time, but only help from a demon. In any case, let the miracle come and save the Jewish people, even if only through a demon.
“The demon ben Temalyon went before them and ascended into the emperor’s daughter and possessed her. When Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai arrived there, the emperor’s palace, he said: Ben Temalyon, emerge! Ben Temalyon, emerge! And once Rabbi Shimon called to him, ben Temalyon emerged and left the emperor’s daughter, and she was cured. When the emperor saw that Rabbi Shimon had cured his daughter, he said to them: Ask from me any reward that you want to ask. And he took them up to his treasury to take whatever they wanted. They found that letter there that contained the decrees against the Jewish people, and they took it and tore it up, and thereby nullified the decrees.” - Babylonian Talmud, Meilah 17b, The William Davidson Edition.
Some scholars have suggested that this account is based on a legend involving Bartholomew, who was said to have exorcised a demon-possessed daughter of a ruler in India. This story involving Bartholomew, who was one of Jesus’ apostles, is not found in the Bible but in a non-sacred work called Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha.
There is a discussion about the Shimon exorcism story, which includes the possible influence from the Bartholomew legend, in the Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume 11, as published in 1905, which is accessible online.
The Talmud also says that Shimon and his son hid in a cave for 12 years to escape the wrath of Roman authorities and that they were miraculously sustained by a carob tree and a nearby spring, during that time. That story is given in the Babylonian Talmud, in Shabbat 33b.
Shimon’s name is typically rendered into English as variations of Shimon bar Yochai, Simeon Ben Yohai and Shimon bar Yokhai. Some people credit him as being the author of the Zohar.
Rabbi Honi the Circle Drawer (Honi HaMe’aggel) is another rabbi from Galilee who is associated with miracles. He lived a century or more before the time of Jesus.
He is most famous for a story in the Talmud in which he is described as praying for rain during a time of drought. According to the story, his prayers were not immediately answered, so he drew a circle in the dust and told God he would not leave the circle until it rained.
As described in the Talmud:
“An incident occurred in which the people said to Honi HaMe’aggel: Pray that rain should fall. He said to them: Go out and bring in the clay ovens used to roast the Paschal lambs, so that they will not dissolve in the water, as torrential rains are certain to fall. He prayed, and no rain fell at all.
“What did he do? He drew a circle on the ground and stood inside it and said before God: Master of the Universe, Your children have turned their faces toward me, as I am like a member of Your household. Therefore, I take an oath by Your great name that I will not move from here until You have mercy upon Your children and answer their prayers for rain. Rain began to trickle down, but only in small droplets. He said: I did not ask for this, but for rain to fill the cisterns, ditches, and caves with enough water to last the entire year. Rain began to fall furiously. He said: I did not ask for this damaging rain either, but for rain of benevolence, blessing, and generosity.
“Subsequently, the rains fell in their standard manner but continued unabated, filling the city with water until all of the Jews exited the residential areas of Jerusalem and went to the Temple Mount due to the rain. They came and said to him: Just as you prayed over the rains that they should fall, so too, pray that they should stop.”
- Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 19a, The William Davidson Edition.
The story depicts Honi as having a familial relationship with God and as knowing ahead of time that his prayer for rain would be answered, as indicated when he preemptively advises people to shelter their outdoor clay ovens so that they are not ruined by the downpour.
Honi also is associated with a second miracle, in which he is said to have fallen asleep for 70 years. This story also is found in the Talmud:
“One day, he was walking along the road when he saw a certain man planting a carob tree. Honi said to him: This tree, after how many years will it bear fruit? The man said to him: It will not produce fruit until seventy years have passed. Honi said to him: Is it obvious to you that you will live seventy years, that you expect to benefit from this tree? He said to him: That man himself found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted for me, I too am planting for my descendants.
“Honi sat and ate bread. Sleep overcame him and he slept. A cliff formed around him, and he disappeared from sight and slept for seventy years. When he awoke, he saw a certain man gathering carobs from that tree. Honi said to him: Are you the one who planted this tree? The man said to him: I am his son’s son. Honi said to him: I can learn from this that I have slept for seventy years, and indeed he saw that his donkey had sired several herds during those many years.”
- Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a, The William Davidson Edition.
The story continues with Honi realizing that no one believes that he is Honi. He then prays for mercy and dies.
Honi is often brought up in comparison with Jesus as an ancient miracle worker, largely because he is associated with Galilee, and he is depicted as having an unusual relationship with God.
