Christian teachings The walking on the sea episode has specific interpretations within Christian teachings and has been viewed by scholars as important due to its perceived impact on the formation of Christian
ecumenical creeds, as discussed below. One aspect of the
pericope (passage) is how it highlights the relationship between Jesus and his apostles.
Merrill Tenney states that the incident is in essence centered on that aspect, rather than their peril or the miracle itself.
Dwight Pentecost and John Danilson state that this miracle was deliberately designed by Jesus to instruct his apostles and increase their
faith. David Cook and
Craig Evans note that "of little faith" is a somewhat common expression in Matthew (e.g.
8:26 when
calming the storm or
16:8 regarding bread and the Pharisees just before the
Confession of Peter) and may mean "of no faith". Richard Cassidy states that this episode sheds special light on the position of Peter who had faith in Jesus and acknowledged Jesus' extraordinary powers, and by considering to walk on water himself, wanted to share in the act of Jesus before the other disciples for he considered himself closest to Jesus. Cook and Evans note that the "Lord Save me" cry of Peter is similar to and in the calming the storm episode and again emphasizes the reliance of the disciples on Jesus. Scholars such as
Ulrich Luz and separately
Dale Allison view the pericope as instrumental in asserting the divinity of Jesus among early Christians. Alan Robinson sees the pericope as important in establishing the belief in the
early Church that the disciples viewed Jesus as the Son of God. Dale Allison states that Matthew's presentation emphasizes that
God the Father is willing to share divine power with his son and that the impact of this pericope on the affirmation of the divinity of Jesus in the
ecumenical creeds is undeniable.
Historical-critical analysis Cathédrale Saint-Louis (1766)
Versailles Scholars who hold that the story records actual events do so on the basis that Jesus, as Son of God, was above the laws of nature; or, in a variation, that Jesus projected an image himself while actually remaining on the shore. The meaning of the episode is held to be inherent in its miraculous nature: "The meaning of the pericope (story) ... only has meaning ... if it is understood as relating a miraculous event which really took place" (Leopold Sabourin, 1975). Catholic scholar
John P. Meier believes that the miraculous walk on water is a purely theological narrative, without historical foundation. Oral tradition, according to Meier, is intertwined with references to the
Old Testament (Jesus' answer "I am" is in accordance with the vision of Jesus as
Yahweh of the Early Church) and post-resurrection perceptions. In particular, the narrative part of the story seems to fall into the apocalyptic genre, meaning by this term a genre characterized by an accentuated symbolism and light-shadow contrasts. Initially Jesus collects the
Apostles on a boat and sends them away alone, to go alone to the mountain to pray, but promising to meet them on the other side of the "sea"; the apostles have difficulty in reaching the other shore, but Jesus appears and everything ends well. According to Meier this is a metaphor of the Early Church immediately after
Easter: Jesus leaves his disciples with the ascension promising to return, but occasionally visits them during the journey to support them (through the
Eucharist). Like all apocalyptic literature, his function is to comfort a community in need. Some scholars have held the view that while this event took place, it was not miraculous:
Albert Schweitzer, for example, suggested that the disciples saw Jesus walking on the shore, but were confused by high wind and darkness; some scholars who accept this "misperception thesis" argue that Mark originally wrote that Jesus walked on the seashore rather than on the sea, and that John had a more accurate version. Others have held that the entire episode is a "pious legend" (
B. H. Branscomb, 1937), based perhaps on some lost incident; perhaps Jesus waded through the surf (Vincent Taylor, 1957), or perhaps he walked on a sand bar (Sherman Johnson, 1972, J.D.M. Derrett, 1981). There are scholars who regard the story as an example of "creative symbolism", or
myth, which probably was understood by a part of the audience literally and by others allegorically. Others look for an origin in the mythic world of the Old Testament itself (Christ's victory over the waters paralleling Yahweh's defeat of the primeval Sea, representing
Chaos), or within the New Testament, as an originally simple story later embellished with Hellenistic and Old Testament details. In the Hebrew Bible, God gives power over the sea, e.g. to
Moses (
Ex 14:21–29) or to
Elijah (
2 kg 2:8). Young analyses the pericope as the expression of three entangled, conflicting perspectives on reality: (i) the "conventional reality" based on
sensory perception; (ii) the "impossible"
vision of Jesus resulting in the astonishment of the observers; (iii) the narrator's
metaphysical comment in Mark 6:52 identifying Jesus as the Son of God. Throughout the Old Testament the power to walk on water is not attributed to any man, but only to God (cf. : " alone spreads out the heavens, Andtreads on thewaves of the sea"), Lord of creation. ==See also==