But the most important point has still to be noticed, which is the alleged publicity of these miracles; and as this renders the testimony in their favour peculiarly strong, we must examine it at some length.
(1.) They occurred in public.
To begin with, according to our Gospels, all the miracles of Christ occurred during His public ministry, when He was well known, that at Cana being definitely called the first.[346] And as they were meant to confirm His teaching and claims, it was only natural for them to begin when His teaching began. But if they had been invented, or had grown up as legends, some at least would have been ascribed to His earlier years (as they are in the Apocryphal Gospels) when there was less chance of their being disputed.
[346] John 2. 11.
Moreover, many of them are stated to have been worked openly, and before crowds of people, including Scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers.[347] And the names of the places where they occurred, and even of the persons concerned, are given in some cases. Among these were Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue; Lazarus, a well known man at Bethany; Malchus, a servant of the High Priest; and the centurion at Capernaum, who, though his name is not given, must have been well known to the Jews, as he had built them a synagogue. While the miracles recorded in the Acts concern such prominent persons as the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, at Cyprus, and the chief man, Publius, at Malta. And it is hard to overestimate the immense difficulty of thus asserting public miracles, with the names of persons, and places, if none occurred; yet the early Christians asserted such miracles from the very first.
[347] E.g., Luke 5. 17-21.
Take for instance the feeding of the five thousand, near the Lake of Galilee. This is recorded in the earliest Gospel, St. Mark's, and must therefore have been written down very soon after the event, when a large number of the five thousand were still alive. Now is it conceivable that anyone would have ventured to make up such an account, even twenty years afterwards, if nothing of the kind had occurred? And if he had done so, would not his story have been instantly refuted? Or take the case of healing the centurion's servant at Capernaum. This, as before said, belongs to Q, the supposed source common to Matthew and Luke, and admitted by most critics to date from before A.D. 50. And how could such a story have been current within twenty years of the event, if nothing of the kind had occurred?
It is also declared that the miracles were much talked about at the time, and caused widespread astonishment. The people marvelled at them, they wondered, they were amazed, they were beyond measure astonished, there had been nothing like them since the world began.[348] The miracles were in fact the talk of the whole neighbourhood. And we are told that in consequence several of those which occurred at Jerusalem were at once officially investigated by the Jewish rulers, who made the most searching inquiries about them;[349] and in two instances, at least, publicly admitted them to be true.[350] And this also is not likely to have been asserted, unless it was the case; and not likely to have been the case, if there had been no miracles.
[348] Matt. 9. 33; 15. 31; Mark 5. 42; 7. 37; John 9. 32.
[349] E.g., John 9. 13-34; Acts 4. 5-22.