Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 6:19
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
19. five and twenty or thirty furlongs ] This pretty closely corresponds with ‘in the midst of the sea’ (Mat 14:24). The lake is nearly seven miles across in the widest part.
walking on the sea ] There is no doubt that this means on the surface of the water, although an attempt has been made to shew that the Greek may mean ‘on the sea-shore.’ Even if it can, which is perhaps somewhat doubtful, the context shews plainly what is meant. How could they have been afraid at seeing Jesus walking on the shore? S. Mark tells us that it was about the fourth watch, i.e. between 3.0 and 6.0 a.m. S. Matthew alone gives S. Peter’s walking on the sea.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 19. Had rowed] Their vessel was a small one only, something of the boat kind: as to sails, if they had any, they could not now venture to carry them, because of the storm.
Five and twenty or thirty furlongs] Between three and four miles. The sea of Tiberias, on which they now were, was, according to Josephus, War, book iii. chap. 25, forty furlongs, or five miles in breadth; and one hundred and forty furlongs, or eighteen miles, in length. Pliny, lib. v. chap. 15, makes it about six miles broad, and sixteen long.
They see Jesus] See Clarke on Mt 14:25, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
19. they see Jesus“aboutthe fourth watch of the night” (Mat 14:25;Mar 6:48), or between three andsix in the morning.
walking on the seaWhatJob (Job 9:8) celebrates as thedistinguishing prerogative of GOD,”WHO ALONE spreadethout the heavens, and TREADETHUPON THE WAVES OF THE SEA”What AGURchallenges as GOD’Sunapproachable prerogative, to “GATHERTHE WIND IN HIS FISTS,and BIND THE WATERS IN A GARMENT”(Pr 30:4) lo! this is heredone in flesh, by “THESON OF MAN.”
drawing nigh to the shipyetas though He “would have passed by them,” Mr6:48 (compare Luk 24:28;Gen 18:3; Gen 18:5;Gen 32:24-26).
they were afraid“criedout for fear” (Mt 14:26),”supposing it had been a spirit” (Mr6:49). He would appear to them at first like a dark moving speckupon the waters; then as a human figure, butin the darktempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lordtheytake it for a spirit. (How often thus we miscall our chiefestmerciesnot only thinking them distant when they are near, butthinking the best the worst!)
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So when they had rowed,…. For the wind being contrary, they could not make use of their sails, but betook themselves to their oars, and by that means got
about five and twenty, or thirty furlongs; which were three or four miles, or little more than a league; no further had they got, though they had been rowing from the time it was dark, to the fourth watch, which was after three o’clock in the morning; all this while they had been tossed in the sea;
they saw Jesus walking on the sea;
[See comments on Mt 14:25],
[See comments on Mt 14:26],
[See comments on Mt 14:29].
And drawing nigh unto the ship; though Mark says, he “would have passed by them”, Mr 6:48; that is, he seemed as if he would, but his intention was to come to them, and save them from perishing, as he did:
and they were afraid; that he was a spirit, some nocturnal apparition, or demon, in an human form; [See comments on Mt 14:26].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When therefore they had rowed ( ). Perfect active participle of , old verb to march (Xenophon), to drive (Jas 3:4), to row (Mr 6:48).
Furlongs (). Stadia, accusative of extent of space, a little over halfway across, “in the midst of the sea” (Mr 6:47). It was about forty stadia (six miles) across.
They behold (). Graphic dramatic present active indicative of , vividly preserving the emotions of the disciples.
Walking (). Present active participle in the accusative case agreeing with .
Drawing nigh unto the boat ( ). Present middle participle of describing the process. “Coming near the boat.” They behold Jesus slipping closer and closer to them on the water.
They were afraid (). Ingressive aorist passive indicative of , “they became afraid.” Sudden change to the regular historical sequence.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Had rowed [] . Literally, had driven or propelled (the boat).
Five and twenty, etc. The lake being about forty furlongs, six miles, at its broadest, they had gone only a little more than half – way.
They see [] . Rev., behold; with an intent gaze. See on 1 18. Both Luke and John use this word frequently.
Drawing nigh. Literally, becoming nigh. Wyc., to be made next to the boat. Mark adds, He would have passed by them, and Luke that they thought Him a phantom.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “So when they had rowed,” (eleakotes oun) “Therefore when they had rowed,” for it was a row-boat ship, Mar 6:47-48.
