Did Paul know that Jesus performed miracles?

[Irish1975]

There was no need, you say, for such an ordering of events, seeing that he would immediately by the evidence of miracles prove himself in actual fact both son and emissary, and the Christ of God. My answer will be that this form of proof by itself could never have provided satisfactory testimony to him, and in fact he himself subsequently discounted it. When he affirmed that many would come, and would work signs and perform great miracles, to the leading astray even of the elect, but must not on that account be made welcome, he made it clear that the credit of signs and miracles is precarious, as these are quite easy even for false Christs to perform. How could he possibly have been content to accept for himself approval and understanding and recognition from sources—miracles, I mean—which he disallowed in the case of others who themselves were to come no less unexpectedly, vouched for by no previous announcement? If you suggest that by coming before these others, by having, before they
did, marked as his own the evidences of miracles, he had staked his claim to credit, as one marks one's turn at the baths, and had thus forestalled all later comers, take care that he himself is not caught in the position of those late-comers, when he is seen to have come later than the Creator who had been known long before, had in consequence worked miracles long before, and in similar terms had given warning that no credence was to be given to others—others after him, that is. It follows that if the fact that one has come first, and has first made this pronouncement concerning those who should come later, is to discredit these in advance, he will himself have been condemned in advance by that one subsequent to whom he too has come to our notice: the Creator alone, who cannot be subsequent to anyone, will have the right to lay down this rule against late-comers. That being so, I propose to prove that the same miracles which are the only evidence you lay claim to for belief in your Christ, the Creator had already of old wrought from time to time by his servants, and from time to time had indicated that they would be performed by his Christ: and from this I can with justice claim that miracles are no sufficient reason for <your> acceptance of Christ, the more so as those miracles would have been capable of proving that Christ belongs to the Creator and no other, since they correspond with those miracles of the Creator which he performed by his servants and promised in expectation of his own Christ. And besides, even if other evidences were found in your Christ, new ones I mean, we should find it easier to believe that even the new ones belonged to the same <God> as did the old ones, and not to a god who possesses none but new things, such as have not been submitted to the test of that antiquity which gives faith its victory. So his coming would need to have been indicated by previous announcements of his own to build up credibility for him, as well as by miracles, especially as he was going to present himself as an opponent of the Creator's Christ, himself furnished with his own particular signs and prophecies. Only so could his rivalry of Christ be made clearly evident by all possible forms of difference. Yet how could a god never previously prophesied of, prophesy beforehand of any Christ of his? This it is then that demands that no credence be given either to your god or to your Christ: a god had no right to remain unknown, and a Christ did require to obtain recognition by virtue of a god's commendation.

This a fascinating quotation from Tertullian.

The orthodox message is that miracles are not enough for faith to "have its victory." The story needs to show that Jesus was foretold by the prophets as the Jewish messiah. But Marcion's new and unknown god is the wrong sort of god to have inspired the prophets of old to bear witness to the Christ.

The Marcionite Gospel reconstructed by Klinghardt seems to show a complete lack of OT prophecy. Jesus cites a scripture about JB's coming, but no scripture is cited that attests to the coming of Jesus as Messiah. Are we to understand that this deficiency is what Tertullian is talking about?

The myth of the descending and ascending redeemer that appears in the Paulines, mentioned in the OP, seems like a separate issue. Or rather, the miracles of the Evangelion and the redemption of the Apostolikon were presented separately from the beginning.

[billd89]

Philippians 2:7: ἀλλὰ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν μορφὴν δούλου λαβών, ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος• καὶ σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος.

