An Atheistic Bible Study Of The Gospels Jesus Heals Peters Mother In Law

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A miracle covered by all the Gospel writers except John, in which Jesus helps to heal the mother in law of Simon, also known as Peter, one of the few Apostles who is described as being married though his family are not involved in most of his story during the Gospels or after Jesus’s death. In Matthew 8:14-17 Jesus visits Simon’s house and sees Simon’s mother is sick with some kind of fever. Simon does not appear to have openly invited Jesus to come to tend to his Mother, and may not have even known she was ill until Jesus diagnosed her condition. Jesus touches the sick woman’ hand and she is instantly well enough to get up and serve her guests. By the evening, word has got around the Galilean region and many sick come to the house for healing and others come suffering from demonic possession. Jesus heals them too. Matthew sees this this as fulfilling a prophesy by Isaiah in which some great healer cures sicknesses and infirmities. Mark 1:29:34 tells us that the Apostle Andrew was present too as he shared home with Simon Who Was Peter. James and John also visit the house in the company of Jesus and according to Mark they are the first to notice that Simon’s mother is sick. They tell Jesus about it. According to Matthew, Jesus detected her illness himself. This is a contradiction in the narratives. Jesus not only takes the sick woman by the hand, but physically lifts her up, either to a sitting or standing position. While Matthew tells us that many people came for healing, Mark claims that the entire city had turned out, which seems rather a lot of people crowding round one house at sunset. Mark refers to the demon possessed too, adding oddly that Jesus did not allow the demons to speak because they could identify Jesus. Surely having them state his divinity and demonstrate their own power would only help Jesus. Could it be that no one really spoke and the demon tory was added at a later date? Luke 4:38-41 does not say how many Apostles accompanied Jesus from the synagogue to Simon-Peter’ Mother-In-Laws. He states that some of the others present asked Jesus to tend to the poor woman though. Jesus heals her by standing over her and rebuking the fever until it goes away. There is no reference here to him touching her hand or lifting her up. He does however cure the multitudes arriving later in the evening with much laying on of hands. The demons do speak, shouting out repeatedly ‘You are the Christ! The very next sentence from Luke contradicts this however by telling us as Mark did, that Jesus used his powers to prevent the demons speaking. What can be interpreted from all this? The multitude coming to the house of Simon-Peter must have been told that Jesus was there and that he had healing powers. Perhaps uing the house as a base to operate from after the synagogue visit was why Jesus went there. Perhaps spreading rumours that Jesus had healed the Mother In Law encouraged the sick to come seeking their own miracles. Jesus is not behaving differently to any modern faith healer here. The presence of the demon-possessed makes little sense. Knowing Jesus might exorcise their hosts why did the demons allow the hosts to go anywhere near Jesus? Why would Jesus not want them pointing out his divinity? Surely his miracle healings, if not staged, would make followers believe he might be God or at least a powerful prophet anyway. Did Jesus silence the demons or did he claim later that the silence of demons was proof that he had silenced them. It’s a bit like the old joke about my dad cutting down all the trees in the Sahara. When someone says there are no trees in the Sahara Desert I reply that this is because my dad chopped them all down. There were no demons, so Jesus was free to claim that he kept them at bay. Youtube Arthur Chappell