What are signs and Wonders?

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Throughout Scripture, signs and wonders represent God’s power unleashed first against Egypt during Israel’s deliverance and later through Jesus Christ to inaugurate salvation history.1 These phenomena carry consistent theological weight across both testaments, functioning as more than mere spectacle.

A sign fundamentally directs people toward God2, while a wonder—derived from a Greek word related to “terror”—denotes something extraordinary that provokes amazement in observers.2 Where signs appeal to understanding, wonders engage the imagination.2 Though signs seek to generate belief, they don’t compel it.2

In the Old Testament, God’s saving actions in delivering Israel from Egypt became the focal point for divine self-revelation.1 The plagues against Egypt revealed God’s identity to the Egyptians themselves, establishing God’s reputation among the nations, not merely before Israel.1 These historical events carried implications extending far beyond their moment, shaping Israel’s ongoing faith.1

The New Testament employs signs and wonders with similar revelatory intent. Jesus deployed them to authenticate his messiahship—a necessary strategy given that his critics viewed his claims to divine knowledge, sonship, and sin forgiveness as blasphemous —a view he countered through miraculous demonstrations.3 Stated purposes in Acts include Jesus’ divine accreditation, confirmation of God’s grace message, proclamation of the gospel to generate faith, and the strengthening of belief among believers.4

Scripture warns that false prophets can perform signs and wonders, but God uses such tests to determine whether people genuinely love him. (Deut 13:1–3) False messiahs will perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matt 24:24) This caution underscores that authentication requires theological discernment, not merely the occurrence of the miraculous.


Biblical passages on signs and wonders: Peter testified that Jesus was “accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him.” (Acts 2:22) The early apostles similarly performed many wonders and signs that filled people with awe. (Acts 2:43) John’s Gospel records that Jesus performed many signs before his disciples, written so that readers “may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30–31)


1. Brian D. Russell, “Signs and Wonders,” in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. Katharine Doob Sakenfeld (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006–2009), 5:252.

2. T. R. McNeal, “Miracles, Signs, Wonders,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1135–1136.

3. Christopher J. Wilson, Renewal Apologetics: The Argument from Modern Miracles (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2019). [See here, here.]

4. Walter A. Elwell, in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 1101.

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