2) “About five and twenty or thirty furlong “ (hos stadious eikosi pente e triakonta) “About twenty-five or thirty furlongs of distance,” to the midst of, or halfway across the sea, Mar 6:47; Mat 14:24. It was about 2 miles from shore.
3) “They see Jesus walking on the sea,” (theorousin ton lesoun peripatounta epi tes thalasses) “They observed Jesus walking upon the sea,” not just near or on land, else they would have had little fear, for they had surely been expecting to locate Him on the shore. Mat 14:25 describes the scene as very late in the night, at the fourth watch, perhaps around 3 o’clock in the morning; and Mar 6:48 indicates they all saw Him.
4) “And drawing nigh unto the ship:- (kai angus tou ploiou ginomenon) ”And becoming (coming to be) near the boat,” approaching the boat, literally and supernaturally walking upon the storm tossed contrary waves, Mat 14:26, Mar 6:4.
5) “And they were afraid.” (kai ephobethesan) “And they feared,” were troubled, emotionally stirred with fear, Mat 14:26; Mar 6:50.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. They were terrified. The other Evangelists explain the cause of that fear to have been, that they thought that it was an apparition, (Mat 14:26; Mar 6:49.) Now it is impossible not to be seized with consternation and dread, when an apparition is presented before our eyes; for we conclude that it is either some imposture of Satan, or some bad omen which God sends us. Besides, John here holds out to us, as in a mirror, what kind of knowledge of Christ we may obtain without the word, and what advantage may be reaped from that knowledge. For if he present a simple demonstration of his divinity, we immediately fall into our imaginations, and every person forms an idol for himself instead of Christ. After we have thus wandered in our understanding, this is immediately followed by trembling and a confused terror of heart. But when he begins to speak, we then obtain from his voice clear and solid knowledge, and then also joy and delightful peace dawn upon our minds. For there is great weight in these words:
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) Five and twenty or thirty furlongsi.e., about half their voyage. Josephus describes the lake as forty furlongs wide (Wars, iii. 10, 7). Comp. Mat. 14:25.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘When therefore they had rowed about twenty five or thirty stades they behold Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat.’
There was clearly a heavy sea, and rowing three or four miles must have been pretty arduous, taking a number of hours. However, they were a tough lot and some were experienced boatmen. But however tough they were they were not prepared for the sight of a figure walking across the heaving waves towards them. And when they saw it ‘they were afraid’. Matthew and Mark tell us that they thought that it was ‘a ghost’ (Mat 14:26; Mar 6:49). Note the writer’s awareness of the distances likely on the Sea of Galilee.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 6:19. So when they had rowed, &c. Probably when they found the wind so violent, their were afraid of being shipwrecked, if they came near the shore; and therefore, having perhaps sailed awhile before the wind they now rowed out to sea; for as they must have been several hours at sea, one can hardly imagine, that with so brisk a gale, they made no more way in all this time than a little abovea league, unless we impute it to their having laboured all they could to avoid crossing the sea, and to get to Bethsaida. See on Mat 14:24.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
19 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
Ver. 19. They were afraid ] See Mat 14:26-27 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
19 21. . . ] There surely can be no question in the mind of an unprejudiced reader, that it is John’s intention to relate a miracle; nor again, that there could be in the minds of the disciples no doubt about that miracle, no chance of a mistake as to what they saw. I have treated of . on Mat 14:25 .
They were afraid: but upon being reassured by His voice, they were willing to take Him into the ship; and upon their doing so, the ship in a comparatively short time (or perhaps immediately, by miracle , but I prefer the other) was at the land to which they had been going, viz. by the storm ceasing, and the ship making smooth way ( , Matt., Mark).
It seems to me that the above interpretation of is absolutely necessary to account for the , and quite in accordance with John’s usage of (see reff.).
