Part I
In chapter four of A Hitchhikers Guide to Jesus, Norm explores Jesus’ miracles.  He visits places that the gospels tell Jesus preformed miracles and envisions them as if he were there.  Fisk encounters miracle sites like Siloam where a blind man was able to see again (111), and Mary’s house -which is now a church (114).  Norm visits the area where Jesus multiplied loaves and fish (118) as well as Tiberias where Jesus walked on water (128).  Lastly Norm visits Capernaum and Cana where Jesus preformed many miracles including the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law as well as multiply wine at a wedding in Cana (147).  Throughout all these adventures, Norm contemplates different ways these miracles appear in the Gospels.  During Norm’s quest he people whom he talks about personal opinions and experiences with the Gospels and Jesus miracles.  During this chapter, Norm also experiences a miracle of his own.  He watches the handicap children in a local pool being able to float in the water with the support of a care giver (121).   

Part II
In chapter four I had the feeling that Norm was constantly trying to humanize Jesus and make excuses for his divinity.  He brings up the idea that Christians invent miracles to make Jesus look better than any other God (106).  Only half of the miracles are actually found in Mark, who presents a bit of an issue, because the other gospels have more.  Norm has this proposal that Jesus did good deeds in which people interpreted into miracles.  Or some of the people he healed suffer from a mental disorder (106).  Therefore Jesus takes on the act of a psychologist who helps those who suffer from hypochondria.  I have always had this image that Jesus is a divine figure and Fisk shows all the possibilities of Jesus as a human who was blown out of proportion by Christians.        

_ Part I

Norm spends the first portion of this chapter in the baths of Siloam where Jesus supposedly restored a blind man’s vision.  Norm ponders whether or not the location was chosen in order for others to see the miracle in which Jesus was performing or if it had some other significance.  He also debates the role saliva played in both John and Mark’s story.  Norm then takes his journey to Tiberias where he tackles the feeding of the masses miracles.  We get Guilder’s input and comparisons of Old Testament miracles of feeding the masses as well as the parallels between these stories and the last supper.  Norm also uses an old fishing boat to explain how the same story could have been portrayed for two different audiences, which could alter the meaning and some of the content of the story.  He then moves on to continue his trek around the Sea of Galilee area, including Jesus’s “home base” of Capernaum where he sees the supposed house of Paul.

Part II

A major point in this chapter for me was the different interpretations of the walking on water miracle that Jesus performed on the Sea of Galilee.  Norm’s statement that perhaps Matthew and Mark used the factual story of Jesus’s sea voyage where Matthew wants to depict the disciples as good followers and Mark to depict them as blind to who Jesus really was.

One fact that I took from this chapter, while seemingly of little relevance, was the possible reason that Jesus worked out of Capernaum.  We learn from Jonathon Reed, through Norm, that Capernaum had a strategic location in the fact that it was close to the edge of Herod’s controlled territory.  Following John the Baptist’s beheading, it would have been in Jesus’s best interests to be able to slip out of Herod’s territory should he come looking for Jesus (134).

Part 1

In Chapter 4, Norm picks up his quest with the subject of Jesus’ miracles. Norm admits that this next task will be difficult: to find some historical reasoning in the miracles of Jesus. He sets out to the famous pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, and notes that John’s knowledge of this place had been confirmed by archaeology. He finds it hard to believe that Jesus followers would have made all this up. The next day Norm first travels to the pool at Siloam in which he thinks is the Roman pool of Siloam. However, he is wrong, but is pointed to the actual pool at Siloam where Jesus healed the blind man. He continues on through Tabgha, and other places where Jesus had performed miracles.

Part 2

One of the things that stood out to me is that Fisk tries to give some sort of explanation for these miracles, some explanations by down grading them in a way. One way is that Fisk says that these miracles were perhaps not miracles as portrayed. He says that they could have been hysterical symptoms instead of actual blindness, deafness, loss of speech, etc. The biggest problem for me in this chapter is the fact that Fisk is trying to explain the unexplainable. Miracles cannot be defined by science; they break the laws so to speak. I am just not quite sure how you try to find clear historical evidence of a miracle that happened two thousand years ago. I feel like you either believe it, or you don’t believe it. In my opinion there is not much to look for when it comes to explaining these miracles. On a side note, I also saw that Norm noted intersexuality between Mark and John in the healing of the blind man miracle, but then explains that it could have been two different stories.

