Was Jesus a First-Century Magician?

Was the Man from Nazareth a World-class
Magician, Illusionist or just a Con Man? 

It is recorded in the New Testament Gospels that Jesus performed miracles; but how accurate are these accounts and their miraculous feats? Was Jesus a master magician, fooling his age and the ages to come; was he the greatest con artist in history, or did he actually have the power to perform miracles?

Water to Wine

They must have been embarrassed. At the height of their wedding feast, they had run out of wine. Mary, the mother of Jesus, overheard them talking about the problem. She turned to her son.

"They have no wine," she said. Then she spoke to the servants. "Do whatever he tells you."

There were six large water pots standing by the door. Each of the containers could hold twenty or thirty gallons. "Fill the water pots with water," Jesus instructed the servants.

So they filled the pots to the brim, and Jesus told them to draw some liquid out and take it to the headwaiter. What the servants poured out was wine! When the headwaiter tasted it, he told the bridegroom "Every man serves the good wine first, and when everyone has drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine. You have kept the good wine until now" (John 2:1-10).

Jesus didn't change water to wine to impress anyone—only the servants knew where the wine had come from. A competent modern-day illusionist could have faked such a miracle if he had been warned in advance. To produce 120 gallons of liquid that looked like wine would be difficult, but to produce that many gallons of actual fine wine would be virtually impossible —even today.

The Food Crisis
In an attempt to free himself from the crowds that flocked after him, Jesus boarded a boat with his disciples and crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. But the crowds anticipated his movements and raced around the lake on foot. When the boat pulled up to the shore, there were 5,000 men and probably several thousand more women and children standing on the hillside. Moved with compassion toward them, Jesus taught and healed the sick until late in the day.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE