VIII

The First Disciples

32. SandayHastBD II. 612f.; GilbertLJ 144-157; WeissLX I. 355-387; AndLOL
155-165; EdersLJM I. 336-363; BeysLJ II. 129-148 (assigns here a
considerable part of the synoptic account of work in Capernaum).

33. _The early confessions_. On the genuineness of the Baptist's testimony
to "the Lamb of God" see M. Dods in _Expos. Gk. Test_. I .695f.; Westcott,
_Comm. on John_, 20; EdersLJM 1. 342 ff.; WeissLX 1. 362f. (thinks the
evangelist added "who taketh away the sin of the world"); Holtzmann,
_Hand-comm._ IV. 38f. holds that the evangelist has put in the mouth of
the Baptist a conception which was first current after the death of Jesus.
On the confessions of Nathanael and the others, see Jour. Bib. Lit. 1898,
21-30.

34. _Cana_ is probably the modern Khirbet Kana, eight miles N of Nazareth.
A rival site is Kefr Kenna, three and one-half miles NE from Nazareth. See
EnBib and HastBD, also AndLOL 162-164.

35. _The miracles of Jesus_ are challenged by modern thought. It is
customary in reading other documents than the N.T. instantly to relegate
the miraculous to the domain of legend. Miracles, however, are integral
parts of the story of Jesus' life, and those who attempt to write that
life eliminating the supernatural are constrained to recognize that he had
marvellous power as an exorcist and healer of some forms of nervous
disease. So E. A. Abbott, _The Spirit on the Waters_, 169-201. Our
knowledge of nature does not warrant a dogmatic definition of the limits
of the possible; see James, _The Will to Believe_, vii.-xiii., 299-327.
The question is confessedly one of adequate evidence. The evidence for the
supreme miracle--the transcendent character of Jesus--is clear, see Part
III. chap. iv.; and the miraculous element in the story of his life must
be considered in view of this supreme miracle. In association with him his
miracles gain in credibility. In estimating the evidence for them their
dignity and worthiness is important. What the devout imagination would do
in embellishing the story of Jesus is exhibited in the apocryphal gospels;
the miracles of the canonical gospels are of an entirely different type,
which commends them as authentic. By definition a miracle is an event not
explicable in terms of ordinary human experience. It is therefore futile
to attempt to picture the miracles of Jesus in their occurrence, for the
imagination has no material except that furnished by ordinary experi