The God Squad: Many ways to interpret miracles in Bible

Question: In the Old Testament, there are any number of instances of persons holding conversations with God. Are these to be considered miracles. or simply the manifestation of an individual’s conscience?

Do ultra orthodox Jews, or Jews in general, treat the words in the Pentateuch as the absolute word of God, as do Christian fundamentalists? — C., via godsquadquestion@aol.com

Answer: The philosopher Maimonides, as well as the Bible itself, taught that all the prophetic conversations with God recorded in the Hebrew Bible (with the exception of Moses’) were just dreams. However, your questions raise the ancient and thorny problem of whether the miracles in the Bible are true.

Here are our choices. Each of us must prayerfully reflect on which view best suits our minds and souls. Deciding about miracles is a big part of our journey toward or away from faith:

1. The miracles in the Bible happened exactly as described. The advantage of a belief that everything in the Bible is true is that it frees a person of faith from having to decide which sections are true and which are false. The disadvantage is that it forces a person to believe things that couldn’t possibly be true, like talking snakes and the splitting of the Red Sea. This view pits our rational minds against our believing souls.

2. The miracles in the Bible are all false. The advantage of this belief is that it doesn’t force religious people to believe things that violate the laws of nature. The problem is, this belief is not religious because it limits the power of an omnipotent God to perform miracles. Also, some miracles, like the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, are essential to Christianity.

3. The miracles all have a kernel of truth but are not true exactly as described. The advantage of this belief is that it doesn’t force religious people to kill either their faith or their reason.

As the Jewish theologian Martin Buber wrote, “A miracle is a natural event told by an extremely enthusiastic participant.” For example, the Exodus from Egypt was true in that the Jewish people did actually leave Egypt, but the plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea did not occur as described. It was a miraculous event made up of completely natural events.

The problem with this view is that at its root, it’s just another version of the belief that all the miracles describing a violation of natural law are false.

4. The miracles are true even if the events in them didn’t actually occur. The Ten Commandments are true, and a miraculous gift from God to establish a moral life, even if Moses didn’t live for 40 days on Mount Sinai without food or water. The story of the Garden of Eden is true in its teaching that we should follow God’s commandments and that our sinfulness makes this difficult, even if there was no garden and no talking snake.

The Story of Noah and the flood is true in that it teaches us to care for the world and limit violence so we can thrive, even if all those animals didn’t actually book passage on the ark. The advantage of this view is that it allows us to understand Scripture as a mixture of absolutely true moral laws, along with legends that teach us important life lessons about compassion and hope, yet preserves our right to treat impossible events as impossible. This doesn’t compromise either our reason or faith. It enables our love of God to grow along with our love of reason and reverence for the Scriptures that record our quest for the way the mystery of God interacts with our lives.

5. Miracles can be very fortunate events in our lives that resist complete understanding. When a sick person is healed in a way medical science can’t fully explain, we feel the miraculous touch of God. This isn’t proof that God healed the person but the understandable reaction of those who’ve benefited from such acts of grace and healing. The problem is, it doesn’t explain why God doesn’t heal all sick people or why God healed that person.

In my view, you don’t have to kill your mind to save your faith. As for the biblical stories, I don’t reject them as fables but always try to ask myself, “What does God want me to learn from this story?” I always find a kernel of meaning in even the most phantasmagorical biblical account.

I’ve also seen spontaneous healings that medical science can’t explain. My reaction is not to fixate on the unanswerable question, “Why?” but rather to say, “Thank you, God.” The rabbis of old taught, “Do not rely on miracles.” I agree, but that doesn’t mean miracles don’t exist. For me, they’re soul-stirring reminders of divine mystery.

As Shakespeare wrote in “Hamlet” (Act 1, Scene 5):

“And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” — Hamlet

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