Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Eyewitness Accounts of Miracles by Bart D. Ehrman Read by John Paul Middlesworth when thinking about my upcoming debate with Jonathan Sheffield about proof of the Resurrection, since I anticipated he would take a legal approach to the question since something connected with the law is his day job, I expected we would get into a discussion of the validity of eyewitness testimony. Hey, if all these people said they saw Jesus after his death, he must have been brought to life, right?
[00:00:31] I've always been struck by how conservative Christians find eyewitness testimony strong evidence for what they believe, but of no value for what others in other religious traditions believe.
[00:00:41] One of my favorite instances involves a well documented case in far more modern times that most people have never heard of, and when they do hear of it, they simply dismiss it. It involves the 18th century founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov, often simply called Besht.
[00:00:58] I talk about the situation in my book Jesus before the Gospels.
[00:01:02] The specific issue is that it has been shown that if someone imagines seeing something, they can start remembering seeing it, not recalling, that it started out as something they only imagined seeing. It's impossible to separate this kind of false memory from an actual one. Here's what I say about it.
[00:01:20] Memories of the BAAL Shem Tov the name BAAL Shem Taf is Hebrew for Master of the Good Name. It was bestowed on various Jewish holy men who were thought to have special mystical insight into the nature and reality of God, who was called, reverentially, the Good Name.
[00:01:39] Such a person was a master of the name because he knew how to use it to perform miracles, even though the designation was given to others.
[00:01:47] The BAAL Shem Taft refers to a Jewish teacher named Israel Ben Eliezer, who roughly lived from 1700 to 1760 CE, who was known for his compelling teachings and mystical powers.
[00:02:00] This designation is often shortened into an acronym, so sometimes he is simply called the Bescht. Even though he was not like Jesus, very, very far from it, the best was remembered in some intriguingly similar ways. He was thought to be a charismatic figure, adored by his followers, to whom he taught his own distinctive version of the Jewish faith.
[00:02:20] He was said to have had direct encounters with God. He was allegedly able to heal the sick, cast out demons, control the weather, predict the future, and even raise the dead.
[00:02:31] He was also assigned other miracle working powers not normally associated with Jesus.
[00:02:36] He could become invisible, fly through the air, and provide protection against the spells of sorcerers, as was the case with Jesus. The miraculous deeds and persuasive teachings of the best were written down a generation after his death, and these accounts were alleged to have been based on the accurate reports of eyewitnesses.
[00:02:55] Our principal source of information about the best comes in a series of anecdotes about his life, written 54 years after his death. Entitled In Praise of the Baal Shem Toff in Hebrew Shivai Habesht, the book was published in 1814 in Poland. Its author was Rabbi Dov Baer, who as it turns out, was the son in law of a man who had been the personal scribe and secretary for the best, a rabbi called Alexander the Shonet, which means butcher.
[00:03:23] The book contains 251 short tales about the Besht.
[00:03:27] Fifteen of these are said to have come directly from Alexander, the rest from other sources, including the rabbi of the author's own community, who had heard them from his own teacher.
[00:03:37] Throughout the tales, the Besht heals the sick, exorcises dybbuks, which are restless souls of the dead who possess other people and helps barren women conceive.
[00:03:47] He can ascend to heaven and miraculously shorten a journey. He's often shown to be superior to others. He encounters rabbinic scholars, medical doctors, and sorcerers.
[00:03:57] While those outside the Hasidic tradition might consider these stories simply to be pious fictions, legendary accounts based on hearsay started by gullible devotees, the author Dove Bear himself claims they are rooted in reliable sources and relate historical realities as he himself I was careful to write down all the awesome things I heard from truthful people. In each case I wrote down from whom I heard.
[00:04:23] Thank God who endowed me with memory. I neither added nor omitted anything. Every word is true and I did not change a word.
[00:04:34] Judge for yourself. Here are summaries of 7 of the story 31 Dov Baer claims he heard this directly from his father in law, the Besht's personal scribe, a scholar named Rabbi David, came and stayed in the house of the Besht. In the middle of the night the Rabbi awoke and to his horror saw a bright light underneath the oven. He thought that there was a fire. When he went to put it out with the contents of his chamber pot, he saw that it was the Besht, apparently in a trance like state.
