John 4:46-54 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman… These words (τέρας σημε1FC0;ιον δύναμις ἔνδοξον παράδοξον θαυμάσιον) have this in common, that they are all used to characterize the supernatural works wrought by Christ in the days of His flesh: thus σημε1FC0;ιον (John 2:11; Acts 2:19), τέρας (Acts 2:22; John 4:48), δύναμις (Mark 6:2; Acts 2:22), ἔνδοξον (Luke 13:17), παράδοξον (Luke 5:26), θυαμάσιον (Mark 21:15); while the first three, which are far the most usual, are in like manner employed of the same supernatural works wrought in the power of Christ by His apostles (2 Corinthians 12:12). They will be found, on examination, not so much to represent different kinds of miracles, as miracles contemplated under different aspects and from different points of view. Τέρας and σημε1FC0;ιον are often linked together in the New Testament (John 4:48; Acts 2:22; Acts 4:30; 2 Corinthians 12:12), and times out of number in the Septuagint. The same miracle is upon one side a τέρας, on another a σημε1FC0;ιον, and the words must often refer, not to different classes of miracles, but to different qualities in the same miracles. long ago called attention to the fact that the name τέρατα is never in the New Testament applied to these works of wonder except in association with some other name. They are often called σημε1FC0;ια, often δυναμε1FC0;ις, often τέρατα καὶ σημε1FC0;ια, more than once τέρατα σημε1FC0;ια καί δυναμε1FC0;ις, but never τέρατα alone. The observation was well worth making; for the fact which we are thus bidden to note is indeed eminently characteristic of the miracles of the New Testament, viz., that a title by which more than any Other these might seem to hold on to the prodigies and portents of the heathen world, and to have something akin to them, should thus never be permitted to appear except in company of some other necessarily suggesting higher thoughts about them. But miracles are also σημέια, which name brings out their ethical end with the greatest, as τερας with the least distinctness. It is declared in the very word that the prime object and end of the miracle is to lead to something out of and beyond itself: that, so to speak, it is a kind of finger-post of God; valuable not so much for what it is as for what it indicates of the grace and power of the doer, or of the connection with a higher world in which he stands (Mark 16:20; Acts 14:3; Hebrews 2:4; Exodus 7:9, 10; 1 Kings 3:3). It is to be regretted that σημὲιον is not always rendered "sign" in our version; that in St. John it too often gives place to the vaguer "miracle"; and sometimes not without serious loss; thus see John 3:2; John 7:31; John 10:41; and above all, John 6:26. (Abp. Trench.) Parallel Verses KJV: So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. |
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