Some of the German Commentators (even De Wette among them) have created a difficulty, by strangely rendering , ‘ they wished ’ (implying, ‘ but did not ’), but ( ) the ship was immediately , &c. i.e. they were already close to the land, and so there was no occasion. Prof. Bleek (Beitrge, pp. 103 4) half adopts this view: adding to it, I am sorry to see, that perhaps Jesus was on the land, and the disciples in the storm and darkness thought Him to be on the sea.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 6:19 . . The Vulgate renders “cum remigassent ergo,” and modern Greek , rightly; see Aristoph., Frogs , 195; and other passages in Elsner. The stadium was about 194 (Rich gives 202) yards, so that nine rather than eight would go to a mile. The disciples had rowed about three miles. [The best discussion of the direction they were taking is in the Rob Roy on the Jordan , p. 374.] “they see Jesus walking on the sea”. It has been suggested that this may only mean that Jesus was walking “by” the sea, being used in this sense in Joh 21:1 . But that can mean “on” the sea is of course not questioned (see Lucian’s Vera Historia , where this incident is burlesqued; also Job 9:8 , where, to signalise the power of God, He is spoken of as ). Besides, why should the disciples have been afraid had they merely seen Jesus walking on the shore? They manifested their fear in some way, and He says to them, , I am He, or It is I.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
THE FIFTH MIRACLE IN JOHN’S GOSPEL
Joh 6:19 – Joh 6:20
There are none of our Lord’s parables recorded in this Gospel, but all the miracles which it narrates are parables. Moral and religious truth is communicated by the outward event, as in the parable it is communicated by the story. The mere visible fact becomes more than semi-transparent. The analogy between the spiritual and the natural world which men instinctively apprehend, of which the poet and the orator and the religious teacher have always made abundant use, and which it has sometimes been attempted, unsuccessfully as I think, to elevate to the rank of a scientific truth, underlies the whole series of these miracles. It is the principal if not the only key to the meaning of this one before us.
The symbolism which regards life under the guise of a voyage, and its troubles and difficulties under the metaphor of storm and tempest, is especially natural to nations that take kindly to the water, like us Englishmen. I do not know that there is any instance, either in the Old or in the New Testament, of the use of that to us very familiar metaphor; but the emblem of the sea as the symbol of trouble, unrest, rebellious power, is very familiar to the writers of the Old Testament. And the picture of the divine path as in the waters, and of the divine prerogative as being to ‘tread upon the heights of the sea,’ as Job has it, is by no means unknown. So the natural symbolism, and the Old Testament use of the expressions, blend together, as I think, in suggesting the one point of view from which this miracle is to be regarded.
It is found in two of the other Evangelists, and the condensed account of it which we have in this Gospel, by its omission of Peter’s walking on the water, and of some other smaller but graphic details that the other Evangelists give us, serves to sharpen the symbolical meaning of the whole story, and to bring that as its great purpose and signification into prominence.
We shall, I think, then, best gain the lessons intended to be drawn if we simply follow the points of the narrative in their order as they stand here.
I. We have here, first of all, then, the struggling toilers.
Is it not the history of the Church in a nutshell? Is it not the symbol of life for us all? The solemn law under which we live demands persistent effort, and imposes continual antagonism upon us; there is no reason why we should regard that as evil, or think ourselves hardly used, because we are not fair-weather sailors. The end of life is to make men; the meaning of all events is to mould character. Anything that makes me stronger is a blessing, anything that develops my morale is the highest good that can come to me. If therefore antagonism mould in me
‘The wrestling thews that throw the world,’
and give me good, strong muscles, and put tan and colour into my cheek, I need not mind the cold and the wet, nor care for the whistling of the wind in my face, nor the dash of the spray over the bows. Summer sailing in fair weather, amidst land-locked bays, in blue seas, and under calm skies, may be all very well for triflers, but
‘Blown seas and storming showers’
are better if the purpose of the voyage be to brace us and call out our powers.
And so be thankful if, when the boat is crossing the mouth of some glen that opens upon the lake, a sudden gust smites the sheets and sends you to the helm, and takes all your effort to keep you from sinking. Do not murmur, or think that God’s Providence is strange, because many and many a time when ‘it is dark, and Jesus is not yet come to us,’ the storm of wind comes down upon the lake and threatens to drive us from our course. Let us rather recognise Him as the Lord who, in love and kindness, sends all the different kinds of weather which, according to the old proverb, make up the full-summed year.
And then notice how, in this first picture of our text, the symbolism so naturally lends itself to spiritual meanings, not only in regard to the tempest that caught the unthinking voyagers, but also in regard to other points; such as the darkness amidst which they had to fight the tempest, and the absence of the Master. Once before, they had been caught in a similar storm on the lake, but it was daylight then, and Jesus was with them, and that made all the difference. This time it was night, and they looked up in vain to the green Eastern hills, and wondered where in their folds He was lurking, so far from their help. Mark gives us one sweet touch when he tells us that Christ on the hillside there saw them toiling in rowing, but they did not see Him. No doubt they felt themselves deserted, and sent many a wistful glance of longing towards the shore where He was. Hard thoughts of Him may have been in some of their minds. ‘Master, carest Thou not?’ would be springing to some of their lips with more apparent reason than in the other storm on the lake. But His calm and loving gaze looked down pitying on all their fear and toil. The darkness did not hide from Him, nor His own security on the steadfast land make Him forget, nor his communion with the Father so absorb Him as to exclude thoughts of them.