Beyond that, the similarities are few. Honi is associated with only a few miracles, which are very different from the miracles of Jesus. And he is not depicted as having direct control over the outcome of a miraculous event.
Honi is revered for his righteousness and prayerfulness. The Talmud also says that his descendants were known for their righteous deeds. His grandson, Abba Hilkiyya, also is credited in the Talmud with a miracle involving rain.
Honi’s name is also given as Choni, Khoni, and perhaps sometimes as Onias.
Apollonius of Tyana is an interesting figure and, in the eyes of some writers and commentators, a compelling rival or parallel to Jesus as a traveling teacher and performer of miracles.
In the eyes of others, the claims of Apollonius’ miracles are a work of fiction by a writer named Philostratus, who was hired to create a pagan document to compete with the Christian Bible.
Apollonius was born in Tyana, in what is now Turkey. He is believed to have been a neo-Pythagorean philosopher who traveled throughout parts of the Mediterranean world, including Syria, Turkey, Greece, and perhaps even India.
Some scholars claim that he was born as early as 3 B.C. or A.D. 10, which would make him a contemporary of Jesus. He is said to have died sometime around A.D. 100, which, if accurate, would give him an unusually long life span for someone living during ancient times.
During the third century of this era, Philostratus, a sophist philosopher, was hired to write about Apollonius. He completed a book called The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, sometime after A.D. 220.
His book was said to be based on earlier documents. But, these earlier documents are not known to be in existence, and it is not provable that they ever existed. And so, Philostratus’ book is actually the earliest known source of claims that Apollonius performed miracles.
Having said that, the miracles that Philostratus claims that Apollonius performed are similar to the miracles that Jesus performed in the four Gospels, in that they include miracles of healings, exorcisms, and raising dead people back to life.
Here is perhaps the single greatest claim of a miracle in Philostratus’ book:
“Here too is a miracle which Apollonius worked: A girl had died just in the hour of her marriage, and the bridegroom was following her bier lamenting as was natural his marriage left unfulfilled, and the whole of Rome was mourning with him, for the maiden belonged to a consular family. Apollonius then witnessing their grief, said: ‘Put down the bier, for I will stay the tears that you are shedding for this maiden.’
“And withal he asked what was her name. The crowd accordingly thought that he was about to deliver such an oration as is commonly delivered to grace the funeral as to stir up lamentation; but he did nothing of the kind, but merely touching her and whispering in secret some spell over her, at once woke up the maiden from her seeming death; and the girl spoke out loud, and returned to her father’s house, just as Alcestis did when she was brought back to life by Heracles. And the relations of the maiden wanted to present him with the sum of 150,000 sesterces, but he said that he would freely present the money to the young lady by way of dowry.
“Now whether he detected some spark of life in her, which those who were nursing her had not noticed -- for it is said that although it was raining at the time, a vapor went up from her face -- or whether her life was really extinct, and he restored it by the warmth of his touch, is a mysterious problem which neither I myself nor those who were present could decide.”
- Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Book 4, chapter 45, as translated by F.C. Conybeare.
Given the details in this narrative, one could make the argument that Philostratus’ account is using the Gospel accounts of Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43 and Luke 8:40-56), and the widow’s son in Nain (Luke 7:11-17), to construct a new story in which Apollonius is the hero.
Like the miracle in Nain, which took place about 200 years before Philostratus wrote his account, there is a bier, a large crowd, a lot of grieving, an instruction from the healer to stop crying, and an instantaneous healing. And in both cases, the recipient of the miracle begins speaking and is reunited with a grieving parent.
And, like the miracle involving Jairus’ daughter, there is a young girl, a healing touch, and a father who is prominent within the community.
Philostratus’ reference to Heracles and Alcestis is based on a Greek mythological story that can be found in the Bibliotheca, also known as the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, which is a collection of Greek myths, arranged in three books that are generally dated to the first or second century A.D. Versions of the story are much older, as Alcestis is the subject of a play named for her, written by Euripides during the fifth century B.C.
In another account, Philostratus’ Apollonius is depicted as performing an exorcism that shares distinct similarities with the exorcisms in the Gospels:
“Apollonius then was talking about libations, and was urging them not to drink out of a particular cup, but to reserve it for the gods, without ever touching it or drinking out of it. But when he also urged them to have handles on the cup, and to pour the libation over the handle, because that is the part at which men are least likely to drink, the youth burst out into loud and coarse laughter, and quite drowned his voice. Then Apollonius looked up and said: ‘It is not yourself that perpetrates this insult, but the demon, who drives you without your knowing it.’
