Miracle Workers Of The Ancient World

All religions borrow from those that came before them ..... none arose in isolation. That's true of Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, as well as Christianity.

Akkadians Gave To Babylon The Great Flood Story,
Utnapishtim Sailing Above The Great Flood

..... and none can truthfully claim otherwise.

For instance:

• Judaism took its creation myths and the flood, from the beliefs of the Babylonians - much of the creation myth also seems to come from the the time of the Jews captivity amongst the Babylon Empire.e.g. The Mesopotamian creation myth Enuma Elish  has similarities to the first chapter of Genesis, while in the Epic of Gilgamesh, there is the story of a man by the name of Utnapishtim. The gods decide to destroy the earth, there is a great flood, but because Utnapishtim is the favourite of one of the gods, Eau, he and his family are saved in a giant boat. The Babylonians nicked the story from the Epic of Atrahasis, which is an earlier Akkadian story.
• Christianity took not only from the Jewish faith, but has incorporated elements from both Greek/Roman and from Egyptian religious practices.
• Islam took ideas and elements from both Christianity and Judaism, as well as from Zoroastrianism.

All religions have traditions of magic aka miracles (as religions describe magic), as well as magical, supernatural beings such as the Djinn (genies), or Angels. So perhaps its no surprise that there are miracle workers who time has largely forgotten. Those miracles that Jesus is said to have performed, actually fitted in to a cultural context at that time that was well accustomed to the idea of miracles.

Other Jewish Miracle Workers

Ignoring the prophets such as Moses, from the the Jewish tradition history passes us, Honi ha-M'agel (Honi the Circle-drawer), was a Jewish scholar of the 1st-century BC (he died around 65 BC), and who came from Galilee. His reported miracle was when there was a winter drought across Israel. So Honi drew a circle in the dust, stood inside it, and informed God that he would not move until it rained. When it began to drizzle, Honi told God that he was not satisfied and expected more rain; it then began to pour. He explained that he wanted a calm rain, at which point the rain calmed to a normal rain.

Even more unusually we have Hanina ben Dosa, who appears to have been nearly contemporary with Jesus. He was a first-century Jewish scholar and miracle-worker, who even lived in the Galilee. The three earliest references to him are all in the Mishnah (AD 200), and two reference his learning/sayings and 'deeds' (miracles?), the third reference is unambiguous. When he would pray for the sick he would say ‘This one shall have life’ or ‘This one shall die.’ They said to him, ‘How do you know?’ he said to them, ‘If my prayer is fluent, then I know that it is accepted and the person will live. But if not, I know that it is rejected and the person will die'. He also had miraculous talents to call god for rain to start and stop, and had numerous miracles attributed to him in later writings.

The Greek Rival To Jesus

But perhaps the most famous of the miracle workers was the Apollonius of Tyana, who was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher, who was contemporary with Jesus (His primary biographer, Philostratus places him circa 3 BC – c. 97 AD). Born in the city of Tyana in Eastern Anatolia (modern Turkey), Apollonius was said to have travelled widely throughout the Mediterranean, preaching his Neo-Pythagorean philosophy, and performing countless wonders. He was mainly active in Greece and Asia Minor, but also reportedly travelled to Italy, Spain, and North Africa, and even to Mesopotamia, India, and Ethiopia.

Apollonius of Tyana - Crete 2nd Century AD
(Coloured by me to be similar to its original look) 

The reports of his deeds were numerous, and his fame even survived into the Islamic world. One notable miracle reported was from his alleged time in Rome. There was a girl who appeared to have died just at the time of her wedding. The betrothed followed the funeral bier, with all the lamentations of an unconsummated marriage, and Rome mourned with him, since the girl belonged to a consular family. Meeting with this scene of sorrow, 

 

Apollonius said, ‘Put the bier down, for I will end your crying over the girl.’ At the same time he asked her name, which made most people think he was going to declaim a speech of the kind delivered at funerals to raise lamentation. But Apollonius, after merely touching her and saying something secretly, woke the bride from her apparent death. The girl spoke, and went back to her father’s house.

The parallels with Jesus were also numerous:

• A supernatural being was said to have informed his mother the child she was to conceive would not be a mere mortal, but would be divine.
• He was an unusually precocious young man.
• As an adult he left home and went on an itinerant preaching ministry, urging his listeners to live, not for the material things of this world, but for what is spiritual.
• He gathered a number of disciples around him, who became convinced that his teachings were divinely inspired, in no small part because he himself was divine.
• He proved it to them by doing many miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.
• But at the end of his life he roused opposition, and his enemies delivered him over to the Roman authorities for judgment.
• After he left this world, he returned to meet his followers in order to convince them that he was not really dead but lived on in the heavenly realm.
• Later some of his followers wrote books about him.

Of course, there are also versions of miracle working which appear to be politically useful, but entirely false publicity for some Roman emperors. Roman historian Tacitus recorded a story about the healing powers of Roman emperors such as Vespasian. While on his way to Rome, Vespasian was approached by two poor men, one blind, the other with a lame hand, who told him that a local deity, Sarapis, had sent them to him to ask to be healed.

"So Vespasian, believing that his good fortune was capable of anything and that nothing was any longer incredible, with a smiling countenance, and amid intense excitement on the part of the bystanders, did as he was asked to do. The hand was instantly restored to use, and the day again shone for the blind man. Both facts are told by eye-witnesses even now when falsehood brings no reward" ..... this story was also reported by Suetonius.

As Vespasian was not from the Julio-Claudian dynasty, a story that showed he had divine blessing would be very useful politically as he tried to set up a new imperial dynasty.

I guess you believe what miracles you want to believe in, and dismiss those that don't fit your beliefs.