Healings at a distance.

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Ben C. Smith
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Healings at a distance.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

A famous instance of healing at a distance occurs with respect to an official's son in Capernaum in three of the gospels:

Matthew 8.5-13 {7.28}
Luke 7.1-10 {13.28-29}
John 4.46-54
{7.28 And it happened that when Jesus finished these words the crowds were amazed at his teaching.}7.1 When he fulfilled all these sayings in the ears of the people,-
8.5 But, when he went into Capernaum, a centurion came toward him, calling out to him 6 and saying: Lord, my child is cast down paralyzed in the house, terribly tormented. 7 And he says to him: I will go and heal him. 8 And the centurion said: Lord, I am not fit for you to come under my roof. But only say the word, and my child shall be cured. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one: Journey, and he journeys, and to another: Come, and he comes, and to my slave: Do this, and he does it. 10 And when Jesus heard he wondered, and he said to the ones following him: Amen, I say to you, with no one in Israel did I find such faith.he went into Capernaum. 2 But the slave of a certain centurion, one who was much honored by him, was doing badly and was about to expire. 3 But having heard concerning Jesus he sent elders of the Jews toward him, asking him that he might come and save his slave. 4 And they arrived toward Jesus and called on him earnestly, saying: He is a worthy one to whom to grant this thing, 5 for he loves our nation, and he himself built the synagogue for us. 6 But Jesus journeyed with them. But, when he was not far off from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him: Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not fit for you to come under my roof. 7 It was for this reason that I did not count myself worthy to come toward you, but say the word, and let my child be cured. 8 For I also am a man ordered under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one: Journey, and he journeys, and to another: Come, and he comes, and to my slave: Do this, and he does it. 9 And when Jesus heard these things he wondered at him, and he turned and said to the crowd following him: I say to you, not even in Israel did I find such faith.4.46 He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47 This man, having heard that Jesus had proceeded out of Judea into Galilee, went away toward him and asked that he should go down and cure his son, for he was about to die. 48 Jesus therefore said toward him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not have faith.
11 But I say to you that many will come from east and west and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth there.{13.28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth there, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out. 13.29 And they will come from east and west and from north and south and will recline in the kingdom of God.}-
13 And Jesus said to the centurion: Get on; be it done for you as you had faith. And his child was healed in that very hour.7.10 And, when those who had been sent returned into the house, they found the slave made well.49 The royal official says toward him: Lord, go down before my child dies. 50 Jesus says to him: Journey on; your son lives. The man put faith in the word which Jesus said to him and journeyed on. 51 And when he was already going down his slaves met him, saying that his child was alive. 52 He inquired of them therefore the hour in which he began to do better. They said therefore to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever departed him. 53 The father therefore knew that it was in that very hour in which Jesus had said to him: Your son lives; and he himself had faith, as well as his whole house. 54 And this was again the second sign that Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee.

Another healing at a distance occurs in Matthew 15.21-28 = Mark 7.24-30 (the healing of the daughter of a Canaanite/Syrophoenician woman).

But the gospels are not alone in this motif. There is a story about Hanina ben Dosa from the Talmud, Berakoth 34b:

Our Rabbis taught: Once the son of R. Gamaliel fell ill. He sent two scholars to R. Hanina b. Dosa to ask him to pray for him. When he saw them he went up to an upper chamber and prayed for him. When he came down he said to them: Go, the fever has left him; They said to him: Are you a prophet? He replied: I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I learnt this from experience. If my prayer is fluent in my mouth, I know that he is accepted: but if not, I know that he is rejected. They sat down and made a note of the exact moment. When they came to R. Gamaliel, he said to them: By the temple service! You have not been a moment too soon or too late, but so it happened: at that very moment the fever left him and he asked for water to drink.

What other examples are there (from Christian, Jewish, Greco-Roman, or other ancient literature) of healings at a distance?
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Bernard Muller
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Re: Healings at a distance.

