Miracles Never Seen Before

If they do not think these proofs enough, let them at any rate be persuaded by other reasons, drawn from the sacred words they themselves possess. Of whom do the prophets say: “I was revealed to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me. I said, ‘Here I am,’ to the nation that had not called on my name. I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people”? Who, then, one might ask the Jews, is the one who was revealed? If it is the prophet, let them say when he was hidden, so as to appear again afterward. And what kind of prophet is this, who was not only revealed after being hidden, but also stretched out his hands on the cross? Surely none of the righteous, except the Word of God alone. Bodiless by nature, he appeared for our sakes in the body and suffered for all. [a]

Or if not even this is enough for them, let them at least be silenced by another proof, seeing how clearly it proves its point. For the Scripture says: “Be strong, you hands that hang down, and you feeble knees. Take comfort, you who are fainthearted; be strong, do not fear. Look, our God repays judgment; he will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak plainly.” Now what can they say to this, or how can they dare to face it at all? For the prophecy not only shows that God is to come and live here, but it announces the signs and the time of his coming. It links the blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, the deaf hearing, and the tongue of the stammerers speaking plainly, with the coming of God that is to take place. Let them say, then, when such signs have happened in Israel, or where in Judea anything of the kind has occurred.

Naaman the leper was cleansed, but no deaf man heard and no lame man walked. Elijah raised a dead man, and so did Elisha, but no one blind from birth received his sight. In all truth, to raise a dead man is a great thing, but it is not like the wonder worked by the Savior. Only, if Scripture did not pass over the case of the leper and of the widow’s dead son, then certainly, if a lame man had also walked and a blind man received his sight, the account would not have failed to mention this too. Since, then, nothing of the sort is said in the Scriptures, it is evident that these things had never taken place before. When, then, have they taken place, except when the Word of God himself came in the body? Or when did he come, if not when lame men walked, stammerers were made to speak plainly, deaf men heard, and men blind from birth received their sight? This was the very thing the Jews who saw it at the time said, because they had not heard of such things happening at any other time: “Since the world began it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”