Historians and Miracle Claims
Michael R. Licona
Associate Professor in Theology, Houston Baptist University
Abstract
Most biblical scholars and historians hold that the investigation of a miracle report lies
outside of the rights of historians acting within their professional capacity. In this
essay, I challenge this position and argue to the contrary. A definition of history should
not a priori exclude the possibility of investigating miracle claims, since doing so may
restrict historians to an inaccurate assessment of the past. Professional historians out-
side of the community of biblical scholars acknowledge the frequent absence of a con-
sensus; this largely results from conflicting horizons among historians. If this is the
present state among professionals engaged in the study of non-religious history, it will
be even more so with historians of Jesus. Finally, even if some historians cannot bring
themselves to grant divine causation, they, in principle, can render a verdict on the
event itself without rendering a verdict on its cause.
Keywords
criteria – historical Jesus – method – methodological naturalism – miracles
A number of years ago, my wife was involved in a car accident and sustained a
serious injury. The other driver’s insurance company was stubborn and refused
to pay most of the expenses we incurred. So it went to trial. I was one of the
first witnesses called; at one point I stated that the insurance company had
resisted assistance to the point of being unwilling to provide a rental car while
ours was being repaired. The moment I said this, the defence attorney objected
and made a motion. The judge then dismissed me, then the jury. A few
moments later I learned that the judge had declared a mistrial. I had been
unaware that ‘insurance company’ was a forbidden term in a trial of this nature.
Historians And Miracle Claims 107
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
1 Brian Fay, ‘Nothing but History?’ History and Theory 37.2 (1998), pp. 83–93 (83). See also Mark
T. Gilderhus, History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction (6th edn; Upper Saddle
River, nj: Prentice Hall, 2007), p. 124.
Something similar often happens in the field of historical Jesus research.
There is a lot of discussion over what the ‘real’ Jesus actually said and did. But
when anyone mentions the term ‘miracle’ it is not uncommon for some schol-
ars to jump to their feet and shout, ‘Objection! You cannot go there as a histo-
rian’. Although I am not an attorney, I am willing to bet there are good reasons
for barring the mention of the insurance company involved. After all, insurance
companies are big, impersonal corporations with deep pockets. Reminding
jurors of this might bias them towards finding for the plaintiff. There are like-
wise reasons provided for why historians are forbidden from investigating mir-
acle claims. If these reasons are valid, then historians interested in checking
out the truth claims of particular religions such as Judaism and Christianity are
forbidden from doing so, at least from within their professional capacity.
Historians, for example, could acknowledge that a number of people had expe-
riences they believed were post-mortem appearances of Jesus to them. But
they would be unable to answer the question of whether Jesus actually returned
alive from the dead. In this essay I challenge this paradigm.
Defining ‘History’
While biblical scholars have begun to write more on the challenges inherent in
historical knowledge and some are opting for postmodernist approaches, pro-
fessional historians outside the community of biblical scholars have exten-
sively debated the nature of history and historical investigation for the past
few decades. In spite of the plethora of literature advocating postmodernist
approaches to history, the majority of historians remain realists and hold that
if a past event left traces, it can be the subject of historical inquiry. According
to historian Brian Fay, the linguistic turn is over:
Except for some interesting exceptions at the margins of the discipline,
historical practice is pretty much the same in 1997 as it was in 1967: histo-
rians seek to describe accurately and to explain cogently how and why a
certain event or situation occurred... For all the talk of narrativism, pre-
sentism, postmodernism, and deconstruction, historians write pretty
much the same way as they always have (even though what they write
about may be quite new).1
108 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
2 David D. Roberts, ‘Postmodernism and History: Missing the Missed Connections’, History and
Theory 44.5 (2005), p. 252.
3 Keith Jenkins, ‘Introduction: On Being Open about our Closures’, in Keith Jenkins (ed.), The
Postmodern History Reader (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 1–30 (1; cf. 9). See also Richard J.
Evans, ‘From Historicism to Postmodernism: Historiography in the Twentieth Century’,
History and Theory 41.2 (2002), pp. 79–87 (81); Georg G. Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth
Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge with a New Epilogue
(Middletown, cn: Wesleyan University Press), pp. 133, 145, 150; Nancy F. Partner, ‘History in an
Age of Reality-Fictions’, in A New Philosophy of History (eds. Frank Ankersmit and Hans
Kellner; Chicago, il: University of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 21–39; Perez Zagorin, ‘History, the
Referent, and Narrative: Reflections on Postmodernism Now’, History and Theory 38.2 (1999),
pp. 1–24 (1, 3, 9); John Zammito, ‘Ankersmit and Historical Representation’, History and Theory
44.5 (2005), pp. 155–81 (161, 163).
4 Aviezer Tucker, Our Knowledge of the Past: A Philosophy of Historiography (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 1.
5 Michael Oakeshott, Experience and its Modes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933),
p. 107, cited by Rex Martin, ‘How the Past Stands with Us’, History and Theory 44.2 (2005),
p. 140; Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and
the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1996), pp. 81–82.
Even some postmodern historians agree. David Roberts admits that Ernst
Breisach may be correct that postmodernism has come and gone among histo-
rians.2 Even Keith Jenkins who is one of the three leading lights among post-
modernist historians confesses that ‘most historians—and certainly most of
those who might be termed “academic” or professional “proper” historians—
have been resistant to that postmodernism which has affected so many of their
colleagues in adjacent discourses’.3
Notwithstanding the prevalence of realism, there is still disagreement
among historians pertaining to what it is they are actually doing or seeking to
do in historical investigation. The term ‘history’ is itself an essentially con-
tested concept; that is, there is no widely accepted definition for the term. In
my research, I discovered 16 definitions of ‘history’, although many of them are
not mutually exclusive. Philosopher of history Aviezer Tucker defines history
simply as ‘past events’.4 Other historians contend that, since the past is forever
beyond our reach, history is not ‘past events’ but rather a historian’s reasoned
hypothesis of what occurred in the past based upon its surviving traces.5 I do
not here wish to argue for a particular definition of ‘history’. However, in this
essay that addresses whether historians are within their professional capacity
to investigate and adjudicate on a miracle claim, it is my objective to address
a certain definition of history that may be employed as a means of a priori
prohibiting historians from adjudicating on a miracle claim. This definition is
espoused by R.G. Collingwood, Geoffrey Elton, J.H. Hexter, and more recently
Historians And Miracle Claims 109
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
6 Robert L. Webb, ‘The Historical Enterprise and Historical Jesus Research’, in Darrell L. Bock
and Robert L. Webb (eds.), Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus: A Collaborative
Exploration of Context and Coherence (Grand Rapids, mi: Eerdmans, 2010), pp. 9–93 (16). See
also J.H. Hexter, The History Primer (New York: Basic Books, 1971), p. 5. Webb also mentions
similar definitions offered by Collingwood and Elton (p. 16 n. 14). See R.J. Collingwood, The
Idea of History: With Lectures 1926–1928 (rev. edn; edited with an introduction by Jan van der
Dussen; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 9–10; Geoffrey R. Elton, The Practice of
History (2nd edn; Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), p. 7.
