Why did the Apostle Paul rarely mention miracles in his ministry?

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Miracles were part of Paul’s life from the very beginning of his ministry to the reported end in Rome. The list of miracles in Acts is not complete: Luke refers to miracles by Paul in Iconium and Malta but does not specify them (Acts 14:3; 15:12; 28:9). He also does not report any miracles in Corinth whereas Paul refers to them in his letters (1 Cor. 2:4; 2 Cor. 12:12).

It is telling that while Luke makes every effort to mention Paul’s miracles in detail (as equal to Peter), the apostle himself offers only general references to them and hardly bothers to point them out. On the contrary, Paul mentions the sickness of Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25–27), Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23) and Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20) which he did not heal (Derickson 308–311).

The silence of miracles in the letters has been interpreted both in favor and against a cessationist view (Derickson, esp. 304–305). For one thing, the Christians addressed in most of the letters would have known about Paul’s miracles and did not need additional report.

Paul also wanted to prevent a superficial attention to outward signs of authority (πρόσωπον, 2 Cor. 10:7) with which false apostles diverted attention from the gospel (2 Cor. 12:11–12; also 2 Thess. 2:9).

Kierspel, L. (2012). Charts on the Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul (p. 220). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic.

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