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“The Three Accounts of Jesus Walking on Water”
Matthew 14:22-36; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:15-25 (NASB)
By: Joey Pepmiller

While researching and trying to make a little more sense out of the three different accounts of Jesus walking on water in Matthew 14:22-36, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:15-25, I have found several differences as well as similarities in these three gospels. For instance, they all have the same basic story. After feeding the 5,000, Jesus needs some time to spend with God, so He goes up on a mountain to pray, while the disciples get in a boat to cross over the sea to Gennesaret. While on the sea, the boat encountered some pretty rough waves and was heading into a strong wind. When Jesus came down from the mountain, the boat was well into the middle of the sea, and it was the 4th watch of the night. A storm was crushing the poor little ship, and the disciples were afraid. So Jesus decided to go out to them, but he did not have a boat. He walked on the water out towards the boat. When the disciples saw him, they thought he was a ghost and they were very scared. But Jesus quickly calmed them by telling them who he was and to have courage. He then entered the boat, and the storm calmed. Jesus then rested until they reached Gennesaret.

That’s pretty much the same basic story throughout all three gospels. I’m about to give you some of the differences that I, myself, have noticed and those noticed by a couple of scholars and well-known authors. This is where my first and I believe my most important difference comes in. In Matthew’s account (Matthew 14:28), Peter asks for Jesus to call him out to the water with him and Jesus does. On Peter’s way out to Jesus, he noticed that the waves were crashing rather harshly below him and lost focus. Peter fell in the water but quickly cried out to Jesus “Lord, save me!” Jesus then reached down and picked Peter up. This occurrence, or incident, was left out of the other two accounts. In a book called The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Alfred, Edersheim. Life and times of Jesus the Messiah. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, 1993.), author Alfred Edersheim makes special note of Peter walking on water with Jesus. He says that he thinks Peter had doubt when he called out to God. Sure Peter had a lot of courage and hope, but Edersheim believes that God saw the doubt in Peter’s eyes and used it for Peter’s own spiritual growth, as well as anyone’s who has read this account. Edersheim believes that in order to have the right spiritual growth, we must first have an inward spiritual experience to spark our upward growth. To me, this is an amazing way to look at this occurrence. I believe that ole’ Alfred hit the nail on the head with this one.

But there is still that question of why this occurrence of Peter walking on water with Jesus was left out of the two other accounts. Sure, we can always look back towards authorship, but it seems like such a cop out. Edersheim also makes a good observation here as well. If we look at the books as being named after the author, we can rule out Mark because of his relationship with Peter. This meaning that Mark and Peter were good friends, so Mark didn’t want to mention this negative action of Peter. But out of John and Matthew, the two eyewitnesses as stated by Edersheim, only Matthew mentions this incident. Matthew’s audience was the Jewish people of whom which the author was very general in writing to. It’s almost as if the author expected them to know more. But yet, the author of Matthew deems it necessary to add this incident. The only thing that I or Edersheim could come up with was that maybe the author of Matthew felt some personal connection with this story. Maybe it related to the author’s own life with Christ.

(Mark 6:52)The next difference I see is in Mark when Jesus entered the boat. The sea and winds calmed like the other accounts of Matthew and John, but Mark states that the disciples did not gain any insight from the feeding of the 5,000, and their hearts were hardened. I believe that this is stated to tell why they were afraid and did not immediately recognize Jesus on the water. The only other reason is found when we look at the way that everyone in Mark is amazed at the many different miracles Jesus is doing. As told to us in class by Professor George Bogaski at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Bogaski, George. "New Testament Class Lecture."), people who encounter Jesus in Mark are always amazed. The only three exceptions would be demons (who already know Jesus and what he can do), the scribe (of whom Jesus is kind of amazed at because he is not amazed at him), and the centurion (who realizes who Jesus really is after his death). The definition, if you will, of “amazement” in Mark as told by Bogaski is a concept of awe and fear mixed with a little bit of understanding. This means that the people who are amazed understand to the point where they are fearful and in awe of what they cannot really understand. This is the state that I believe the disciples to be in Mark’s account. They understand that they do not understand and that is why they are fearful of Jesus works in this passage.

The next information that I am bringing to the table is from The New Daily Study Bible Collection by William Barclay. (Barclay, William. The Gospel of Mark The New Daily Study Bible. New York: Westminster John Knox P, 2001.) (Barclay, William. Gospel of Matthew Chapters 11 to 28 (New Daily Study Bible). New York: Westminster John Knox P, 2001.) (Barclay, William. The Gospel of John The New Daily Study Bible (Volume 1). New York: Westminster John Knox P, 2001.) Barclay points out that Matthew and Mark only have Jesus sending his disciples away, and they really don’t share why he sent them ahead. But John states that the disciples simply went ahead of Jesus, and Jesus, seeing that the crowd was going to try and make him king, retreated to the mountain. It does not say that Jesus sent his disciples, but it does give us a little bit of a hint as to why the disciples went. Barclay believes that Jesus did not want the disciples to get the same idea as the people and try to make him king. In other words, Jesus did not want the disciples to be infected by the crowd. And I have no reason not to agree with Barclay. I will say that I believe that this is also a sign of the Messianic Secret. Jesus was not quite ready for the people to know him as king. He was still preparing.

There is one last observation I would like to make as an important note on this passage. The story ends in all three accounts with Jesus landing at Gennesaret, and people from everywhere are coming to be healed. I believe this to go well with the beginning of the passage where Jesus is going up on top of the mountain to pray. I get that when Jesus prayed, he put forth a lot of effort and energy, but I also think that Jesus was getting reenergized. This is significant because of the fact that I think Jesus knew what he would be facing when he reached Gennesaret, and he wanted to be well rested so that he could maybe “amaze” some others.

I hope my observation and analysis of this occurrence in the scriptures has helped you in your growth as a Christian.