7 Robert L. Webb, ‘The Rules of the Game: History and Historical Method in the Context of
Faith: The Via Media of Methodological Naturalism’, Journal for the Study of the Historical
Jesus 9.1 (2011), pp. 59–84 (62).
8 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 4; cf. Webb, ‘The Historical Enterprise’, p. 17.
by Robert Webb. These contend that historical inquiry ‘concerns events in the
past involving humans as agents’.6 In this essay, I will focus my comments in
relation to the recent essay in this same journal by Webb.
The practice of history can be a challenging exercise, since as Webb writes,
‘we in the present...actually have no direct access to that past event at all, and
we won’t until time travel is invented!’7 Webb rightly states that not all investi-
gations of past events belong to the discipline of history. For example, the Ice
Age that shaped the Rocky Mountains belong to the discipline of geology
rather than history.8 We may say the same concerning the formation of galax-
ies, which belongs to the discipline of cosmology. Even living beings such as
dinosaurs belong to the discipline of palaeontology rather than history. Webb
then concludes that human agency is a necessary component in the definition
of history.
He further contends this requires a
definitional limitation: what is usually understood to constitute history is
not making an ontological statement about the totality of reality; rather, it
is recognizing that the modern discipline of history focuses on a particular
facet of that reality [Webb’s emphasis]. For those whose worldview
includes a supernatural realm and the possibility of theistic causation in
human events, this view of history is limiting. Those who hold this
worldview may respond in two different ways: they may define the
breadth of history to include the possibility of divine causation...or they
may view this understanding to be a definitional limitation of the mod-
ern discipline of history and how it functions, without it being an onto-
logical statement about the nature of reality. This latter view I could call
‘methodological-naturalistic history’—in other words, for the purposes
of doing historical work, the historian is methodologically limited to
110 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
9 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 78.
10 Webb, ‘Rules’, pp. 78–79.
11 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 79.
12 Webb, ‘Rules’, pp. 83–84; cf. Webb, ‘The Historical Enterprise’, p. 48.
causation within the physical, space-time universe, but this does not
limit the historian’s personal ontological worldview, just her/his histori-
cal method as a historian.9
Webb goes on to suggest that causation belonging to the spiritual realm belongs
to the discipline of theology.10 This is a sort of compromise between ontologi-
cal naturalists who hold that if God exists he does not interact within our
space-time world and critical theists who are open to the possibility of divine
intervention. Methodological naturalism understands history ‘as description
and explanation of cause and effect of human events within the natural sphere
alone, without making ontological claims beyond the natural sphere’.11 Webb
contends that this approach may help to prevent historians of contradictory
worldviews, such as ontological naturalism and critical theism, from dismiss-
ing the other’s work too easily.12
Webb’s thesis is admirable on several accounts. As a biblical scholar, he
shows a rare knowledge of the literature written by philosophers of history
outside of the guild of biblical scholars and he makes a fair attempt to bring
epistemological humility to the process of historical Jesus research. In the end,
however, I am uncertain how much progress if any is made when one adopts
the sort of methodological naturalism he proposes. In what follows, I offer four
criticisms of Webb’s definition of history and propose a different solution. Let
us begin with the criticisms.
First, historians need not adopt a definition of history based on the least
common denominator of beliefs among historians. This is especially true
within historical Jesus research where consensus is to be found on only a very
few matters. Dale Allison comments:
Study of the historical Jesus belongs to the diversity and pluralism of
modernity, or, if you prefer, postmodernity, and there can be no easy
appeal to the consensus on much of anything. The biblical guild is not a
group-mind thinking the same thoughts. Nor are the experts a single
company producing a single product, ‘history’... So if we are to do some-
thing with the historical Jesus, it will have to be someone’s particular his-
torical Jesus—Wright’s Jesus or Crossan’s Jesus or Sanders’s Jesus; it can
no longer be the Jesus of the guild or the Jesus of the scholars, because
Historians And Miracle Claims 111
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
13 Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (Grand Rapids., mi:
Eerdmans, 2009), p. 11.
14 Gerd Lüdemann, The Resurrection of Christ: A Historical Inquiry (Amherst, NY: Prometheus,
2004), p. 114. For a similar remark, see Donald Wayne Viney, ‘Grave Doubts about the
Resurrection’, Encounter 50.2 (1989), pp. 125–40 (135–36).
15 James D. Tabor, The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the
Birth of Christianity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), p. 234.
16 Geza Vermes, The Resurrection: History and Myth (New York: Doubleday, 2008).
17 Vermes, The Resurrection, p. 141.
18 Vermes, The Resurrection, p. 101.
they, in their writings and at their academic conferences, argue with each
other over almost everything.13
It is clear that the horizon of atheist New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann is
a driving force behind his historical conclusions when he a priori rules out the
historicity of the ascension of Jesus reported in Acts 1.9–11 ‘because there is no
such heaven to which Jesus may have been carried’.14 Ontological naturalism
similarly guides James Tabor. He writes:
Women do not get pregnant without a male—ever. So Jesus had a human
father... Dead bodies don’t rise... So, if the tomb was empty the historical
conclusion is simple—Jesus’ body was moved by someone and likely
reburied in another location.15
Not so obvious is Geza Vermes in his 2008 volume The Resurrection: History and
Myth.16 With hardly a comment, Vermes simply dismisses both ‘the out-of-
hand rejection of the inveterate skeptic’ and the hypothesis that Jesus rose
from the dead since it can only be made from ‘the blind faith of the fundamen-
talist believer’.17 He appears to regard D.F. Strauss and N.T. Wright as members
of these groups.18 However, inveterate sceptics may still be able to offer valid
historical reasons for rejecting Jesus’ resurrection. And irrespective of whether
one agrees with Wright’s approach or conclusions, it is difficult to regard his
sophisticated and abundantly documented case in his volume The Resurrection
of the Son of God as the product of ‘blind faith’.
One must wonder, therefore, whether the acceptance of methodological
naturalism as a canon in the discipline would prevent the sort of quick dis-
missals we see from Lüdemann, Tabor and Vermes. On the contrary, it could
make it easier for them to conduct their investigations as usual yet without
overtly revealing their horizons. We may ask whether it would be preferable to
112 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
19 Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (New York: Free Press, 1996), p. 192.
20 Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah (2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1994), I,
p. 1468; Gary R. Habermas, ‘The Resurrection of Jesus and Recent Agnosticism’, in Norman
L. Geisler and Chad V. Meister (eds.), Reasons for Faith: Making a Case for the Christian
Faith (Wheaton, il: Crossway Books, 2007), pp. 281–94 (290–91); Ben F. Meyer, The Aims
of Jesus (London: scm Press, 1979), p. 102, although, like Webb, he goes on to allow meth-
odological naturalism as long as it renders no statements pertaining to ontology; Alan G.