Part 2: ἐκένωσεν = emptied ; voided, nullified

I begin with the assumption that Paul’s ‘Epistle to the Philippians’ involves Jews, Judaizers, and Gentile proselytes who knew about (Jewish) mystery cults and the topic at hand. Paul was well-traveled Jew preaching a refined salvationist doctrine; he doesn’t need to belabor anagogy (here: the ascent/descent of Logos or Pneuma). He simply refers to ‘emptying’ – the creation of a void in one place – to allow Matter to enshroud the divine flame of Being in a mortal frame. The divine Incarnation of ‘Christ the Teacher’ is a paradigm of how Adam Kadmon and indeed every soul first came into a body. Participation in Christ's descent is learning the Soul’s own creation myth. Incarnation is an inverse of henosis – re-attaching to the Godhead. Christ’s descent inverts the Soul’s spiritual ascent (necessity for rebirth/salvation); precisely how God’s Son dissipates His power should be revealing: ‘as above, so below.’ If God’s emptying is our filling, we want to know the stages/particulars of that psycho-spiritual process! But Paul's audience apparently did not need a detailed tutorial of the familiar paraenesis.

With his Christos prophecy, Paul must have been contradicting details of other ‘Soul Ascent’ schemas taught by competing Judaizing preachers. Because he doesn’t dwell on it, I also presume the ‘emptied vessel’ (husk) was not in itself important: rather, the process of ‘Negation of Self’ is what’s key. The rich symbolical themes of Christ’s condescension and self-sacrifice (the Christian Kenotic Thesis) may have been secondary or superfluous in the minds of most Jewish Christians. Instead, what's suggestive about Philippians 2:7-8 is the inverted ladder of μεταγγισμὸς, the Pythagorean technical term for metempsychosis/palingenesis. Intuitively, the full cycle in Ten Steps is outlined here.

As Christ did, descending: ..................… so we do, ascending:

1) Void Divine Essence; Depart ..............5) -- Eternal Light: God --
2) Assume Mortal Frame ......................4) Rejoin Divine Life
3) Humble Self .................................3) Assume Divine Form
4) Endure Mortal Suffering ...................2) Be Glorified
5) -- Judgment: Mercy Seat -- ...............1) Be Freed from Cosmic Rule

Two separate yet related Hermetic tractates (c.75 AD, probably older material) are similar in structure and purpose. C.H.I, §24 is certainly a Gnostic Step Process for dissolution of the Mortal Frame: the Soul's negation of the Deathly Matter.

§24. Εὖ μοι πάντα, ὡς ἐβουλόμην, ἐδίδαξας, ὦ Νοῦς, ἔτι δέ μοι εἰπὲ περὶ τῆς ἀνόδου τῆς γινομένης. πρὸς ταῦτα ὁ Ποιμάνδρης εἶπε, Πρῶτον μὲν ἐν τῇ ἀναλύσει τοῦ σώματος τοῦ ὑλικοῦ παραδίδως αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα εἰς ἀλλοίωσιν, καὶ τὸ εἶδος ὃ εἶχες ἀφανὲς γίνεται, καὶ τὸ ἦθος τῷ δαίμονι ἀνενέργητον παραδίδως͵ καὶ αἱ αἰσθήσεις τοῦ σώματος εἰς τὰς ἑαυτῶν πηγὰς ἐπανέρχονται, μέρη γινόμεναι καὶ πάλιν συνανιστάμεναι εἰς τὰς ἐνεργείας. καὶ ὁ θυμὸς καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία εἰς τὴν ἄλογον φύσιν χωρεῖ.

§24. “You have taught me everything as I desired, O Mind. Yet tell me about The Way up to {Divine} Life.” Poimandres replied: “The Body’s dissolution to Matter gives up its Elements by metamorphoses, To begin (Step 1:), the Beauty vanishes {i.e. the sight of humankind disappears, the corpse remains}. Next, (Step 2:) Ethos {=Character/ Temperament}, de-energized, is surrendered to the Daimon. And (Step 3:) the Body’s Sense-perceptions return to their sources, (Step 4:) rendered parts; (Step 5:) these meet again in the Powers. Thus [re-active] Passions and [pro-active] Desires withdraw to un-reasoning Nature.

Here is the base alchemical process of the Soul's Gnosis: palingenesis! 'In the analysis of the Body into Matter' (μὲν ἐν τῇ ἀναλύσει τοῦ σώματος τοῦ ὑλικοῦ ...) means the decomposition into components in order to study the process and parts. To us, that purpose might read as philosophical but it is also certainly scientistic: in Egypt, who should define this alchemical process, but some kind of alchemist-priest?

