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thousand (Mt 14:13,21; Mk 6:34,44; 8:1,9; Lk 9.1,17) and walking on water (Mk 6:45,52).
Not only are Jesus’ faith-driven thaumaturgies awe inspiring and deemed divine by the multitudes, for “nothing in Israel had ever been seen like it” (Mt 9:32), but they are also linked to his divinity as the Messiah, Son of God and Savior. Despite the fact that throughout the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus insists on his identity being concealed, Jesus’ miraculous cures, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew, demonstrate that the signs foretold by the prophet Isaiah, as mentioned earlier, become fulfilled in Jesus’ deeds: the blind see, the deaf hear (Mt 13:16; 9:32). As a result, Jesus is regarded by the loyal crowds as the Messiah despite the fact that he is unwilling to give a sign to the Pharisees of his omnipotence (Mt 12:39,40).
Moreover, Jesus’ transfiguration (Mt 17:1,8) becomes the primordial incident in the Synoptic Gospels that relates Jesus’ words and miraculous deeds to his divinity as Son of God. It is God’s voice, amidst the clouds, that proclaims Jesus as the “Son of God” and “the Beloved,” who not only pleases God, presumably with his deeds, but is also worthy of being heard (Mt 17:5,6). Such declaration not only makes it evident that Jesus is the chosen Son of God but also ever so subtly insinuates that Jesus is to be followed. Moreover, Jesus’ aura, just as luminescent as Moses’ face after seeing God in Mount Sinai (Ex 34:29), not only prefigures Stephen’s angelic face as he sits in the council (Acts 6:15) but also recalls the ultimate blessing of existence: to have the Lord’s face shine upon oneself (Num
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