Padgett, ‘Advice for Religious Historians: On the Myth of a Purely Historical Jesus’, in
Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendall and Gerald O’Collins (eds.), The Resurrection (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 287–307 (294–95).
criticize the works of scholars when they exercise a method that appears to be
strongly motivated by their worldview.
Second, methodological naturalism may handicap historians, preventing
them in some cases from providing a fuller and more accurate account of the
past. Molecular biologist Michael Behe provides a relevant challenge to this
approach in his discipline. He writes:
Imagine a room in which a body lies crushed, flat as a pancake. A dozen
detectives crawl around, examining the floor with magnifying glasses for
any clues to the identity of the perpetrator. In the middle of the room,
next to the body, stands a large, grey elephant. The detectives carefully
avoid bumping into the pachyderm’s legs as they crawl, and never even
glance at it. Over time the detectives get frustrated with their lack of
progress but resolutely press on, looking even more closely at the floor.
You see, textbooks say detectives must ‘get their man’, so they never con-
sider elephants.19
In context, Behe is contending that when scientists limit their considerations
exclusively to unguided natural causes they will forever keep themselves from
discovering the actual cause if a Designer of some sort was responsible. A simi-
lar admonition may be issued to historians who a priori exclude a non-human
agent as the cause behind a past event. Those who do so could actually be plac-
ing themselves in a position where they cannot appraise history accurately.20
We can eliminate this problem in Webb’s definition of history if we were to
change the word ‘human’ to ‘person’. Although I may be mistaken, I do not
believe there are sentient aliens in our universe. Let us say that a number of
spacecraft suddenly land on Earth occupied with intelligent alien beings
who are able to communicate with us. (If Webb can speak of time travel, I can
speak of aliens!) As dialogue progresses, we discover that these beings
are seeking a habitable planet having left their own prior to a cataclysmic and
Historians And Miracle Claims 113
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
21 Webb, ‘The Historical Enterprise’, p. 19.
22 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 79 n. 38.
life-destroying collision with an asteroid. The history of these alien beings
would be of great interest to us. Billions of people would watch television inter-
views and read articles containing recollections of their past.
Would such inquiries be outside the purview of historians acting within
their professional capacity, since the subjects of inquiry would not be...human?
Would an entirely new discipline (alienology?) need to be developed in order
to engage in the endeavour? I see no reason for answering affirmatively to
either of these questions. Although the proposed aliens are not human, they
are persons capable of intelligent communication with humans.
Let us now bring this closer to our question at hand. If the Christian God
exists, he is an intelligent person capable of communicating with humans.
This is not to presuppose either that the Christian God exists or that he has
already engaged in intelligent communication with humans. It is to say that
historians should not a priori exclude such a possibility in light of numerous
reports that God has communicated with humans.
Third, the boundaries between disciplines are somewhat artificial. While
one can recognize certain differences between the disciplines of geology and
history, it is unnecessary to draw precisely defined boundaries between the
disciplines never to be crossed. For in that case, biblical scholars seeking to
understand the Genesis account of creation could not appeal to modern evo-
lutionary sciences such as biology and palaeontology in order to challenge a
literal understanding of the Genesis account(s), since that would be to do sci-
ence and not history. Webb says he is not suggesting ‘hard and fast divisions’
between the disciplines. Instead, he is distinguishing between the ‘core focus
of each discipline’.21 But this does not support the point he is trying to make:
The discipline of history involves human agents. For, as stated above, one could
easily substitute ‘persons’ for ‘humans’ and the investigation of miracle claims
would then be allowable.
Fourth, as noble as Webb’s move may appear, it is questionable whether it
would have the pragmatic benefit he desires: historians of Jesus operate within
the same definitional limitations of history while making no ontological state-
ments. He correctly observes in a footnote that a similar discussion is taking
place within the philosophy of science where methodological naturalism
reigns.22 But it is precisely the results of the widespread adoption of method-
ological naturalism within the disciplines of science that provide strong support
for my concern. The methodological exclusion of divine causation pertaining to
origins has led to a widespread attitude that non-science is nonsense. Even the
114 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
23 Alan F. Segal, ‘The Resurrection: Faith or History?’ in Robert B. Stewart (ed.), The
Resurrection of Jesus: John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright in Dialogue (Minneapolis, mn:
Fortress, 2006), pp. 121–38, refers to arguments for intelligent design posited by scientists
as merely being ‘Scientific creation 2.0’ (138) while Tucker, Our Knowledge of the Past,
appears unaware of it altogether. He claims that the community of creationists ‘is quite
homogenous, composed exclusively of biblical fundamentalists, almost all of whom are
American Protestants. Their bias in favor of an anachronistic, historically insensitive
interpretation of Genesis is the best explanation of their beliefs’ (34).
24 John Polkinghorne, Quarks, Chaos and Christianity: Questions to Science and Religion
(rev. edn; New York: Crossroad, 2005), pp. 116–17.
Intelligent Design movement, which engages in the more modest attempt to
identify design in the universe and life, is regularly referred to as creationism
masquerading as science in spite of the fact that many of its members are pres-
tigious scientists embracing a variety of worldviews.23
There is good reason to believe that the widespread adoption of method-
ological naturalism within the discipline of history would lead to similar
results. Let us suppose that this author (Licona) were to contend that Jesus
rose from the dead resulting from a supernatural agent. Another historian, it
does not matter whether he is an ontological or methodological naturalist,
replies, ‘This is an illegitimate conclusion because history must only involve
human events occurring within the space-time continuum and this, by defini-
tion, excludes divine causation. Accordingly, those who suggest a divine agent
are making a theological conclusion rather than a historical one. In other
words, Licona is practicing theology, which is a legitimate discipline; but it is
not history. The rest of us are doing history’. Unfortunately, many will read an
additional message being communicated: Theology is subjective and involves
faith, while history is science and involves rationality and logic. The two are in
conflict.
An Alternative Solution
I would like to suggest what I believe are two better solutions to the dilemma
of defining the practice of history, neither of which create new problems while
possessing only the last of the four problems intrinsic to Webb’s methodologi-
cal naturalism.
The first solution is to acknowledge the occurrence of the event and posit a
theoretical entity for the cause. Physicists regularly posit theoretical entities to
explain observable phenomena. No one has ever observed black holes, quarks,
strings and gluons and probably never will.24 These theoretical natural entities
Historians And Miracle Claims 115
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
25 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 80. See also Webb, ‘The Historical Enterprise’, pp. 46–47.
26 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 81.
27 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 81.
serve to explain how certain observable phenomena have their existence in
the same way a theoretical divine entity serves to explain how an event may
have occurred.
We will need to address a number of potential problems with this approach.
