Early Christians articulated their christological claims by narrating miracles of Jesus. The Gospels depict Jesus as a healer and an exorcist who preaches the nearness of the kingdom of God. The miracles he reportedly performed are often regarded as eschatological signs of the nearness of the kingdom.

Thus Jesus the miracle worker is understood from the perspective of Jesus the preacher of the kingdom. In a history-of-religions approach, however, the narratives on Jesus' miracles do not stand apart, but should be interpreted as part of the religious vocabulary of antiquity. They are closely related to other miracle stories narrated in the world within which the early Christian movement originated.

Given the need to position miracle stories on Jesus within their religious and historical contexts, the present volume discusses evidence on miracles and the narrating of miracle stories from both the New Testament itself and its religious environment. It asks for the literary and religious dynamics of miracle stories and studies different contexts out of which miracle stories originated. The various contributions intend to demonstrate for what reason miracle stories were told in different religious, political and historical circumstances.

All authors are experts in their field and position the narrating of miracle stories within a specific literary and religio-historical context. This is volume 288 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series and is part of the ESCO series.

Michael Labahn is Wissenschaftlicher Assistant for New Testament, Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. He is co-editor of Jesus, Mark and Q. Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte is Lecturer (universitair docent) for New Testament, Kampen Theological University, The Netherlands.