Articles
Separating Fact from Fiction
Tales vs. Truth
According to legendary sources (certainly not biblical), Jesus could do miracles even as a boy. He could form birds from clay, then order them to fly away. If Joseph the carpenter miscalculated the length of a board he had cut, Jesus could stretch it to the desired length. Etc. What ludicrous tales these are—the product of overly fertile imaginations! According to John 2:11, Jesus’ first miracle was turning the water into wine at a wedding feast, after He began His ministry. Biographers often provide detailed information about the childhood of the person being discussed—far more than we know about Jesus’ early years. We know almost nothing about Him between infancy and adulthood.
What we do know
The emphasis of Scripture is on who Jesus is and what He came to do. From the four inspired Gospel records of the New Testament we learn that Jesus fulfills many Old Testament prophecies, that He is the long-awaited Messiah, that He is the Son of God. He could do genuine miracles, walking on water, stilling the storm, healing afflictions of all kinds, even raising the dead. He did these primarily to offer convincing proof of His claims (John 5:36; 10:25, 37-38; 11:41-45; 14:11; 20:30-31). We learn that He was rejected by His own people, executed in Jerusalem, rose from the dead, and then appeared to His disciples on numerous occasions before ascending back to His Father. All this and more that God has chosen to reveal is not to satisfy our curiosity but to give us what we need to know. And it is enough.