Of course, the Stages themselves are paramount, but the verbs of the formula are also important. 'Gives up' (... παραδίδως αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα εἰς ἀλλοίωσιν) implies 'yielding, when ripe', but also to 'surrender'/'deliver over to'/'render up' (e.g. to the Daimon). So '...to Deterioration' (εἰς ἀλλοίωσις) is one of the four modes of decay (Ph.2.509), although ἀλλοίωσις is also another name for the number Five (Theol.Ar.27). Alternately, 'transmutation' (μεταβολή), or 'modification' (τροποποίησις) evoke a science -- the Egyptian embalming and mummification processes -- older than Alchemy. 'Derangement' associated with Drunkenness (Plb.3.81.5) is another curious meaning. Separating in parts (μέρη γινόμεναι) and re-uniting (συνανιστάμεναι) might suggest the choruses of Therapeutae, the idea of Twelve Tribes, branches of the Nile, etc. but that's mere speculation. The verb χωρέω (χωρεῖ) probably means 'to withdraw' or 'retire to', or perhaps 'to pass' (as in excretion) yet also 'to go downward' (i.e. draining).

We should also recall the analogous 'Four-Step' Process outlined in the ‘Jewish’ Hermetica for positively/affirmatively presencing the Deity. C.H.XIII, §7. “Tat: Am I therefore incapable (insufficient), master ? Hermes: Never may that be, my pupil! {Step 1} Call it unto oneself, and it shall come. {Step 2} Determine (will it), and it happens. {Step 3} Suspend all bodily sensations, and there will emerge the Godhead. {Step 4} Cleanse yourself of the Mindless Chastisements of {Human} Being. […] in this is constituted the manner of Palingenesis {=Rebirth}.” The implicit Fifth Step is expressed as 'The Happening' or 'Emergence of God': we can simplify and clarify accordingly.

-- To Bring Down the God -- ............... -- To Uplift the Soul --

1) Call upon God ............................. 5) -- Eternal Light: God --
2) Conceptualize Divine .................... 4) Rejoin Divine Life
3) Deny the Corporeal ...................... 3) Assume Divine Form
4) Void Self (12 Torments) ................ 2) Be Transported/Translated (μετετέθη)
5) -- Judgment: Mercy Seat -- .............1) Marvel: witness own apocalypse

Although only Four Steps are specified, Steps 5 & 10 should be assumed, understood: the Divine is the Quintessence. See Philo, Quaestiones et solutiones in Genesin 3.6: "{God} is shadowing forth a fifth and cyclic nature, from which the ancients say that the heaven was perfected." Presenced by the Deity, the Soul is judged (or its heart weighed) by the god (i.e. Hermes/Thoth) who is perfect, serene in eternity, eternal Light, etc. Ten is perfect number, for Pythagoreans and Jews alike: we should obviously look for a Ten Step Program among Pythagorean mystery cults.

Although it is possible a scribe purposefully re-ordered the Steps – it was, after all, esoteric knowledge – this appears to be evidence of a practical henotic teaching, Mystery cult-ritual, and Hellenistic Jewish Gnosis. In Philo, anagogy and henosis were necessary to become an A.A., the Actualized Man. To be initiated into whichever mystery cult, the Jewish ascetic/mystes must have ‘emptied himself’ (voided the self). The Teacher is the Example: it is a process of divinization. The specifics or occult 'steps of the A.A. program' are not explicitly stated by Philo. But can we surmise what he means? Philo writes allegorically (and, I think, defensively), so we should look for ‘hidden’ symbolism.

