My first exposure to Vern Poythress was a journal article on biblical interpretation using a passage in Zephaniah. I loved the article and subsequently purchased about four of his books. One of those books was “The Miracles of Jesus.” In the book, Poythress takes a look at the miracles Jesus performed in the Gospels and discusses their meaning and application. I was excited to read it.
Poythress seems to write clearly and simply, but I always feel like I am missing something. I don’t know if it is just me, but since this isn’t my first Poythress read, I am going to start to blame him soon. At the beginning of the book, I started to get annoyed with the application. He tried to connect the raising of Lazarus from the dead to being frustrated doing the dishes. It definitely didn’t work for me. While I got the idea he was portraying, I just cannot see that working in a real life situation. He even alluded early on to some of the application possibly being “too fanciful,” but, Poythress argues, the resurrection truly is the foundation of all the benefits in life. While I would agree, there still seemed to be a fuller application that was missing.
Fortunately, my reading experience improved. Unfortunately, I would still say that the fuller application was often lacking throughout the rest of the book. As Poythress went through and interpreted the miracles in John and Matthew, I enjoyed each interpretation more than the previous. He uses his methodology well (the Clowney Triangle) to show the larger significance of each miracle in the plan of God.
This book was a 2.5/5 for me. I anticipated enjoying the book a lot more than I did. Like I mentioned before, I always feel like I am missing something with Poythress, but I have like 3 other books of his that I still plan on reading. So till then!
Page 97 on the virgin birth of Jesus: “The virgin conception therefore represents the opening miracle of a whole redemptive epoch. Its miraculous character underscored the fact that God was working, and that it takes spectacular and startling works of God to bring about the decisive remedy for the deepest roots and destructive aspects of sin.”