To start, one might suggest the use of theoretical natural entities by scientists
is an improper analogy, since one cause is natural (and observable) while the
other is supernatural (and is not observable). Webb hints at this sort of
thinking:
[T]he historian’s descriptions and explanations of events and their pro-
posed causes and effects must be open to verification by the reader from
observable data interpreted as evidence. Thus there is a necessary empir-
ical element to the historical method. Such verification of descriptions
and explanations is possible in historical representations because the
foundation upon which it is built is observable data interpreted and pre-
sented as evidence. This observable data is open to all historians and
their readers, for these observable data and their corresponding explana-
tions exist within the physical, space-time universe.25
Webb continues that when historians fail to adopt this approach, problems
result. ‘[I]t requires that a reader entertain some form of a theistic worldview
before the explanation can be evaluated’.26 Indeed, ontological naturalists
are forced to ‘step outside of who they are and entertain an alternate
worldview’.27
This objection is problematic on several accounts. First, in respect to antiq-
uity, it is difficult to talk about ‘observable data interpreted as evidence’, since
none of the ancient human causes are observable in any sense except as they
are portrayed in ancient literature and artifacts, although they allegedly existed
within the physical, space-time universe. In fact, ancient human agents, such
as Pontius Pilate and Herod Agrippa, are no more observable to modern histo-
rians than are ancient divine agents, such as the three persons who appeared
to Abraham and the angels who appeared to the women at the empty tomb of
Jesus. Since we have no direct access to the past, all ancient history is known to
varying degrees through inference.
Second, those in the physical sciences go beyond the empirical when
they postulate theoretical entities. If they can do so to account for present
116 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
28 Moreover, if God interacts in our world, he is in those moments within our space-time
universe.
29 Carl Sagan, Francis H. C. Crick and L. M. Muchin, in Carl Sagan (ed.), Communication with
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ceti) (Cambridge, ma: mit Press, 1973), pp. 45–46.
30 Francis H. Crick and L. E. Orgel, ‘Directed Panspermia’, Icarus 19 (1973), pp. 341–46.
31 Donald L. Denton, Jr., Historiography and Hermeneutics in Jesus Studies: An Examination
of the Work of John Dominic Crossan and Ben F. Meyer (London: T&T Clark International,
2004), p. 99. Scot McKnight, Jesus and His Death (Waco, tx: Baylor, 2005): ‘everyone has an
agenda, a motivation, and a purpose whenever studying the historical Jesus... What is
needed is not so much frank admission and then a jolly carrying on as usual, as if admis-
sion is justification, but instead the willingness to let our presuppositions (Subject) be
challenged by the evidence (Object)’ (33); Brad S. Gregory, ‘The Other Confessional
History: On Secular Bias in the Study of Religion’, History and Theory, Theme Issue 45.12
phenomena, why should historians be prohibited from doing so to account for
past phenomena? The difference is clear: Physicists posit theoretical entities
within the space-time universe whereas critical theists must posit a divine
cause outside it. That it is a meaningful difference is not clear, since one can
find differences between every illustration and the corresponding reality it
parallels. We must not fail to recognize the ‘theoretical’ nature of all theoretical
entities, whether they exist inside or outside the space-time universe.28
Nobel laureate Francis Crick is one of two scientists responsible for the dis-
covery of dna. With two other scientists, he observed the chances of human
life forming on Earth by natural processes to be somewhere in the neighbor-
hood of 1 in 102,000,000,000.29 This finding created a tension with the horizons of
Crick and Sagan, since both are atheists. Crick and Orgel have proposed a sci-
entific hypothesis known as ‘directed panspermia’ in which aliens seeded the
Earth with life.30 This possibility cannot be ignored. What also cannot be
ignored is the fact that the aliens to which they refer are no more empirical and
no less theoretical than a divine cause. Theoretical entities are always unob-
served and based entirely on inference. Thus, historians positing a supernatu-
ral cause would be acting no differently than Crick, Orgel, Sagan and many
other scientists who regularly posit theoretical entities.
Third, Webb appears to eschew approaches that allow historians to be chal-
lenged to step outside of their worldview. Yet this is precisely the type of
approach historians of Jesus should be adopting in order to engage in a fair and
honest consideration of the data. Historians should force themselves to con-
front data and arguments that are problematic to their preferred hypotheses
and must allow themselves to understand and empathize fully with the hori-
zon of the author/agent and to be challenged fully by that horizon to the point
of conversion.31
Historians And Miracle Claims 117
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
(2006), pp. 132–49: ‘The first prerequisite is one of the most difficult: we must be willing to
set aside our own beliefs—about the nature of reality, about human priorities, about
morality—in order to try to understand them’ (147, emphasis original); Thomas L. Haskell,
‘Objectivity is not Neutrality: Rhetoric vs. Practice in Peter Novick’s That Noble Dream’,
History and Theory 29.5 (1990), pp. 129–57: The pursuit of history ‘requires of its practitio-
ners that vital minimum of ascetic self-discipline that enables a person to do such things
as abandon wishful thinking, assimilate bad news, discard pleasing interpretations that
cannot pass elementary tests of evidence and logic, suspend or bracket one’s own percep-
tions long enough to enter sympathetically into the alien and possibly repugnant per-
spectives of rival thinkers. All of these mental acts—especially coming to grips with a
rival’s perspective—require detachment, an undeniably ascetic capacity to achieve some
distance from one’s own spontaneous perceptions and convictions, to imagine how the
world appears in another’s eyes, to experimentally adopt perspectives that do not come
naturally’ (132, emphasis original). ‘The demand is for detachment and fairness, not dis-
engagement from life. Most historians would indeed say that the historian's primary com-
mitment is to the truth, and that when the truth and the “cause”, however defined, come
into conflict, the truth must prevail’ (139); Paul R. Eddy and Greg A. Boyd, The Jesus
Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids,
mi: Baker Academic, 2007): ‘in the name of epistemological humility and the ideal of
objectivity...critical scholars [should] be open-minded and humble enough to try to seri-
ously entertain claims that others find plausible, regardless of the fact that their own
plausibility structures prejudice them against such claims’ (85; cf. 81).
One way in which historians can do this is for them to be careful that they
neither presuppose supernatural causation nor a priori exclude it. Rather, they
can adopt a position of openness and let the data speak for itself. Otherwise,
historians place themselves in a dangerous position where their investigations
are guided largely by their worldviews rather than the data. The danger is man-
ifest: Bad philosophy corrupts good history.
Roy Hoover offers a very pointed admonition:
To cultivate the virtue of veracity, you have to be willing to part with the
way tradition and conventional wisdom say things are, or with the way
you would prefer things to be, and be ready to accept the way things
really are. Veracity has to be the principal moral and intellectual commit-
ment of any science or scholarship worthy of the name. That means, as
I see it, that as a critical biblical scholar you have to be concerned first of
all not with how your research turns out, not with whether it will confirm
or disconfirm the beliefs or opinions or theories you had when you began
the inquiry. You have to care only about finding out how things really
are—with finding evidence sufficient to enable you to discover that and
118 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
32 R.W. Hoover, ‘A Contest between Orthodoxy and Veracity’, in Paul Copan and Ronald K.
Tacelli (eds.), Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment? A Debate between William Lane Craig
and Gerd Lüdemann (Downers Grove, il: InterVarsity Press, 2000), pp. 124–46 (127–28).