It is a parable and a prophecy of the perpetual relation between the absent Lord and the toiling Church. He is on the mountain while we are on the sea. The stable eternity of the Heavens holds Him; we are tossed on the restless mutability of time, over which we toil at His command. He is there interceding for us. Whilst He prays He beholds, and He beholds that He may help us by His prayer. The solitary crew were not so solitary as they thought. That little dancing speck on the waters, which held so much blind love and so much fear and trouble, was in His sight, as on the calm mountain-top He communed with God. No wonder that weary hearts and lonely ones, groping amidst the darkness, and fighting with the tempests and the sorrows of lift, have ever found in our story a symbol that comes to them with a prophecy of hope and an assurance of help, and have rejoiced to know that they on the sea are beheld of the Christ in the sky, and that ‘the darkness hideth not from’ His loving eye.
II. And now turn to the next stage of the story before us. We have the approaching Christ.
If we look for a moment at the miraculous fact, apart from the symbolism, we have a revelation here of Christ as the Lord of the material universe, a kingdom wider in its range and profounder in its authority than that which that shouting crowd had sought to force upon Him. His will consolidated the yielding wave, or sustained His material body on the tossing surges. Whether we suppose the miracle as wrought on the one or the other, makes no difference to its value as a manifestation of the glory of Christ, and of His power over the physical order of things. In the latter case there would, perhaps, be a hint of a power residing in His material frame, of which we possibly have other phases, as in the Transfiguration, which may be a prophecy of what lordship over nature is possible to a sinless manhood. However that may be, we have here a wonderful picture which is true for all ages of the mighty Christ, to whose gentle footfall the unquiet surges are as a marble pavement; and who draws near in the purposes of His love, unhindered by antagonism, and using even opposing forces as the path for His triumphant progress. Two lessons may be drawn from this. One is that in His marvellous providence Christ uses all the tumults and unrest, the opposition and tempests which surround the ship that bears His followers, as the means of achieving His purposes. We stand before a mystery to which we have no key when we think of these two certain facts; first, the Omnipotent redeeming will of God in Christ; and, second, the human antagonism which is able to rear itself against that. And we stand in the presence of another mystery, most blessed, and yet which we cannot unthread, when we think, as we most assuredly may, that in some mysterious fashion He works His purposes by the very antagonism to His purposes, making even head-winds fill the sails, and planting His foot on the white crests of the angry and changeful billows. How often in the world’s history has this scene repeated itself, and by a divine irony the enemies have become the helpers of Christ’s cause, and what they plotted for destruction has turned out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel! ‘He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the residue thereof He girdeth Himself.’
Another lesson for our individual lives is this, that Christ, in His sweetness and His gentle sustaining help, comes near to us all across the sea of sorrow and trouble. A more tender, a more gracious sense of His nearness to us is ever granted to us in the time of our darkness and our grief than is possible to us in the sunny hours of joy. It is always the stormy sea that Christ comes across, to draw near to us; and they who have never experienced the tempest have yet to learn the inmost sweetness of His presence. When it is night, and it is dark, at the hour which is the keystone of night’s black arch, Christ comes to us, striding across the stormy waters. Sorrow brings Him near to us. Do you see that sorrow does not drive you away from Him!
III. Then, still further, we note in the story before us the terror and the recognition.
I do not dwell upon the fact that the average man, if he fancies that anything from out of the Unseen is near him, shrinks in fear. I do not ask you whether that is not a sign and indication of the deep conviction that lies in men’s souls, of a discord between themselves and the unseen world; but I ask you if we do not often mistake the coming Master, and tremble before Him when we ought to be glad?
We are often so absorbed with our work, so busy tugging at the oar, so anxiously watching the set of current, so engaged in keeping the helm right, that we have no time and no eyes to look across the ocean and see who it is that is coming to us through all the hurly-burly. Our tears fill our eyes, and weave a veil between us and the Master. And when we do see that there is Something there, we are often afraid of it, and shrink from it. And sometimes when a gentle whisper of consolation, or some light air, as it were, of consciousness of His presence, breathes through our souls, we think that it is only a phantasm of our own making, and that the coming Christ is nothing more than the play of our thoughts and imaginations.