“And in fact the youth was, without knowing it, possessed by a devil; for he would laugh at things that no one else laughed at, and then would fall to weeping for no reason at all, and he would talk and sing to himself. Now most people thought that it was boisterous humor of youth which led him into excesses; but he was really the mouthpiece of a devil, though it only seemed a drunken frolic in which on that occasion he was indulging.
“Now, when Apollonius gazed on him, the ghost in him began to utter cries of fear and rage, such as one hears from people who are being branded or racked; and the ghost swore that he would leave the you man alone and never take possession of any man again. But Apollonius addressed him with anger, as a master might a shifty, rascally, and shameless slave and so on, and he ordered him to quit the young man and show by a visible sign that he had done so. ‘I will throw down yonder statue,’ said the devil, and pointed to one of the images which were there in the king’s portico, for there it was that the scene took place.
“But when the statue began by moving gently, and then fell down, it would defy anyone to describe the hubbub which arose thereat and the way they clapped their hand with wonder.”
- Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Book 4, chapter 20, as translated by F.C. Conybeare.
In this account from Philostratus, Apollonius is teaching when he is interrupted by a demon-possessed man. Then, Apollonius casts out the demon, and witnesses express amazement and clap their hands.
This is the same template that originates in the Gospels, when Jesus heals a demon-possessed man in a synagogue in Capernaum (Mark 1:21-28 and Luke 4:31-37). In that account, Jesus is teaching when he is interrupted by a demon-possessed man. Then, Jesus casts out the demon, and witnesses express amazement for what they have just seen and heard.
Philostratus’ account also might be borrowing from other Gospel accounts of exorcisms. When Jesus heals a possessed man in Gadarenes (Matthew 8:28-32, Mark 5:1-13 and Luke 8:26-33), for example, he first converses with the possessed man. And when Jesus casts out the man’s legion of demons, there is a clear and visible confirmation of the success of the exorcism, in that the demons leave the possessed man and inhabit a nearby herd of pigs, which then race into the sea and drown.
Philostratus’ account also features a visual confirmation, in that the cast-out demon knocks over a statue to show that he has left his victim.
Also, in some of the exorcisms described in the Gospels, it is clear that the possessed person has no control over themselves. The demons act through, speak through, and otherwise control the people they possess. This element also is present in Philostratus’ account.
Knowledge about Christianity, and by default, information about the miracles that Jesus performed, spread very quickly throughout the Roman world, as Jesus’ followers traveled extensively to evangelize to people. Philostratus, in writing his book about Apollonius, about 200 years after the public ministry of Jesus, would have had access to that information.
In contrast, given that the oldest available accounts of Apollonius come from Philostratus, it is very possible that no one in the land of Israel, or in many other parts of the Roman world, had ever of Apollonius until sometime during or after the third century.
Some scholars have suggested that Philostratus’ book is the result of efforts to create or embellish the story of Apollonius to serve as a pagan alternative to Jesus, to compete with Christianity, which was quickly becoming the dominant religion of the Roman world.
In any event, it is possible that a man named Apollonius did exist during the first century. And it is possible that Apollonius was indeed a traveling teacher.
But, the oldest available record of any claimed miraculous deeds attributed to Apollonius is Philostratus’ book, which was written about 200 years after Christianity began to spread throughout the Roman world.
It is difficult to put a number on how many people during ancient times were said to be miracle workers.
But, the examples described above -- Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, Vespasian, Eleazar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Honi the Circle Drawer and Apollonius of Tyana -- are among the most likely to be brought up in this context.
Other candidates include Augustus, a Roman emperor; a grandson of Rabbi Honi the Circle Drawer, who is associated with a rain miracle; and Simon Magus, who is described in an apocryphal work as having the ability to fly. Also, some lists might include a variety of ancient Greek or Roman mythological characters.
For many of the people who are held up as examples of ancient miracle workers, the writings that describe their deeds very often were written long after the publicity of Jesus’ miracles began to spread throughout the land of Israel and the rest of the Roman world.
And this is true even for people who lived before the time of Jesus -- even their records very often were written long after the time of Jesus’ public ministry.
This likely explains why many of the stories about ancient miracle workers read as though they were influenced by, or plagiarized from, the New Testament.
When the New Testament was written during the first century of this era, about 2,000 years ago, it contained the most detailed record of miracle working that had ever existed, both for the number and for the variety of miracles described, rivaled only by the Old Testament and its accounts of miracles.
© Ray Konig.
Ray Konig is the author of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.