See also Dale C. Allison, Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and its
Interpreters (New York: T&T Clark, 2005): ‘What one wants to believe in the present
should not be any guide to what one finds in the past’ (143).
33 James H. Charlesworth, The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide (Nashville, tn: Abingdon
Press, 2008), p. 121.
34 I have suggested six steps in Michael R. Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New
Historiographical Approach (Downers Grove, il: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2010),
pp. 50–62.
with finding also whether or not what you think you have discovered is
sustainable when it is tested by the critical scrutiny of others.32
James Charlesworth similarly writes:
If we ask a question, we should not presuppose a desired answer or
manipulate data to acquire a pleasing answer. We need to develop the
maturity to be honest in asking questions, and be prepared for a possibly
unattractive answer. In asking questions, we need to include all pertinent
data and employ all relevant methods.33
Historians can adopt steps for placing their horizons in check while conduct-
ing their investigations.34 It is their responsibility to do their very best to tran-
scend the effects created by their horizontal sunglasses through which they
perceive the world. It is not the responsibility of the data to shine so brightly
that they render those glasses ineffectual.
Thus, rather than attempting to mediate a compromise between ontological
naturalists and critical theists as Webb does, it may be preferable to chide scep-
tical historians such as Lüdemann and Tabor when it becomes obvious they
have allowed their worldviews to dictate their historical conclusions. Theistic
historians should also be cited when they are too quick to appeal to divine
causation or the historicity of an event reported in the Gospels without reason-
able supporting argumentation or on the grounds that the Gospels are divinely
inspired. In this manner, poor historical method is identified and eschewed.
My proposed solution invoking theoretical entities by historians faces
another challenge. Could it return us to ‘god of the gaps’ solutions where god is
invoked as the cause of an event when the actual cause is unknown? Perhaps,
if one is not careful. We are now faced with a new challenge: If a miracle has
actually occurred, how would a historian properly identify it? This question
Historians And Miracle Claims 119
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
35 For references, see Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus, pp. 134–36 n. 3.
36 Richard Swinburne, ‘Violation of a Law of Nature’, in Richard Swinburne (ed.), Miracles
(New York: Macmillan, 1989), p. 75–84; Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical
Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapolis, mn: Fortress, 1998), p. 309.
37 Rudolph Bultmann, Jesus and the Word (London: Collins/Fontana, 1958), p. 173.
38 David J. Bartholomew, Uncertain Belief (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 81.
39 J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
(Downers Grove, il: InterVarsity Press, 2003), p. 569. See also Rex Martin, ‘How the Past
Stands with Us’, who contends that historians must look to antecedent and subsequent
(aftermath) matters (147).
differs from our earlier issue of defining a miracle. And it is at this point that we
must once again engage in a brief sidebar discussion, since, like the term ‘his-
tory’, ‘miracle’ is an essentially contested concept. In this author’s research, 23
definitions of ‘miracle’ were discovered.35 And this is by no means an exhaus-
tive count. Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz and Richard Swinburne define mira-
cle as an extraordinary act performed by a deity that contains religious
significance.36 Bultmann, on the other hand, asserted that ‘miracles are events
which in themselves have no religious character, but which are attributed to
divine (or dæmonic) causation’.37 David Bartholomew defines miracle as ‘an
act by some power external to the natural world. If, therefore, something hap-
pens which cannot be explained by the natural processes of the world and
which cannot be attributed to human agency then there is a prima facie case
for supposing that a miracle has occurred’.38 Bartholomew’s definition is of
interest, since it suggests a supernatural cause but does not specifically define
that cause as divine.
There is an even larger issue before us, however. This concerns how we may
distinguish a miracle from an anomaly. Let us say one defines ‘miracle’ as ‘a
divine act’. In this case, a person could ask God in prayer to assist them in an
interview for a job. Let us suppose that the interview went very well and the
person got the job. Was this a divine act or did the person get the job because
they were the most qualified applicant? There may be no way of knowing. So,
how may one identify when a miracle has occurred? I would like to suggest two
criteria. We may recognize that an event is a miracle when the event (a) is
extremely unlikely to have occurred, given the circumstances and/or natural
law and (b) it occurs in an environment or context charged with religious sig-
nificance.39 The stronger the context is charged in this manner, the stronger
the evidence becomes that we have a miracle on our hands, if the historical
evidence for the event itself is good.
Let us suppose a cancer patient who goes into remission. Katja has been
experiencing severe upper abdominal pain that radiates to her back. She
120 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
40 Bultmann, Jesus, p. 124; John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a
Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), pp. 311, 332; Bart
D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999), p. 198; Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History (New York: W. W. Norton and
Company, 1999), p. 12; Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: What Did
Jesus Really Do? (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1998), p. 527; John P. Meier,
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus. II: Mentor, Message, and Miracles (New
York: Doubleday, 1994), p. 970; E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia, pa: Fortress,
1985), p. 11; E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus (London: Allen Lane—Penguin,
1993), p. 157; Theissen and Merz, The Historical Jesus, p. 281.
41 Graham H. Twelftree, Jesus: The Miracle Worker (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999),
pp. 258, 345; Graham H. Twelftree, ‘The History of Miracles in the History of Jesus’, in Scot
notices a yellowing of her skin and of the whites of her eyes. She has no appe-
tite, is depressed, and has lost a considerable amount of weight. An entrepre-
neur and never one to take time off from work, Katja finally visits a few
physicians and, after undergoing a number of tests, is diagnosed with advanced
pancreatic cancer and given less than six months to live. Distressed over the
news, she leaves the physician’s office in tears with an appointment to return
the following day to discuss her options. At a staff meeting the following morn-
ing, the physicians and other staff members discuss how each had experienced
a dream that night in which some saw an angel who told them it was not Katja’s
time to die while the others saw Katja cancer-free. When Katja arrives for her
appointment later that morning, the staff are surprised to observe her positive
countenance and hear her describe how the pain and jaundice had vanished
for reasons unknown to her. With increasing curiosity, the physicians readmin-
ister the tests and are stunned to discover that Katja is now cancer-free. Because
the context in which Katja’s remission occurs is charged with religious signifi-
cance, given the dreams of the staff, the physicians can declare that a miracle
has occurred. Excluding the context of the dreams experienced by all of the
medical staff, if Katja came in the following morning feeling well and was
cancer-free, we would be left with an anomaly.
Let us look at another example: the early reports that Jesus of Nazareth
had risen from the dead. This claim occurred in a significant context. That
Jesus performed feats that both he and his followers interpreted as miracles
and exorcisms is a fact strongly evidenced and supported by the majority of
scholars.40 Graham Twelftree, who is a leading authority on the miracles and
exorcisms of Jesus, argues that the evidence suggesting Jesus was a miracle
worker is so strong that it is one of the best attested historical facts about
him and that there is an almost unanimous agreement among historians of
Jesus that he performed powerful works.41 That Jesus viewed himself as God’s
Historians And Miracle Claims 121
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
McKnight and Grant R. Osborne (eds.), The Face of New Testament Studies: A Survey of
Recent Research (Grand Rapids, mi: Baker Academic, 2004), pp. 191–208 (206).