 
Part I

            In the fourth chapter of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jesus, Norm wishing to locate Jesus miracles in today’s world. He went to Bethesda and Siloam to look into Jesus’s healing; both towns had healing centers which made the locations logical for Jesus (107-109). Norm then encounters a woman who had performed miracles before; Norm receives an email from his friend about Asclepius (114-116). He studies the gospel of Mark and the story of feeding the five thousand (116). Professor Guilder sends Norm an email about the assessment of food in the gospels and the significance of communion (122-125). Another large topic in the gospels is water; Norm makes a parallel of the different references to the gospels which discusses waters representation (126-128). Norm looks into the world being broken and how the geographical location of the Bible stories and prayer houses were affected in Jesus’s time (130-138). Norm looks into demons and then marriage, completing another topic filled chapter (138-148).

Part II

            Norm was able to actually see the wall that the blind man was healed by; I would think people would look at it as a holy space (110). Fisk also talked about how the world is broken and that Jesus wanted everything to be over in his life on earth (130-132). Jesus was able to see the sin in the world, not something you would expect someone so powerful to say. The line may be something to make us think about how sinful we have become, but rulers typically do not state that their people sinful. One of Jesus’s purposes on earth was to die for our sins; maybe this is why he was unhappy to see sinful humans. I thought the section on Jesus and demons was interesting because it made me think a war-like issue that is handled without firearms.

Part I

            Chapter 4 of A Hitchhikers Guide to Jesus talks mostly about the miracles that Jesus performed on those in need around him. A major issue this chapter focuses on is trying to figure out whether or not the miracles were actually real or if the Gospels fabricated them to make Jesus seem more powerful.  Norm states that “..the discovery that blindness, deafness, loss of speech, paralysis, and the like might occur as hysterical symptoms and be ‘cured’ instantaneously if the hysteria suddenly ceased.” (106-107).  Norm then begins comparing Jesus’ miracle stories to other holy men trying to find similarities and differences. 

Part II

            In chapter 4, Norm is working on figuring out if the miracles performed by Jesus in the Gospels are in fact true or not.  It is very interesting to think that the miracles were not actually performed, since in every Gospel they are recorded differently.  I wonder if Jesus really cured people, or if after feeling better psychologically or believing that a Savior did in fact cure them they then began to feel better. It is hard to find evidence that Jesus actually did perform miracles, and easy to believe that the relief of psychological disorders could have caused the healing .

Part 1

In chapter four, Norm continues his quest for the historical Jesus by looking at the miracles Jesus performed in the Gospels.  There are four types of miracles that the Gospels write about: exorcisms (none in John), healings, raisings of the dead, and nature miracles (105).  One nature miracle, feeding the crowds, is mentioned in all four Gospels with some similarities like Jesus has the people sit down, takes the food, give thanks, and has the apostles pass it out with plenty left over.  Difference in the meal miracles is number of crowd and food for instance (119).  Norm explores other parallels and divergence in other miracles as well like the walking on water miracle and exorcism miracles (126-127, 139-141).  The Gospel writers take similar stories from the Old Testament and re-tell them with Jesus, in result, Norm questions their validity as fact and more fiction (117).  Another point of concern is the idea brought up by his professor Guilder that the demons could have been today’s “psychological disorders” (131) but Norm seems to hold on to his faith background unconvinced to change his idea of Jesus the miracle worker. 

Part 2

The phrase from Guilder, “yesterday’s demons are today’s psychological disorders”, got me thinking about the confusion by the Gospel writers with what was a medical condition like a seizure and the spiritual demon possession.  If Jesus performed the say acts he did during the 1st century in the 21st century, would there have been as much following and mystery behind Jesus?  Science has derailed some of the hypotheses of miracles, so perhaps Jesus did not have the magical touch just a better understanding of what we would call modern medicine.  This is what Guilder would argue. 

Part I

Norm is in the Old City of Jerusalem and is looking at the miracles that Jesus performed.  A chart defines the miracles as seven exorcisms, fourteen healings, three raisings of the dead, and nine nature miracles (105).  Norm decides to wander the city and came upon the healings pools where he listened in on a tour guide describing the history of the pools.  Norm visited the Pool of Siloam the next day, and talked about some of the wonder workers who performed miracles.  Norm traveled to Tiberias and hitchhiked to Tabgha, the monastery that marks the site where Jesus multiplied loaves and fish (118).  Norm questions one being able to have “dialogue with a devil” when he returns to Tabgha from a trip with Anna (131).  Norm eventually ended up in Ibillin, west of Nazareth.