Philo briefly describes a ritual of solar worship at the Alexandrian ‘Jewish’ colony. For contemporary Roman and Greek outsiders, it would appear to be a quaint Neo-Pythagorean worship. But for Jews??? No, this isn’t familiar or normal. Josephus (c.95 AD) also noted this strange practice among some Essenes. So I am curious about such expressions to whichever sun-deity (e.g. Thoth-Hermes, Melchizedek, or other hypostases of ‘God’ aka Re/Yahweh). Which god(s) did these heterodox/radical antinomian Jews recognize in their daily devotion? Suggestively – because, let’s be honest, this is Jewish heresy! – Philo outlines a 4-Stage Prayer sequence which allegorically conflates attributes of four well-known Egyptian solar deities under Thoth-Hermes. Those supposedly ‘Jewish’ prayers also syncretize said Egyptian elements in an Hermetically-suspect manner. As with the Pauline process above, don’t ask questions; ‘the devil is in the details.’ But if we do want to know/re-discover, we should carefully examine other Philonic works and the ‘Jewish’ Hermetica for more clues. I follow the unpopular thesis of Goodenough [1935] that one or more Jewish Mystery Cults were active c.25 AD.

Scholars have long noted certain tractates of the Corpus Hermeticum have a pronounced Jewish character: C.H.XIII is explicitly linked to C.H. I, the famous Poimandres. In C.H.XIII, henosis requires that each of the ‘Twelve Mortal Torments’ must be shed, as filthy laundry, and returned to the respective Zodiacal Archons. This is an ancient (Chaldean?) ‘Jewish’ vice list analogous to ‘the Seven Deadly Sins’: the lateral passage through the Heavens to reach The One. But what’s relevant in this tractate: the voided Twelve Defects are replaced by Ten 'Powers' (blessings, gifts) from God. If the Christ empties unspecified Powers AND fulfills his followers w/ said Powers, then Paul’s audience likewise knew what they would necessarily receive in perfectioning “Rebirth”. Paul’s own list may have varied, but the Jewish Hermetica outlines a specific set of God-Begotten Dekadic Virtues which re-fill the Divinized Soul flying through the Spheres. Consider this explicated process of (Judaized?) Palingenesis, shedding Mortal Defects to receive Divine Virtues in outer space, en route to (re-)join God:

1) God-Consciousness ..............................γνῶσις θεοῦ
(2) Intuition of Relief {Expectant Joy} ............γνῶσις χαρᾶς
(3) Sobriety ..........................................ἐγκράτειαν
(4) Patient Endurance ...............................καρτερίαν
(5) Righteousness ...................................δικαιοσύνης
(6) Generosity ........................................ (etc.)
(7) Honesty
(8) Moral Purity
(9) Eternal Life
(10) Divine Illumination

Paul's Christos hearers and Hermeticists alike were undergoing a 'Therapeutic' type training for Heaven. Why? Giulea [2014],p.35 explains Origen's interpretation (c.240 AD) on the priestly dimension of human existence, which represents one later pacifistic Xtian interpretation:

Humans have to become consecrated because their final goal is to minister in heaven, and the essence of resurrected life is a mystery celebration. In this exegetical context, Christ’s economic work is both a celestial mystery of self-sacrifice and a pedagogical initiation into the heavenly mysteries.

There was a Mystery, but not everyone was a blissful Therapeut optimist meditating among the flowers. Circa 35 AD, some of those following Melchizedek (Logos, as the Divine Warrior) were preparing -- at least theoretically -- for holy war. Perhaps the Mosaic brotherhood was likewise (uncertain), but the Corpus Hermeticum has military terminology also. So this darkening outlook falls in line with later Gnostic Pessimism, though not fully developed: the term "Proto-Gnostic" seems most apt. I think all this suggests internal theological conflict with the (erstwhile, 'Jewish') community.

It is fairly obvious that the (Judeo-)Egyptian Hermeticist, Philo’s 'Actualized Man' (the A. A.), and Paul’s Christos Philippian are all antinomians (with their proselytes) operating in the same Hellenistic Jewish world, expressing the same tropes, even practicing (basically) the same rituals within the same time-period. 'Gnostic' Judaism was thriving well before the Temple's destruction in 70 AD.

Some variation of a (Ten) Step Program may have been common to such 'Mystery Cults' that were Pythagorean; in this case, Jewish.