Oh, brethren, let no absorption in cares and duties, let no unchildlike murmurings, let no selfish abandonment to sorrow, blind you to the Lord who always comes near troubled hearts, if they will only look and see! Let no reluctance to entertain religious ideas, no fear of contact with the Unseen, no shrinking from the thought of Christ as a Kill-joy keep you from seeing Him as He draws near to you in your troubles. And let no sly, mocking Mephistopheles of doubt, nor any poisonous air, blowing off the foul and stagnant marshes of present materialism, make you fancy that the living Reality, treading on the flood there, is a dream or a fancy or the projection of your own imagination on to the void of space. He is real, whatever may be phenomenal and surface. The storm is not so real as the Christ, the waves not so substantial as He who stands upon them. They will pass and quieten, He will abide for ever. Lift up your hearts and be glad, because the Lord comes to you across the waters, and hearken to His voice: ‘It is I! Be not afraid.’
The encouragement not to fear follows the proclamation, ‘It is I!’ What a thrill of glad confidence must have poured itself into their hearts, when once they rose to the height of that wondrous fact!
‘Well roars the storm to those who hear A deeper voice across the storm.’
There is no fear in the consciousness of His presence. It is His old word: ‘Be not afraid!’ And He breathes it whithersoever He comes; for His coming is the banishment of danger and the exorcism of dread. So that if only you and I, in the midst of all storm and terror, can say ‘It is the Lord,’ then we may catch up the grand triumphant chorus of the old psalm, and say: ‘Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, yet I will not fear.’ The Lord is with us; the everlasting Christ is our Helper, our Refuge, and our Strength.
IV. So, lastly, we have here in this story the end of the tempest and of the voyage.
It is not always true, it is very seldom true, that when Christ comes on board opposition ends, and the haven is reached. But it is always true that when Christ comes on board a new spirit enters into the men who have Him for their companion, and are conscious that they have. It makes their work easy, and makes them ‘more than conquerors’ over what yet remains. With what a different spirit the weary men would bend their backs to the oars once more when they had the Master on board, and with what a different spirit you and I will set ourselves to our work if we are sure of His presence. The worst of trouble is gone when Christ shares it with us. There is a wonderful charm to stay His rough wind in the assurance that in all our affliction He is afflicted. If we feel that we are following in His footsteps, we feel that He stands between us and the blast, a refuge from the storm and a covert from the tempest. And if still, as no doubt will be the case, we have our share of trouble and storm and sorrow and difficulty, yet the worst of the gale will be passed, and though a long swell may still heave, the terror and the danger will have gone with the night, and hope and courage and gladness revive as the morning’s sun breaks over the still unquiet waves, and shows us our Master with us and the white walls of the port glinting in the level beams.
Friends, life is a voyage, anyhow, with plenty of storm and danger and difficulty and weariness and exposure and anxiety and dread and sorrow, for every soul of man. But if you will take Christ on board, it will be a very different thing from what it will be if you cross the wan waters alone. Without Him you will make shipwreck of yourselves; with Him your voyage may seem perilous and be tempestuous, but He will ‘make the storm a calm,’ and will bring you to the haven of your desire.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
five and twenty . . . furlongs (App-51). About half way. see. Greek. theoreo. App-133.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
19-21. . .] There surely can be no question in the mind of an unprejudiced reader, that it is Johns intention to relate a miracle;-nor again,-that there could be in the minds of the disciples no doubt about that miracle,-no chance of a mistake as to what they saw. I have treated of . on Mat 14:25.
They were afraid:-but upon being reassured by His voice, they were willing to take Him into the ship; and upon their doing so, the ship in a comparatively short time (or perhaps immediately, by miracle, but I prefer the other) was at the land to which they had been going, viz. by the storm ceasing, and the ship making smooth way ( , Matt., Mark).
It seems to me that the above interpretation of is absolutely necessary to account for the , and quite in accordance with Johns usage of (see reff.).
