What were the powers of Paul and Peter?

Answer 1

In his own epistles, Paul makes no mention of performing or experiencing miracles, and Paul presented himself as a man unlikely to have extraordinary powers. Paul faced many challenges to his authority, yet in his account he never performed miracles to persuade or repel his opponents, nor even described those miracles that appear in Acts when to write about them would have enhanced his authority. Paul could not risk his credibility by writing about miracles and wonders that he performed if they never really happened, since he could be challenged to substantiate any events he described. In writing of Peter, he portrayed him as a pillar of the Jerusalem Church, second in importance to James, but seems to have been entirely unaware of any special powers Peter had. It is not until the Acts of the Apostles, written some fifty years after the event, that we begin to learn of their special powers.

Acts of the Apostles is universally seen as a history of the Church in the years immediately following the resurrection of Jesus, with its focus on the lives and works of St Peter and St Paul. An important, well disguised theme of The Acts of the Apostles is the primacy of St Peter over St Paul during the period of their respective ministries. For example, if Luke attributed a previously unknown miracle to Paul, then his followers or admirers were unlikely to complain, but quite comparable miracles were also associated with Peter, and the miracles associated with Paul were always less impressive those associated with Peter. Acts made Paul a lesser character in the history of the early church, one who did not act on his own initiative but sought the authority of Peter and James on important matters.

Paul's miraculous conversion left him temporarily blind and helpless, dependent on the goodwill of the church brethren, who then had the opportunity to instruct him in the faith. Whereas Paul had represented Barnabas as a loyal assistant, Acts had Barnabas become a mentor assigned to Paul by the Jerusalem elders in order to educate him and play a part in the Gentile church as an equal to Paul. Paul became a leader within the church, performing great wonders and miracles, but always outshone by his superiors.

According to Acts, Paul's first miraculous cure was improbably similar to Peter's first cure. In both cases, a man who had been lame since birth was immediately cured by being commanded to stand and walk. Peter's first miracle cure 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. 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 and Paul were also capable of malevolent miracles. In an apparent miracle, Paul blinded Elymas (Bar-Jesus) the sorcerer, for trying to frustrate his attempts to convert Sergius Paulus. 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. Of course, if these events really did occur, then both apostles were guilty of serious crimes. Peter was guilty of calculated murder and his followers were accessories, but the narrative shows the awesome power of Peter's miracles. In both cases, the apostle was frustrated by the actions of his victim, and in both cases, the needs of the church superseded ethics and moral values.

Acts represented Peter as a great leader, miracle worker and intermediary to God, in many ways an equal to Jesus, risking the creation of a Peter cult, and making it more difficult to maintain the focus on the role of Jesus. Luke saw this possibility, when he described Cornelius falling down to worship Peter, thus providing Peter an opening to rebuke Cornelius and say that he was just a man. Nevertheless, if Acts of the Apostles is truly a history of the early Church, then both Peter and Paul had the power of working miracles, for both good and bad. The miracles worked by Peter were comparable to, or even greater than, those attributed to Jesus.