for the prophets, and that such marvels lie entirely beyond the powers of the human soul. Philosophers and other rational thinkers are unanimous that the soul’s faculties cannot bring about these events, nor can any of the forces known in either the celestial or the terrestrial realms.

Second, these wonders demonstrate that God is an Agent who chooses: by His will and power He originates whatever He wishes, in keeping with His wisdom. He is not an agent who acts by intrinsic necessity, for what acts by its very essence must produce its effects without deviation and could never depart from the natural order.

Although celestial configurations and planetary conjunctions sometimes give rise to unusual phenomena in this world, two conditions must be met: the receptive materials must be properly prepared, and the conjunctions must occur according to their customary, predictable patterns. Both conditions are absent in these miracles. Sublunary matter does not ordinarily admit such events, nor do astronomical alignments generate them.

Hence the oddities that result from a mixture of active celestial forces with passive earthly ones do not belong to this class; their likes are familiar—driving certain animals from a place or attracting them to it, inducing illnesses in some bodies or causing their death, and similar occurrences.

Third, these signs are among the strongest proofs of the possibility of bodily resurrection and the return of souls to their bodies. Nothing establishes the possibility of a thing more decisively than its actual occurrence or the occurrence of something analogous to it. Since such events have undeniably taken place, their possibility is certain, and likewise