Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 8:23 - 8:23

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Luke 8:23 - 8:23


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

23. ἀφύπνωσεν. ‘He fell into deep sleep.’ The day had been one of incessant toil; and He was resting (as St Mark tells us, reflecting the vivid reminiscence of St Peter) ‘in the stern on the steersman’s leather cushion,’ Mar 4:38 : contrast with this Jon 1:5.

κατέβη λαῖλαψ. ‘There swept down a hurricane.’ St Matthew uses the less accurate word σεισμός. The suddenness and violence of this ‘hurricane’ is in exact accordance with what we know of the Lake. The winds from the snowy peaks of Hermon rush down the Peraean wadies into the burning tropical air of the lake-basin with extraordinary suddenness and impetuosity (Thomson, Land and Book, II. 25). The lake may look like a sheet of silver, when in one moment there will be a darkening ripple, and in the next it will be lashed into storm and foam. The outburst of this storm perhaps frightened back the boats which started with Him, Mar 4:36.

συνεπληροῦντο. ‘Were being filled.’ ‘The waves were dashing into the boat, so that it was getting full,’ Mar 4:37; ‘the boat was being hidden under the waves,’ Mat 8:24. The tossing ship (Navicella) has been accepted in all ages as the type of the Church in seasons of peril.