Some of the German Commentators (even De Wette among them) have created a difficulty, by strangely rendering , they wished (implying, but did not), but () the ship was immediately, &c.-i.e. they were already close to the land, and so there was no occasion. Prof. Bleek (Beitrge, pp. 103-4) half adopts this view:-adding to it, I am sorry to see, that perhaps Jesus was on the land, and the disciples in the storm and darkness thought Him to be on the sea.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 6:19. , or) The Holy Spirit knew, and could have told John, how many furlongs precisely there were; but in Scripture He imitates popular modes of expression.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 6:19
Joh 6:19
When therefore they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs,-There are eight furlongs in a mile. Had they gone in a straight course they would have been about the center of the sea. Owing to the winds and waves they were doubtless thrown out of their course. Some think they drifted along the east shore from which they started.
they behold Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the boat:-After they had gone this far they saw Jesus coming. Mat 14:25 says it was in the fourth watch, or between three oclock and day. He walked on the sea while it was agitated by the winds and the waves rolled. Matthew 14:26 says they thought it was a ghost, a disembodied spirit. It is a new work in which to see Jesus.
and they were afraid.-[Mark reports that they cried out in fright.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
had rowed: Eze 27:26, Jon 1:13, Mar 6:47, Mar 6:48
furlongs: Joh 11:18, Luk 24:13, Rev 14:20, Rev 21:16
walking: Joh 14:18, Job 9:8, Psa 29:10, Psa 93:4, Mat 14:25, Mat 14:26, Mar 6:49, Luk 24:36-39
Reciprocal: Mar 4:40 – Why Mar 6:50 – it is I Joh 17:25 – these
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Joh 6:19. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs. If the wind had driven them southwards soon after their starting, they would be near the eastern coast at a point where the lake is about forty furlongs broad. If therefore they had rowed twenty-five or thirty furlongs, they would not be far from the midst of the sea (Mar 6:47). The agreement between the two narratives is clearly undesigned, and therefore the more interesting.
They behold Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the boat: and they were afraid. When Jesus drew near to the boat, it was the fourth watch (Mat 14:25), and therefore the darkest part of the night; some eight or nine hours had passed since they left Him with the multitude. The wind was boisterous, the sea raging, their strength was spent with rowing (Mar 6:48), when suddenly they behold Jesus walking on the sea, in the immediate neighbourhood of the boat. They knew not that it was He, and were terrified.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 19-21. When, therefore, they had gone about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing near to the boat, and they were afraid. 20. But he says to them: It is I, be not afraid. 21.And as they were willing to receive him into the boat, immediately the boat reached the point of the shore where they were going.
There was no other means by which Jesus could rejoin His disciples, before their arrival at Capernaum, but the one which He employs, Joh 6:19. They were now in the middle of the sea. In its broadest part, the lake of Genesareth was, as Josephus, (Bell. Jud., iii., 10, 7) says, forty stadia, nearly two leagues in width. If the expression of Matthew: in the midst of the sea, is taken as an indication of distance (which appears to me doubtful), this detail accords with John’s indication: twenty-five or thirty stadia. The present they see indicates the suddenness of the appearance of Jesus; the emotion of fear which the disciples experience, and which is more fully set forth in the Synoptics, does not allow the words on the sea, to be explained here in the sense in which they are used in Joh 21:1 : on the sea shore.
They think that they see a spectre approaching them. Jesus’ words: It is I, be not afraid, must have made a very profound impression on the disciples, for it is reported in the same words identically in the four narratives. The imperfect (literally: they wished), Joh 6:21, appears to imply that Jesus did not enter into the boat: They were willing to receive Him; but immediately they found themselves at the shore. There would thus be a contradiction of Mark and Matthew, according to whom Jesus really entered the boat, in Matthew after the episode of St. Peter. Chrysostom thinks himself obliged to infer from this difference that John was here relating another event than that spoken of by Matthew and Mark. But the close relation between this miracle and the multiplication of the loaves in the three Gospels, as well as the general similarity of the three accounts, do not permit us to accept this solution. J. D. Michaelis supposed that, instead of , must be read, which would solve the difficulty: they came; they drew near Him with the boat to receive Him. And, a singular circumstance, the Sinaitic MS. presents precisely the reading which was conjectured by this scholar.
