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Mat_14:24 f. Μέσον ] Adjective; with more precision in Joh_6:19. At first the voyage had proceeded pleasantly ( ἤδη ), but they began to encounter a storm in the middle of the lake.
βασανιζόμ .] not dependent on ἦν . being plagued by the waves; vivid picture.
τετάρτῃ φυλακῇ ] πρωΐ , i.e. in the early morning, from three till somewhere about six o’clock. Since the time of Pompey, the Jews conformed to the Roman practice of dividing the night into four watches of three hours each; formerly, it consisted of three watches of four hours each. See Wetstein and Krebs, p. 39 f.; Winer, Realwörterbuch, under the word Nachtwachen; and Wieseler, Synopse, p. 406 f.
ἀπῆλθε πρὸς αὐτ .] He came away down from the mountain to go to them. Attraction. Hermann, ad Viger. p. 891 ff.; Bernhardy, p. 463.
According to the reading: περιπ . ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν (see critical notes): walking over the sea; according to the reading of the Received text: π . ἐ . τῆς θαλάσσης : walking on the sea. According to both readings alike, we are to understand a miraculous walking on the water, but not a walking along the shore ( ἐπὶ τ . θαλ ., on the ground that the shore may be said to be over the sea; comp. Xen. Anab. iv. 3. 28; Polyb. i. 44. 4; 2Ki_2:7; Dan_8:2; Joh_21:1), as Paulus, Stolz, Gfrörer, Schenkel are disposed to think; this view is absolutely demanded by the character of the incident which owes its significance to this miraculous part of it, by the solemn stress that is laid on the περιπατ . ἐπὶ τ . θάλ ., by the analogy of the περιεπάτησεν ἐπὶ τὰ ὕδατα in Mat_14:29, by the ridiculous nature of the fear of what was supposed to be an apparition if Jesus had only walked along the shore, by the ἀπῆλθε πρὸς αὐτούς in Mat_14:25, as well as by the fact that, if Jesus had been on the shore (Strauss, II. p. 170), then the disciples, who were in the middle of the lake, forty stadia in breadth, with the roar of the waves sounding in their ears, could not possibly hear what He was saying when He addressed them. It remains, then, that we have here a case of miraculous walking on the sea, which least of all admits of being construed into an act of swimming (Bolten); but neither are we to try to explain it by supposing (Olshausen) that, by the exercise of His own will, our Lord’s bodily nature became exempted, for the time being, from the conditions of its earthly existence; nor should we attempt to render it intelligible by the help of foreign analogies (the cork-footed men in Lucian. 14 :hist. ii. 4; the seeress of Prevost; the water-treaders, and such like), but, as being akin to the miracle of the stilling of the tempest (Mat_4:25 ff.), it should rather be examined in the light of that power over the elements which dwells in Christ as the incarnate Son of God. At the same time, it must be confessed that it is utterly impossible to determine by what means this miraculous walking was accomplished. From a teleological point of view, it will be deemed sufficient that it serves to form a practical demonstration of the Messiahship of Jesus, a consideration (comp. Mat_14:33) which was no less present to the minds of the evangelists in constructing their narratives. The credibility of those evangelists—among whom is John, whose personal experience lends additional weight to his testimony—must prove fatal, not only to any attempt to resolve our narrative into a mythical sea story (Strauss, who invokes the help of 2Ki_2:14; 2Ki_6:6, Job_9:8, and the legends of other nations), or even into a docetic fiction (Hilgenfeld), but also to the half and half view, that some event or other, which occurred on the night in question, developed (Hase) into one of those genuine legendary stories which serve to embody some particular idea (in this instance, the walking on the water, Job_9:8). In the same way Baumgarten-Crusius, on John, I. p. 234, regards a case of walking on the sea, recorded by John, as the original tradition; while Weisse, p. 521 (comp. Schneckenburger, erst. kan. Ev. p. 68), avails himself of the allegorical view; Bruno Bauer, again, here as elsewhere, pushes negative principles to their extreme limit; and Volkmar sees reflected in the narrative Paul’s mission to the Gentiles. Weizsäcker and Keim likewise assume, though with more caution and judgment, the allegorical standpoint, the former being disposed to regard the interposing of Jesus with His help, and the power of faith in conquering danger, as constituting the essence of the whole; Keim again being inclined to see in the story an allusion to the distress and desolation of the church waiting for her Lord, and not knowing but that He may not come to her help till the very last watch in the night (Mat_24:43; Mar_13:35),—an idea which, as he thinks, is indebted in no small degree to Job_9:8, where God is represented as treading on the waves of the sea. But even this mode of interpretation, though in accordance, it may be, with the letter, cannot but do violence to the whole narrative as a statement of fact. Comp., besides, the note on Joh_6:16-21.