Jesus Christ, The Greatest Magician?Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Inside Magic had a very nice article on Andre Kole and I applaud him for the work he has done and continues to do. The article did bring to mind a point that is argumentive to some minds: That Christ was a magician.

It is interesting how many people claim that Christ was a magician, and many of them, it seems, do not have the credentials to do so, including some “famous magicians.”

Of course, often times a “little knowledge,” can make for inaccurate assumptions, and without a thorough study of the scriptures concerning Christ, it would be easy to make certain assumptions about “some” of the miracles He did.

The simplest way I can state this is by comparing a “lay person’s” description of a magic effect they witness, and their “explanation” of how the trick was done. As magicians, we have all heard these “explanations” many times. If we took these “explanations” of the modus operand, and attempted to do the effect, naturally it would not work, and the effect would not be the same.

Example: “A magician can change water to wine just like Christ did.” It would be a natural assumption, after seeing a magician do the water to wine trick, until you read and study the passages concerning Christ’s first miracle.

First, Christ was reluctant to change the water to wine as “his time had not yet come“, and he only did the miracle at his mother’s request. A reading reveals that the wine was the “finest.” Saved until last, which was not a common practice. It was fresh water poured into 6 ceremonial water pots, which held 30 to 40 gallons each, which changed to the finest “aged” wine. It was not a performance. It was a request by his mother that Christ complied with reluctantly.

Nowhere in the passage does it indicate that the wedding guests were aware that Christ had performed a miracle, only that they were shocked to find that the “finest…

It is interesting how many people claim that Christ was a magician, and many of them, it seems, do not have the credentials to do so, including some “famous magicians.”

Nowhere in the passage does it indicate that the wedding guests were aware that Christ had performed a miracle, only that they were shocked to find that the “finest wine” had been saved until last. There was no spell cast, no magic words.

Christ simply had the servants fill the ceremonial pots with water, which was in defiance of Jewish law, and when the water was dipped from the jugs it was now the finest wine.

Now if this miracle were a magic trick, then it is the first time in history that the magician did not want the audience to be aware of his prowess. He did not call everyone around to witness the miracle take place, or inform them what he was about to do.

Further if this miracle was a trick, can you imagine the staging and preparation that would have to have been done to perform it. In advance, Christ would have to” know that the wedding would run out of wine”. (If that is the case, Christ has already performed a miracle in knowing the wine would run out).

He would have to bring all of the necessary apparatus to perform the miracle with him, whatever that may have been to accomplish the trick, and we are speaking of 180 to 240 gallons of wine. His mother would have to be in on the plot so that at the appropriate time she could request him to perform the miracle.

Also if a magician were to be able to reproduce such a miracle, then why has no magician done it? After all, magicians have had over 2,000 years to do so.

This miracle is way beyond “Think-a-Drink Hoffman” and the largest Lota you might own. It is way beyond freeze-dried and powdered drinks.

It was a miracle, performed by the Son of God, not to promote himself, by to please his mother and the guests at the wedding.

Barry M. Gibbs