But it has too much the appearance of a correction to deserve confidence. Besides, Jesus moved so freely upon the waters that the boat had no need to come near to Him. Beza and many exegetes after him think that the verb were willing, here simply adds to the act of receiving, the notion of eagerness, comp. Luk 20:46; Col 2:18. And Tholuck has given greater probability to this meaning by contrasting the words were willing, as thus understood, with ,they were afraid : they were afraid at the first moment, but now they received him willingly. There is one thing opposed to this explanation: it is that John has written the imperfect, they were wishing, which denotes incomplete action, and not the aorist, they wished, which would indicate an action completed (Joh 1:44). On the other hand, there is little probability that John could have meant to say, in contradiction to the Synoptics, that Jesus did not really enter the boat, as Meyer thinks. In that case, must he not have said, instead of , and immediately, ,but immediately? The meaning of John’s narrative would be indeed that the sudden arrival at the shore prevented the execution of the disciples’ purpose. As to ourselves, the relation between the two clauses of Joh 6:21, standing thus in juxtaposition, seems to us to be similar to that which we have already observed elsewhere in John (Joh 6:17). It is a logical relation, which we express by means of a conjunction: At the moment when they were eager to receive Him, the boat came to shore. The moment of the entrance of Jesus into the boat was thus that of the arrival. The thing took place so rapidly that the disciples themselves did not understand precisely the way in which it occurred. Joh 6:33 of Matt. and Joh 6:51 of Mark must be placed at the moment of disembarking. One can scarcely imagine, indeed, that, after an act of power so magnificent and so kingly as Jesus’ walking on the waters, He should have seated Himself in the boat, and the voyage should have been laboriously continued by the stroke of the oar? At the moment when Jesus set His foot on the boat, He communicated to it, as He had just done for Peter, the force victorious over gravity and space, which had just been so strikingly displayed in His own person. The words , and immediately, compared with the distance of ten or fifteen stadia (thirty to forty-five minutes) which yet separated them from the shore, allow no other explanation.
Such is the real sovereignty which Jesus opposes to the political royalty that fleshly-minded Israel designed to lay upon Him. He gives Himself to His own as the one who reigns over a vaster domain, over all the forces of nature, and who can, one day, free Himself and free them from the burden of this mortal body. If the multiplication of the loaves was the prelude of the offering which He would make of His flesh for the nourishment of the world, if, in this terrible night of darkness, tempest and separation, they have experienced as it were the foretaste of an approaching more sorrowful separation, in this unexpected and triumphant return across the heaving waves, Jesus, as it were, prefigured His resurrection by means of which He will be restored to them and that triumphant ascension in which He will one day give the Church itself a share, when, raising it with Himself, through the breath of His Spirit, He will bring it even to the heavenly places.
When we bear in mind that every voluntary movement which is effected by our body, every impulse which we communicate to a body which we throw into the air, isundoubtedly not an abolishing of the law of gravitation, buta victory which we gain momentarily over that law through the intervention of a force superior to it, namely, that of the will, we can understand that matter, being itself the work of the Divine will, remains always open to this essentially supernatural power. There is nothing therefore to prevent the Divine breath from being able, in a given condition, to free the human body for a time from the power of gravity. Reuss finds that this miracle places Jesus outside of and above humanity, and that, if it is real, it must no longer be said that the Lord divested Himself of His divine attributes. But to be raised above the law of gravity is less than to be wrested from death. Would the resurrection of Jesus, according to Reuss, prove that He was not a man? That of Lazarus, that he was not a man? The question of the has absolutely nothing to do with this matter.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
The distance the disciples had rowed in the Greek text is 25 or 30 stadia, which is between two and three-quarters miles and three and one-half miles. Matthew and Mark wrote that the disciples were in the middle of the lake probably meaning that they were well out into it (Mat 14:24; Mar 6:47). Some scholars wishing to depreciate this miracle have translated the Greek preposition epi as "by" rather than "on." [Note: E.g., Bernard, 1:186.] However, the context and the Synoptics clearly present Jesus as walking on the water, not on the shore beside the water.
Mark reported that the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost (Mar 6:49). John simply described them as frightened. This emphasis has the effect of stressing Jesus’ alleviation of their fear. The fear of the disciples and Jesus’ ability to calm their fear is the point of John’s record of this miracle. Jesus met the disciples between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. (Mat 14:25; Mar 6:48).
"Sometimes we are caught in a storm because we have disobeyed the Lord. Jonah is a good example. But sometimes the storm comes because we have obeyed the Lord. When that happens, we can be sure that our Saviour will pray for us, come to us, and deliver us. . . . Jesus had led His people into the green pastures (Joh 6:10), and now He brought them into the still waters (Psa 23:2). What a wonderful Shepherd He is!" [Note: Wiersbe, 1:310.]