Post by Bernard Muller »

John 4.46-54 was written after gLuke was known in the community: http://historical-jesus.info/jnintro.html
The story of the centurion of Capernaum in gLuke & gMatthew originated in Q.
From where Q got the idea of Jesus healing at a distance Gentile people? most likely in the story of the Syrophoenician woman, where Jesus heals her son with no mention he gets inside her house: Mk 7:29:30. (why? Orthodox Jews avoided to get into Gentile's homes)
I regard all these stories as totally fictional.

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Peter Kirby
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Re: Healings at a distance.

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Ben C. Smith wrote:What other examples are there (from Christian, Jewish, Greco-Roman, or other ancient literature) of healings at a distance?
You may have exhausted them. Believe it or not, there don't seem to be that many (non-Christian) miracle tales surviving in literature from antiquity. At least, so far as I know, they can be counted on two hands. Of course I'd love to be proved wrong about that.

In short, IMO, might be more handy to have an exhaustive set of all (non-Christian) miracle/healing stories. It might not be overwhelming.
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Healings at a distance.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Peter Kirby wrote:
Ben C. Smith wrote:What other examples are there (from Christian, Jewish, Greco-Roman, or other ancient literature) of healings at a distance?
You may have exhausted them.
That was always my suspicion.
Believe it or not, there don't seem to be that many (non-Christian) miracle tales surviving in literature from antiquity.
Oh, I believe it. I have looked before (not specifically for distance healings, but for healing stories in general). They seem to concentrate on a few key figures, like Elijah/Elisha, Apollonius, Jesus, and Hanina ben Dosa. There are also healing testimonials from shrines, but those are not quite the same as stories attached to named, wandering healers.
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Re: Healings at a distance.

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Ben C. Smith wrote:There are also healing testimonials from shrines, but those are not quite the same as stories attached to named, wandering healers.
Yes, if we count the shrines (to Asclepius, etc.), we might be able to wring out several more from inscriptions.
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Healings at a distance.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Peter Kirby wrote:
Ben C. Smith wrote:There are also healing testimonials from shrines, but those are not quite the same as stories attached to named, wandering healers.
Yes, if we count the shrines (to Asclepius, etc.), we might be able to wring out several more from inscriptions.
Peter Kirby wrote:In short, IMO, might be more handy to have an exhaustive set of all (non-Christian) miracle/healing stories. It might not be overwhelming.
Something like this may have already been done: Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook for the Study of the New Testament Miracles, by Wendy Cotter.

Online list, not at all exhaustive: Miracles in the First Century, in the Synoptic Gospels, and Today.
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Re: Healings at a distance.

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Peter Kirby wrote:
Ben C. Smith wrote:What other examples are there (from Christian, Jewish, Greco-Roman, or other ancient literature) of healings at a distance?
You may have exhausted them. Believe it or not, there don't seem to be that many (non-Christian) miracle tales surviving in literature from antiquity. .
There may be quite a bit about healing in Aristides' writings ('Apology of Aristides'; 'Sacred Tales' (Hieroi Logoi), or 'Orations'), though it's likely to be more about self-healing, or Aristides health problems, and is likely to be centered on Asclepius.
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Re: Healings at a distance.

Post by MrMacSon »

Is the focus on healing in Christian literature greater than what was previously in pre-Christian Jewish literature? or what was previously in pre-Christian non-Judaic literature?

Could some focus on or popularity of Asclepius in early-Antiquity have prompted a focus on healing in Christian literature?
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Re: Healings at a distance.

Post by DCHindley »

A pdf is available for download from the TSU Institute of Classical, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (Georgian Republic), which was added to their list of online resources in 2014, apparently with the author/publisher's consent. Cotter published this originally in 1999 and owns the copyright.

http://greekstudies.tsu.ge/wp-content/u ... a.org_.pdf

DCH :thumbup:
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Re: Healings at a distance.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

DCHindley wrote:
A pdf is available for download from the TSU Institute of Classical, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (Georgian Republic), which was added to their list of online resources in 2014, apparently with the author/publisher's consent. Cotter published this originally in 1999 and owns the copyright.

http://greekstudies.tsu.ge/wp-content/u ... a.org_.pdf

DCH :thumbup:
Thanks!
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