Miracles

Jesus Walking on the Sea (engraving) (John 6:16-21)

The word miracle is derived from miror, to wonder, and therefore signifies that which excites wonder. In this etymological sense of the word it may be used to designate any extraordinary event adapted to excite surprise and rouse attention. The words used in the Bible in reference to miraculous events do not inform us of their nature. The most common of these are, (1.) [Hebrew], something separated, or singular. (2.) [Hebrew], signum, portentum, something designed to confirm. (3.) [Hebrew] (of uncertain derivation), used in the sense of tupos, of persons and things held up as a warning, and for remarkable events confirming the authority of prophets. (4.) [Hebrew], power, used for any extraordinary manifestation of divine power. (5.) "Works of the Lord." In most cases these terms express the design, rather than the nature of the events to which they are applied.

Such being the indefinite meaning of these Scriptural terms, it is not surprising that the word miracle was used in the Church in a very loose sense. Anything wonderful, anything for which the proximate cause could not be discovered, and anything in which divine agency was
specially indicated was called a miracle. Thus Luther says, "Conversion is the greatest of all miracles." "Every day," he says, "witnesses miracle after miracle; that any village adheres to the Gospel when a hundred thousand devils are arrayed against it, or that the truth is maintained in this wicked world, is a continued miracle to which healing the sick or raising the dead is a mere trifle." As neither the etymology nor the usage of the word leads to a definite idea of the nature of a miracle, we can attain that idea only by the examination of some confessedly miraculous event.

Hodge v 1 p 617 ([Hebrew] = Hebrew word in Hodge)

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1. Work: I presented my communications matrix to my boss's boss (Jim S) and received his approval to proceed.
   
2. Life: My cousin's husband Bob G. died today. They were driving back from Florida to Michigan and he died at a rest area. He was 71.
   
3. Life: Received news from Allstate that they tried (via a collection agency) to collect $ 500 deductible from the October accident (girl rear ended Rachel's car) but without success.