42 Theissen and Merz, The Historical Jesus, pp. 512–13.
43 Michael R. Licona, ‘Did Jesus Predict His Death and Vindication/Resurrection?’ Journal
for the Study of the Historical Jesus 8.1 (2010), pp. 47–66.
44 By ‘historical bedrock’ pertaining to the fate of Jesus, I am referring to (1) Jesus’ death by
crucifixion, (2) the beliefs of Jesus’ disciples that he had risen from the dead and had
appeared to them in both individual and group settings, and (3) the conversion of a per-
secutor of the Christian church later known as Paul based on an experience he perceived
was an appearance of the risen Jesus to him. See Gary R. Habermas, ‘Mapping the Recent
Trend Toward the Bodily Resurrection Appearances of Jesus in Light of Other Prominent
Critical Positions’, in Stewart (ed.), The Resurrection of Jesus, pp. 78–92 (79); Licona, The
Resurrection of Jesus, pp. 277–464; John McIntyre, ‘The Uses of History in Theology’,
Studies in World Christianity 7.1 (2001), pp. 1–20 (8).
eschatological agent—the figure through whom the kingdom of God would
come—is also widely recognized by biblical scholars and amply attested in the
sources. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz write: ‘[T]here is a consensus that
Jesus had a sense of eschatological authority. He saw the dawn of a new world
in his actions. Here he goes beyond the Jewish charismatics and prophets
known to us before him.’42
Thus, strong evidence has resulted in a near consensus among modern
scholars that Jesus thought of himself as an exorcist, miracle worker, and God’s
eschatological agent. These data create a significantly charged religious con-
text in which the reports of Jesus’ resurrection occur. And this context becomes
even more charged if, with a growing number of scholars, we grant that Jesus
predicted that his violent and imminent death would be followed shortly after-
ward by God’s vindication of him via resurrection.43 Accordingly, if the hypoth-
esis that Jesus rose from the dead is superior to competing natural hypotheses
in its ability to explain the relevant historical bedrock, we are warranted in
concluding that a miracle occurred.44 Moreover, if a natural hypothesis is
superior to the resurrection hypothesis in its ability to explain the relevant his-
torical bedrock, we are warranted in concluding that Jesus’s resurrection did
not occur. Historians may certainly differ on which hypothesis best explains
the data. But that is an entirely different matter than whether historians can
assess the resurrection hypothesis on the basis that it involves a miracle claim.
In summary, I am contending that we may identify a miracle when the
event (a) is highly unlikely to have occurred, given the circumstances and/or
natural law and (b) it occurred in an environment or context charged with
religious significance. If these criteria are met and a non-human cause is the
best explanation of the relevant historical bedrock, the historian is warranted
122 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
45 Plutarch, Romulus 26.4–5.
46 Julius Desing, King Ludwig II: His Life—His End (Lechbruck: Verlag Kienberger, 1976),
pp. 30–35.
in affirming that a miracle has occurred. The conclusion of a supernatural
agent is arrived at via inference. And I reiterate that virtually all of historical
inquiry, and certainly all that concerns antiquity, involves inference, since
the past and all of its causes are forever gone. If natural explanations cannot
come close to explaining the relevant historical bedrock when they appear in
a historical context that is charged with religious significance, historians are
justified in employing inference and positing a theoretical entity, even a super-
natural or divine agent, in order to explain the relevant historical bedrock.
The fulfilment of both of the above criteria for identifying a miracle is
important, since it places a check on those led by credulity from employing a
‘god of the gaps’ argument where one supplies a divine agent for a cause pres-
ently unknown to us. It likewise challenges those committed to ontological
naturalism to avoid employing a ‘naturalism of the gaps’ argument where one
demands a natural agent for a cause presently unknown to us and especially
when a natural cause appears insufficient. It can also resolve the stalemate in
which methodological naturalists sometimes find themselves as a result of
defining history in a manner that a priori excludes the consideration of any-
thing other than human agents.
The second solution I am proposing is more modest: Historians can offer a
positive verdict pertaining to the historicity of an event while leaving its cause
undetermined. This is a common practice of historians outside of the guild of
biblical scholars. Plutarch noted that, although the corpse of Scipio Africanus
laid dead for all to see, there were three competing hypotheses pertaining to
the cause of his death: He died of natural causes, he intentionally drank poison
and committed suicide, he was smothered by thugs while he slept.45 Historians
agree that King Ludwig II of Bavaria died on either June 13 or 14, 1886. The man-
ner of his death is shrouded in mystery and conflicting reports exist pertaining
to whether he and his attending physician were already dead or showed weak
signs of life when they were discovered floating in Starnberg Lake outside of
his Berg castle.46
We may say something similar when considering at least some reports of
Jesus’ miracles. While there is widespread agreement among historians of Jesus
that he performed deeds that he and his followers regarded as divine exorcisms
and miracles, even those historians who are open to divine causation may
admit there is usually insufficient data for determining whether a psychoso-
matic or supernatural cause was responsible for the improved states of those
Historians And Miracle Claims 123
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
47 Webb, ‘Rules’, p. 82. See also Meier, Marginal Jew, pp. 513–14 and Allison, Resurrecting
Jesus, pp. 350–51.
48 Pinchas Lapide, The Resurrection of Jesus. A Jewish Perspective, trans. Wilhelm C. Linss
(Minneapolis, mn: Augsburg, 1983), p. 130 and in the ‘Epilogue’, pp. 152–54.
49 Lapide, The Resurrection of Jesus, p. 125.
healed. In this manner, the historian can acknowledge the historicity of the
event without adjudicating on its nature or cause. One could even call it a ‘freak
event’ or an anomaly and refrain from statements pertaining to its ontology.
I wish to press this further. Let us suppose for a moment that the historical
evidence for Jesus’ remarkable return to life after having been tortured and cru-
cified is so strong that natural hypotheses are insufficient for accounting for the
relevant historical bedrock while the resurrection hypothesis accounts for all of
it very well. Even if methodological naturalists remained unwilling to grant that
a miracle had occurred, they could in principle grant the historicity of Jesus’
remarkable return to life while leaving the matter of the cause unanswered.
Surprisingly, we observe this approach to be completely within the bound-
aries of methodological naturalism. However, it is less restrictive than the one
typically proposed. For example, in Webb’s approach, the historian conducts
an investigation and weighs hypotheses. If no natural explanation proves ade-
quate and a supernatural one does, Webb’s approach reaches a dead end and
restricts him from rendering a judgment pertaining to whether the event had
occurred.47 In the less restrictive approach, the historian conducts an investi-
gation and weighs hypotheses. If no natural explanation proves adequate and
a supernatural one does, the historian can render a judgment on whether the
event occurred but stops short of naming its cause.
