A Month of Miracles Part 21 - Healing the Man With Dropsy

Title: Healing of the Man With the Dropsy
Artist: Alexandre Bida
Medium: Etching
Size: 28 x 21 cm
Date: ca. 1873
Location: From Illustrations by Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art; or, The Gospel Life of Jesus: With the Bida Illustrations. by Edward Eggleston. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1874.

Luke 14:1-6 - One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” And they had nothing to say.

As Jesus dines with the Pharisees, the religious leaders are watching him. The phrase Luke used here for ‘carefully watched’ means to watch surreptitiously – ominously - much as an undercover agent would today. It is apparent that the mood is somber, suspicion deep. At the meal is a man with dropsy, which means his limbs are swollen with excess body fluids, and Jesus asks whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Having had experience with this predicament, the leaders remain silent - and Jesus heals the man. After sending him away, Jesus notes again that they would quickly offer aid to a son or even an ox that had fallen in the ditch on the sabbath. The leaders' silence continues. Nothing has been learned; nothing has been confessed. Despite a constant barrage of divine activity, their position has not changed. The passage confirms how strong sin's stubbornness can be. It also shows how even after warnings about judgment and its consequences, God graciously still gives evidence of his presence.

Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France, and was a painter of the Romantic period. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugene Delacroix, but soon developed his own style along with his desire for perfection. As a youth he traveled to work in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine, and likely used this knowledge as illustrator of ‘Bida's Les Saints Evangeles’, published in 1873. Of Bida's work, although having closely observed the costumes and people encountered overseas, his decorative arrangements and symmetry of space exemplified the theatrical aspects of his art.

Jesus Appeared To His Disciples By The Sea Of Galilee

Title: Jesus Appeared To His Disciples By The Sea Of Galilee
Artist: Alexandre Bida
Medium: Etching
Size: 28 x 21 cm
Date: 1873
Location: From Illustrations by Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art; or, The Gospel Life of Jesus: With the Bida Illustrations. by Edward Eggleston. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1874.

John 21:1-14 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” He called out to them. “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

We now know that the Gospel of Mark ended at 16:8... or do we? There are scholars who state that the ending of Mark can be found in John 21. John 21 has synoptic affinities which do not appear in John 1-20: the sons of Zebedee appear, the disciples are fishing, 28 words in John 21 do not appear elsewhere in John, but only in the synoptics. Further, Mark 14:27-28, 16:7 states that Jesus will reappear in Galilee. There are other clues that Mark foreshadows John 21. The disciples will be unaware of the empty tomb, because the women told no-one of what they saw (Mark 16:8). Accordingly, in John 21, Peter and other disciples have lost hope and returned to the lake; for having witnessed the risen Christ before, they now fail to realize Jesus is present in 21:4. The whole story is more like a first appearance to the disciples than a "third".

Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France and was a painter of the Romantic period. During Bida's youth, he traveled and worked in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugène Delacroix, but with an artist's eye for precision and perfection, he soon developed his own style. He was also an illustrator of the Holy Bible. As a Bible illustrator, Bida's Les Saints Evangeles was published in 1873. In it, the four gospels were enriched by his twenty-eight etchings. Of Bida's work, it was said that he brought a truth and genius that made his Christ reverent, refined, dignified, and strong.

Cursing of the Fig Tree

Title: Jesus curses the Fig Tree
Artist: James Tissot
Medium: Watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
Size: 22.7 x 30.8 cm
Date: c. 1890
Location: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

The eighth miracle account that displays Jesus' power over nature is recorded in Mark 11:12-14; 20-25. This miracle is known as the Cursing of the Fig Tree, and in Mark brackets the account of Jesus driving the money changers and merchants from the temple in Jerusalem.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. [...] In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” Jesus answered, Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

James Jacques Joseph Tissot (October 1836 – August 1902) was a French painter. After the death of his longtime companion Kathleen Newton in 1882, Tissot experienced a religious vision, after which he embarked on his ambitious project to illustrate the New Testament. Striving for historical accuracy, he made several expeditions to the Middle East to record the landscape and people of the Holy Land.

Title: Jesus Christ and the fruitless leafy tree
Artist: Alexandre Bida
Medium: Etching
Size: tdb.
Date: 1873
Location: Reproduced in “The Gospels in art: the life of Christ, by great painters from Fra Angelico to Holman Hunt” by Walter Shaw Sparrow, Pg 202.

Although the Gospel states that Jesus “found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.”, we should not read this passage as if it were a horticultural manual. As these events bracket the cleansing of the temple we are meant to see that the fate of the unfruitful tree symbolizes the character and fate of the magnificent temple of Jerusalem. Jesus expected the temple to be a house of prayer, for the temple authorities to conduct their affairs unobscured by commercial exploitation. As Jesus saw it, there is never an off season for the Temple. Yet the temple authorities failed to produce fruit. In the words of writer Joseph O’Hanlon: All leaves, and no figs.

Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France and was a painter of the Romantic period. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugène Delacroix, but with an artist's eye for precision and perfection, he soon developed his own style. During Bida's youth, he traveled and worked in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine. He was also an illustrator of the Holy Bible. As a Bible illustrator, Bida's Les Saints Evangeles was published in 1873. In it, the four gospels were enriched by his twenty-eight etchings. Of Bida's work, it was said that he brought a truth and genius that made his Christ reverent, refined, dignified, and strong.

Birth of St. John

Title: Birth of St. John

Artist: Alexandre Bida

Medium: Engraving

Size: 28 x 21 cm

Date: c. 1873

Location: From “Christ in Art; Or, the Gospel Life of Jesus, with the Bida Illustrations.” by Eggleston, Edward.

About the time of Mary’s departure, as recorded in Luke 1:57, Elizabeth gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

When Elizabeth bears a son, all those around her hear that the Lord had shown her great mercy. Neighbors customarily joined in celebrations, and the birth of a son, especially under such unusual circumstances, was seen as special cause for celebration. Though these events are cosmic in their reach, they involve the divinity's personal touch. God has shown his mercy and magnified it to Elizabeth. Those who had shared her pain now rejoice with her. God's mercy expresses itself in concrete, loving action.

This illustration is one of the one hundred engravings designed by Alexandre Bida to accompany the text for the book “Christ in art: the story of the words and acts of Jesus Christ, as related in the language of the four evangelists, arranged in one continuous narrative.” The full-page plates on steel and wood were executed by Brend'amour, of Düsseldorf, after the designs of Bida.

Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France, and was a painter of the Romantic period. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugene Delacroix, but soon developed his own style along with his desire for perfection. As a youth he traveled to work in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine. His works gained attention between 1847-1861, and he later illustrated the Bible.