To Understand Jesus Walking on Water, Turn to the Old Testament

By Benjamin L. Gladd

Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

The Gospel of Mark contains two gripping stories of Jesus performing miracles on the Sea of Galilee.

In the first miracle, Jesus famously stills the raging sea (4:35–41). In the second miracle, Jesus walks on the sea to reach the stranded disciples, and the storm dies down (6:47–52). This second event contains an odd line that often causes readers of Mark’s Gospel to scratch their heads:

“[Jesus] saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Very early in the morning he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them” (v. 48, CSB, emphasis added).

This passage illustrates the importance of connecting the Old Testament to the New Testament. Without familiarity with the Old Testament language, this text’s full meaning would pass by the reader.

Walking on the Water

Most readers are familiar with this event as Jesus was “walking on the sea” (6:48). There has been no shortage of depictions of this scene in art or TV shows. Mark’s description of Jesus overtly recalls Job 9:8:

“[Yahweh] alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea”

(CSB).

The Greek translation of this passage that predates the New Testament is nearly identical to Mark’s wording.

Job 9 largely concerns the Lord’s prerogative to create, judge, and rule. Treading on the water, then, is clearly a divine act (see also 38:16; Ps. 77:19; Isa. 43:16). Mark’s logic works like a syllogism: Yahweh treads on the water; Jesus treads on the water; therefore, Jesus is Yahweh.

Greater Sinai

Once Mark’s readers take notice that Jesus walks on the water—the very thing that Yahweh does—they’re now prepared for a second reference to the Old Testament. This reference, though, is more complex and equally enigmatic. Mark 6:48 states,

“[He] wanted to pass by them” (CSB).

On the surface, this line doesn’t make much sense, since the disciples are stranded on the Sea of Galilee and in the middle of a raging storm. If Jesus passes by them, how is that a rescue operation?

Mark deploys this strange language to evoke one of the most important events in Israel’s career: the revelation of God’s partial glory to Moses. The key that unlocks the meaning behind the enigmatic statement to “pass by” is found in Exodus 33:18–22

At Sinai, Moses wishes to see God’s glory, but the Lord only lets him catch a glimpse. By inserting these two allusions into the narrative, Mark demonstrates that Jesus is the presence of God’s glory on the earth, and the disciples experience what Moses longed for. The problem, though, is that the disciples fail to recognize the significance of the event, as they claim to see a “ghost” (Mark 6:49). It’s not until the end of Mark’s narrative that the disciples truly perceive Jesus as Yahweh in the flesh (16:7). Whereas Moses experienced only a glimpse of God’s glory, the disciples experience the fullness of God’s glory in the person of Jesus.

What Difference Does It Make?

The Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years, as God communicated it to his people through Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. One of the reasons that the Bible is utterly unique is how it references itself. The New Testament authors quote the Old Testament 350 times and allude to it more than 3,000 times.

Because God designed the Bible to be self-referential, he expects his people to pick up on these inner-biblical connections. And when we do trace these connections, we unlock Scripture’s full meaning.

Modern Readers, Ancient Meaning

Modern Bible readers have an untold number of resources at their fingertips to aid in their study of the Scriptures. While the Spirit often reveals truth to us in our reading, the Bible teaches us to pursue the good work of handling the Word rightly, searching like the noble Bereans for wisdom and truth.

As these allusions in Mark 6 show, we can better understand the beauty and depth of God’s Word when we experience the interconnectedness of the Old and New Testaments.

Article excerpt taken from The Gospel Coalition (U.S. Edition). 

Read the full resource here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/jesus-walking-water-old-testament/