This less restrictive approach was, in a sense, employed by the Jewish scholar
Pinchas Lapide who asserted that the historical evidence strongly suggests that
Jesus rose from the dead. However, he remained unpersuaded of the incarna-
tion or that Jesus is Messiah.48 Lapide followed his historical method and
granted the historicity of an event without jettisoning his worldview. Although
conversion did not occur, he allowed the historical evidence to alter his hori-
zon. He wrote:
In regard to the future resurrection of the dead, I am and remain a
Pharisee. Concerning the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, I was for
decades a Sadducee. I am no longer a Sadducee.49
It is doubtful that ontological naturalists would be willing to concede that
Jesus rose from the dead while refraining from any statements regarding the
124 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
50 See the April 2009 debate between Bart Ehrman and Michael Licona at http://vimeo
.com/35235544. We may also state this objection differently: If the event occurred, the
question pertaining to its cause is simultaneously answered, since the miraculous nature
of the event is so certain that its cause is likewise certain. Perhaps. But this objection
would only weigh in with one’s metaphysics: God does not intervene in the world. But
how would one know this for certain? After all, if Jesus was raised, this would be an event
that disconfirms worldviews that disallow God’s actions in our world. One could argue
that since historians do not observe events of this nature occurring today they very prob-
ably did not occur in the past. However, one could counter-argue that events of an appar-
ently miraculous nature occur today and that this increases the probability that they
occurred in the past. See Craig Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament
Accounts (2 vols.; Grand Rapids, mi: Baker Academic, 2011), pp. 264–768. But we must not
get off topic. Addressing this sort of argument is beyond the scope of this paper and has
been addressed thoroughly elsewhere (see Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus, ch. 2). The
point for observation here in this case is it is not a particular philosophy of history that
requires the rejection of miracle claims but rather the metaphysics of a particular histo-
rian. Moreover, we may even call into question Ehrman’s inference that a resurrection
may only be accomplished by God. For even if a supernatural cause may appear to be the
best candidate, historians could not demonstrate that it is God who raised Jesus rather
than an alien in a parallel universe whose doctoral project was to deceive humans into
believing he is divine. In fact, I cannot think of any strong ‘historical’ reason for preferring
God to an alien as the cause of Jesus' resurrection.
cause of the event. For, although it would follow methodological naturalism, it
would posit an even greater challenge to the horizon of the ontological natu-
ralist than it did for Lapide. But notice that it is the horizon of the ontological
naturalist and not the methodological naturalist approach which prevents
them from going this far.
Bart Ehrman has objected that this less restrictive form of methodological
naturalism is misguided, since a miraculous event such as Jesus’ resurrection
would have been impossible apart from a divine agent.50 Accordingly, Ehrman
is contending that historians should refrain from rendering a professional
judgment pertaining to the occurrence of an event when it has theological
implications. But is such a move justified? Let us suppose that a meteor has
slammed into the moon. When the lunar dust settles, the message ‘Jesus is
Lord!’—in both Greek and Hebrew—can be clearly viewed through a tele-
scope. Since this has clear theological implications, if Ehrman followed his
argument, he would have to refrain from rendering a judgment, not only per-
taining to the cause of the event, but also pertaining to the event itself. After
all, Ehrman asserts that historians cannot adjudicate on an event when theo-
logical implications are present. Of course, this is absurd and demonstrates
Historians And Miracle Claims 125
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
51 Webb, ‘The Historical Enterprise’, p. 39.
52 David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies (New York: HarperPerennial, 1970), p. 62.
53 Haskell, ‘Objectivity’, p. 153, cf. pp. 168–69.
that Ehrman’s argument is ill-founded, since we would know in this instance
that the meteor had collided with the moon.
Webb agrees there are two distinct questions to be asked when reading
about a biblical event: ‘Did the event happen? What explains why it hap-
pened?’51 As previously argued, his version of methodological naturalism is
limiting. But it is more limiting than he may imagine. It will always prohibit
historians from asking the second question in relation to the biblical report of
a miraculous event, since it prohibits historians from making ontological
claims. One cannot assert that Jesus’ miracles and exorcisms were of a divine
nature, since that would be speaking to the ontology of the event. But one is
likewise barred from asserting they were of a purely psychological nature,
since this too would be speaking to the ontology of the event.
The above two proposed solutions solve all but the last of the four weak-
nesses of Webb’s methodological naturalism. However, there is an important
difference between them: Webb’s objective is to provide a broader playing field
on which all historians of Jesus may work, whereas I have no such objective. If
we may learn something from philosophers of history, let it be that there is no
methodological solution to the interpretive polarities resulting from conflict-
ing horizons that is acceptable to all practising historians. This is the subject to
which we now turn.
Canons of History
As noted above, there is much in the discipline of history for which no consen-
sus exists. In fact, a number of historians have noted the absence of any canons
within the discipline. In his book Historians’ Fallacies, David Hackett Fischer
writes, ‘Specific canons of historical proof are neither widely observed nor gen-
erally agreed upon’.52 Philosopher of history Thomas Haskell observes ‘the
inherently dispersive character of a discipline that, unlike English and
Philosophy, lacks even the possibility of defining a single canon familiar to all
practitioners’.53 Peter Novick made a statement in his book That Nobel Dream
that has become somewhat famous in the philosophy of history literature:
As a broad community of discourse, as a community of scholars united
by common aims, common standards, and common purposes, the
126 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
54 Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The ‘Objectivity Question’ and the American Historical
Profession (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 628. Gilderhus, History and
Historians, writes, ‘The body of literature on almost any historical subject takes the form
of an ongoing debate... By the very nature of the subject, history tends to divide scholars
and set them at odds... We no longer possess a past commonly agreed upon. Indeed, to
the contrary, we have a multiplicity of versions competing for attention and emphasizing
alternatively elites and nonelites, men and women, whites and persons of color, and no
good way of reconciling all the differences. Though the disparities and incoherencies cre-
ate terrible predicaments for historians who prize orderliness in their stories, such condi-
tions also aptly express the confusions of the world and the experiences of different
people in it’ (86, 113).