[00:05:05] Above him was a bright light shining like a rainbow.
[00:05:08] Rabbi David fainted. The next day he insisted, and the Bescht revealed himself to him. That is, he revealed his true nature.
[00:05:17] Story 98 this one also came from Dov Baer's father in law. The Besht was Living in the inn of a village that was experiencing a drought because a spell had been cast on it by a witch. The Best prayed, and the rains came. The demon who empowered the witch told her what had happened.
[00:05:34] The wish sent the demon to attack the Besht, but the demon could not get within four steps of him. The Besht ordered the demon to attack instead a Gentile woman living in a nearby house. And then the Besht imprisoned the demon in the forest.
[00:05:48] Later, the Besht was walking by the forest and went in to see the demon sitting in its prison. There the Besht laughed and told the companions the story.
[00:05:57] Story 106 this one is told by another rabbi.
[00:06:02] The Best and another rabbi and their servants were traveling in the dead of winter and realized they wouldn't be able to make it home before they froze to death. The Besht ordered a stop. He then touched a tree with his finger and the tree caught fire. They warmed themselves sufficiently and went on their way.
[00:06:22] The Bescht was having a meal with some of his followers when suddenly he raised his arms and moved them as if he were swimming, saying, fool, do this and you will be saved.
[00:06:32] An hour later, a man came to the door and told them that he had just fallen into a river, but didn't know how to swim.
[00:06:38] But then the thought came to him to try to move his arms in a certain way, and he swam to safety.
[00:06:46] At the birth of a boy, the Besht began to weep. He told the child's father that when the boy had his bar mitzvah, he would be drawn into the river.
[00:06:55] Sure enough, on the special day after the bar mitzvah ceremony, everyone went to the river to cool down from the hot summer sun. The boy was kept at home, but he sneaked off to enjoy some fun. When his father found out, he grabbed the boy, took him back, and locked him in his room.
[00:07:12] Then a creature with a head and two hands came up out of the river, slapped his hands on the water, and declared in disgust that the one who is mine is not here.
[00:07:23] Story 237 One of Dobert's teachers had a strong desire to learn the language of the animals, birds, and palm trees.
[00:07:33] The Bescht revealed to him the essential profundity of the secrets of this knowledge, so that he could hear the Besht with one ear and understand the conversations of the birds, animals, and other beasts with the other.
[00:07:47] Story 244 the Bescht promised a certain man that he would have children, but none was forthcoming. When the man had become old. He continued to ask the Besht, and miraculously, the man's wife bore a son. But the boy died in a matter of days.
[00:08:03] The man complained to the besht that he promised him progeny, but now the boy was dead. The besht told him that the boy would come back to life, but it didn't happen.
[00:08:13] After the customary number of days, the Bescht instructed the man to prepare for the ritual of circumcision.
[00:08:19] He acquired the services of those who would perform the rite and took the dead child to the synagogue. They cut his foreskin. Nothing happened. But then, when the Bescht said a blessing over him, the boy's breath returned to him and blood gushed out of the incision.
[00:08:35] There are many, many tales such as these throughout the account. And what is my point?
[00:08:41] Do I think the best actually had supernatural powers to do these things? To be transformed into a divine, glowing presence, to cast out and imprison demons, to ignite trees with his finger, to raise the dead and all the rest?
[00:08:54] No. Personally, I don't believe it.
[00:08:57] But are the stories based ultimately on eyewitness reports?
[00:09:01] Writing some 55 years after the events, the author claims they were indeed based on eyewitness testimony.
[00:09:08] Does that make them reliable?
[00:09:10] Even if devoted followers of the Bescht say yes, virtually everyone realizes that these allegedly eyewitness reports are anything but historical.
[00:09:20] What then about the Gospels of the New Testament? Even if they are based on eyewitnesses, are they necessarily accurate?
[00:09:27] Do they in every instance represent accurate memories?
[00:09:31] Given what we have seen in this chapter, I think the answer has to be no.
[00:09:35] They are not necessarily reliable.
[00:09:37] And of course, they are not necessarily unreliable either.
[00:09:41] All of them have to be examined historically to see whether and how far they preserve accurate memories of Jesus and distorted memories.
