What miracles did Saint Peter perform?

Answer 1

A:It is within Acts of the Apostles that we find mention of miracles performed by Peter. Peter and Paul are both reported as performing comparable miracles, but in each case Paul's miracle was matched by at least one even more awe-inspiring and worthy miracle performed by Peter. Paul had never mentioned performing miracles, but decades later we find Acts attributing miracles to him, with Peter always performing another, somewhat similar but greater miracle and doing greater service for the Church.

According to Acts, Peter's first miraculous cure was of a man who had been lame since birth but was immediately cured by being commanded to stand and walk. Paul's first miraculous cure was improbably similar to Peter's first cure. Peter's miracle was performed in the name of Jesus, at the Temple, where the faithful saw the healed beggar praising God, and was the opportunity for some outstanding proselytising. Paul's first cure was clumsy and without apparent purpose, given that Paul did not tell the man about Jesus and he was even mistaken for a pagan god.

In an even more difficult challenge, Peter resurrected Tabitha, a good woman and a disciple, who was certainly dead and her body had already been washed. This miracle became known throughout Joppa and, as a result, many were converted (Acts 9:36-42). Paul also resuscitated a young man who foolishly fell asleep in an upper storey window and fell to the ground. There is some uncertainty as to whether the young man was really dead when Paul intervened to revive him, and the miracle did not present an opportunity to convert unbelievers. Peter's miracle was once again subtly superior to Paul.

Peter quickly became so renowned for his ability that people brough the sick just in the hope that his shadow would pass over them and they would be cured.

Peter and Paul were also capable of malevolent miracles, but Peter was to be feared more than Paul. A certain man named Ananias sold a possession and gave only some of the proceeds to Peter, who believed that the church was entitled to all the money. Peter realised the deceit immediately and Ananias fell dead. Later, Peter told Ananias' wife she would also die, because she repeated the deceit (Acts 5:1-10). In an apparent miracle, Paul blinded Elymas (Bar-jesus) the sorcerer for a season, for trying to frustrate his attempts to convert Sergius Paulus.

These are only some of the miracles attributed in Actsto the two apostles and one could wonder whether these examples owe more to hagiology than to any real events. Either a wish to venerate St. Peter or conversely to eliminate existing and perhaps worrying worship of St. Paul.

New Testament scholars say that Acts of the Apostles is a book of miracles rather than of history. Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) goes as far as to say that the whole of Acts is a simply a work of Propaganda. On this view, Saint Peter did not perform any miracles at all

A:

Acording to Acts of the Apostles, Peter could perform the same miracles as Jesus had done, healing the sick, casting out demons and even raising Tabitha from the dead (9:36-40). Just as Jesus could perform involuntary miracles, such as when the woman with the issue of blood touched his hem and was cured, so also people brought the sick just in the hope that Peter's shadow would pass over them and they would be cured (Acts 5:15).

One view of Acts would be that it is an extreme form of hagiography in the way it portrays Peter as being able to perform miracles at will. New Testament scholars say that Acts of the Apostles is a book of miracles rather than of history. Saint Peter did not really perform miracles.