55 Edith M. Humphrey, And I Turned to See the Voice: The Rhetoric of Vision in the New
Testament (Grand Rapids, mi: Baker Academic, 2007), p. 24. See also the earlier statement
by Allison, The Historical Christ, where he asserts that within historical Jesus research it is
difficult to ‘appeal to the consensus on much of anything’ and that biblical scholars ‘argue
with each other over almost everything’ (11).
discipline of history had ceased to exist [as of the 1980s]. Convergence on
anything, let alone a subject as highly charged as ‘the objectivity ques-
tion’, was out of the question. The profession was as described in the last
verse of the Book of Judges. ‘In those days there was no king in Israel;
every man did that which was right in his own eyes’.54
These statements represent only a sampling and it is startling when we con-
sider they are made by historians practising outside the community of reli-
gious scholars and who are investigating ordinary events. Many biblical
scholars are beginning to make similar statements. Edith Humphrey writes:
The bewildering plurality in biblical studies (and, more broadly, in reli-
gious studies) has led some to consider whether there remains a unified
academic discipline, or whether the fragmentation is terminal... Some
brave souls have tried to rearticulate a common core and have used theo-
logical, sociological, or ideological terms to tame the monster.55
It is doubtful that a change in this situation is forthcoming anytime soon, since
horizons carry a powerful influence. Yet this quagmire has not prevented histo-
rians from conducting investigations. Like their colleagues who investigate non-
religious history, biblical scholars must become accustomed to not having a
supporting consensus. Accordingly, since there is a lack of canons within the
profession, it is neither realistic nor beneficial to require historians of Jesus to
agree on a particular one: miracle claims are outside of historical investigation.
Historians And Miracle Claims 127
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
56 David Gary Shaw, ‘Modernity between Us and Them: The Place of Religion within History’,
History and Theory, Theme Issue 45.12 (2006), pp. 1–9 (1, 3–4). See also Jon Butler, ‘Theory
and God in Gotham’, History and Theory, Theme Issue 45.12 (2006), pp. 47–61 (53);
Mark Cladis, ‘Modernity in Religion: A Response to Constantin Fasolt’s “History and
Religion in the Modern Age”’, History and Theory, Theme Issue 45.12 (2006), pp. 93–103
(esp. 93–94, 96).
A Turning Point for Historians
It is noteworthy that the climate is changing and professional historians out-
side the guild of biblical scholars are warming up to the notion of miracles. In
the 2006 Theme Issue of History and Theory, ‘Religion and History’, David Gary
Shaw opened with the following words:
Another claim...is that history works against religion, as its other and
opposite, but that this is not as it should be. The opposition is an artifact
of modernity. Indeed, throughout these papers the theme develops that
modernity is the obstacle or prejudice that stands not just between histo-
rians and the people of the past, but also between historians and many
religious people today... We appear to be at a moment when we need new
intellectual and professional approaches to deal with religion. Accounting
for our own position is tricky, but always worthwhile, if only to try to
appreciate our prejudices and assumptions in advance of doing our
scholarship... this Theme Issue shows historians and others concerned
with the study of religion to be at a sort of confessional watershed, a
moment of collective acknowledgment that the interaction between reli-
gion and history is not at the position that most historians have thought,
especially when we fall back only upon our own learned memories, grad-
uate training, prejudices, or our grand narratives of historical develop-
ment. The Issue’s papers pulse with a sense that religion has turned out in
a variety of ways to be more important and a more clearly permanent
factor in history than our paradigms had supposed. The consequences of
this include a need to reassess the historian’s attitudes toward religious
phenomena and religion’s trajectory within the mass of forces we call his-
torical... The methods that historians used may need revision or defense
if they are to cope productively with believers past and present, even if
we can disregard what historians themselves believe.56
A number of contributors in the same issue addressed the negative atti-
tude many historians presently hold towards miracles, and questioned the
128 Licona
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
57 See especially Shaw, ‘Modernity’, p. 4; Butler, ‘Theory’, p. 53; Cladis, ‘Modernity’, p. 94.
58 Cladis, ‘Modernity’, p. 96.
59 Ben Witherington, III, What Have They Done With Jesus? Beyond Strange Theories and Bad
History—Why We Can Trust the Bible (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2006), p. 5.
60 Brad S. Gregory, ‘No Room for God? History, Science, Metaphysics, and the Study of
Religion’, History and Theory 47.12 (2008), pp. 495–519, comments that ‘scholars of religion
who want to try to move beyond secular confessional history should reject the status quo.
They should dare to be intellectually nonconformist and counter-cultural’ (519). Tor Egil
Førland, ‘Historiography without God: A Reply to Gregory’, History and Theory 47.12
(2008), pp. 520–32 answers, ‘So here is my challenge to Gregory and to those inclined to
agree with him. Make full reference to the active—miraculous or less spectacular—influ-
ence of God in a work in which you attempt to explain actions or events in the past or
contemporary world. Then gauge the reaction of readers in the discipline and the wider
scientific community to the integration in your narrative of this significant part of your
worldview. My contention is that such a work will meet with a mixture of amusement and
bewilderment. I further contend that whatever other merits it might have...it will bring its
author no scientifically respectable awards’ (532; cf. 529). Førland is correct. And I am in
agreement that historians may not be able to claim that ‘God’ is the certain cause of a
particular event. However, if what I have been arguing throughout this essay is correct
and historians may sometimes render a positive judgment on a miracle claim, academic
integrity rather than fear and intimidation should rule in the minds of historians who are
assumptions of modernity.57 According to Mark Cladis, ‘secularization theo-
ries that suggest religious traditions are anomalies in modernity have not, in
fact, provided adequate accounts of the modern world as we find it’.58
Ben Witherington echoes these thoughts:
Even some contemporary Bible scholars assume that miracles must be
left out of account if we are going to do ‘scholarly’ work like the ‘other
critical historians’. This is a carryover from the anti-supernatural bias of
many Enlightenment historians, but it seems a very odd presupposition
today. Our postmodern world is experiencing a newfound openness to
miracles, magic, the supernatural, the spiritual, or whatever you want to
call it.59
If my assessments in this essay are correct, historians are within their profes-
sional rights to give attention to miracle claims. Moreover, there are signs from
the community of professional historians that the epistemological Ice Age of
anti-supernaturalism appears to be coming to an end. Spring is in the air. The
air is warming. Trees are blooming and birds are singing. Given this warming
attitude towards miracles, those scholars who claim their rights to investigate
miracle claims will find themselves in a growing company of colleagues.60
Historians And Miracle Claims 129
journal for the study of the historical jesus 12 (2014) 106-129
unconvinced by the present arguments of Førland and others for barring the investiga-
tion of miracle claims by historians.
Conclusion
In this essay we have discussed whether historians are within their profes-
sional rights to investigate miracle reports. We have focused on the definition
of ‘history’ provided by Webb and articulated four inherent problems. We then
offered two new proposals that eliminate all but one of those problems:
(a) adjudicate on the event itself and posit a theoretical entity for its cause
or (b) adjudicate on the event itself while leaving its cause undetermined.
The second proposal is a form of methodological naturalism and is less restric-
tive than Webb’s.
Since there are no canons of history, critical theists need not feel obligated
to follow an approach guided by a restrictive methodological naturalism.
When following strictly controlled historical method, if historians employ the
two criteria for identifying a miracle mentioned above, they are capable of
adjudicating on the historicity of a miracle report without having to resort to
explanations that appeal either to a ‘god of the gaps’ or a ‘nature of the gaps’.
Historians of Jesus should have no expectations that their conclusions will be
widely accepted by their peers. Indeed, this is the present experience of histo-
rians outside the guild of biblical scholars.
Comments