Part II

The miracle stories are under much scrutiny in this chapter.  Norm keeps finding new pieces of history that contradict previous ones.  The miracle of Jesus walking on water is one that has a different ending depending on which gospel, Matthew, Mark, or John, you are looking at (128).  The stories never are the same.  

Part I

    This chapter involves Norm traveling to the sites of Jesus's many supposed miracles.  He compares the different accounts of his miracles and examines the slight differences between them, using both the Gospels and historically sound sources.  According to sources outside of Scripture, Jesus was known for doing astonishing acts or, as we have come to know them, 'mriacles'.  Most commonly known are th miracles of healing, feeding, and walking on water, all of which Norm discusses.  The similarities between the historical Jesus and the Jesus of faith as seen in the Gospels are repeatedly scrutinized in this chapter.  Norm is beginning to truly struggle with his faith: can he really be an honest scholar as well as a person of strong faith?

Part II

    This chapter brought a lot of questions to mind for me.  First, I never knew that Jesus was in fact known for being capable of seemingly supernatural acts.  To be completely honest, that took me by surprise.  I was ready to completely dismiss all of his miracles as fantastical stories invented by the authors of the Gospels to make Jesus fit his role as the son of God and the Messiah.  However, my point of view was shot down by the accuracy of these events.  It still made me question which Jesus is the true person, as the Gospels portray him so differently.  I found it interesting that the Gospel authors focused so much on miracles involving feeding and healing people as well as on the different roles water played in such acts.  My biggest question regarding this chapter is how can people take the Gospels word for word?  They clearly are incompatible, both regarding small details and larger ideas such as Jesus's character.  And yet so many people of faith that I have known take the Gospel at face value.  I find it intriguing and almost a little scary, and I'm looking forward to see what conclusion Norm will reach at the end of his journey.

Part I
     In this section of the book, we catch up with Norm as his is making his journey through the lands that were important to Jesus and in the Gospels.  Norm begins to wonder about the miracle stories in the Gospels (104-107).  Norm visits the pool of Siloam were Jesus was said to have performed healings (108-113) and then the Old City's Armenian Quarter, where he corresponds with and old roommate, Jake Atkins (114-118).  Norms next stop is Tiberius where he receives an email from Professor Guilder, who tells him of storiethat are similar to the story of Jesus feeding the multitudes (121-125).  In the next section, Norm begins to examine the miracle of Jesus walking on water and the importance of the sea in the story of story of Jesus (125-130).  Norm continues his journey through the Holy Land, first stopping in Tabgha and then in Capernaum, the later or which he discusses the importance of the synagogue (133-138).  From there, Norm visits a few more sites inlcuding St. Peter's House and Ibillin (138-150).

Part II
     Norm begins to question the plausibility of the miracle stories in this section of the book.  I think that Norm is examining the miracle stories closely because they are a major part of the story of Jesus.  Part of his appeal is that he was able to feed the masses and heal them other diseases.  Part of the problem with the story of the miracles of Jesus, is that, like his paternity, the stories are different every time they are recorded.  This is especially evident when Norm recalls the last part of the miracle of Jesus
walking on water (127-128). He retells three different stories, from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  The first parts of the story is very similar between the three, but the latter part, where Matthew recounts Peter joining Jesus is completely left out of Mark and John (128).  I think a possible reason for Matthew showing that story is that he wanted to show that normal people were like Jesus, but unlike him at the same time.  It just shows that when you think you are getting close to answers, more problems arise. 
  

1)      Norm is now moving into the controversial topic of the miracles.  Beginning with the healing miracles dealing with water, he examines the ones done and the springs in Jerusalem as well as the ones that healed the blind with saliva.  This leads to the investigation of ancient accounts of healing that include similar accounts (102-118).  The feeding of the thousands is also under scrutiny and goes into another intertextual critic that may have Jesus attempting to out mach the Old Testament prophets (118-125).  Finally Norm examines the number of miracles associated with water in Mark’s gospel as well as the use of synagogues or meetings places in Jesus’ time (125-150).

2)      Norm’s dive deeper into the gospel’s miracles shows the problems encountered when looking for the historical answers.  The biggest thing for me was the idea that Jesus fed the 5000 by breaking down public barriers.  I had encountered the idea in my interterm class and since then I have been able to look at the miracles in a different light as ones based on social problems.