Jesus walking on water

[1][2] In all three gospels it follows the feeding of the five thousand, where Jesus had withdrawn by ship to a desert place "belonging to"[3] Bethsaida after hearing of the death of John the Baptist, but was followed by the crowds who travelled on foot.

Matthew's and Mark's accounts end at this point, but John mentions that the next day some people from the other side of the sea that looked for Jesus, noted that the disciples left without him, but they didn't know where he went.

When they came to Capernaum and asked Jesus how he came there, instead of answering the question, he told the crowd that they followed him, not because they had seen signs, but because of the free loaves they had eaten the day before, and he advised them not to seek earthly gains, but aim for a life based on higher spiritual values.

[11] Dwight Pentecost and John Danilson state that this miracle was deliberately designed by Jesus to instruct his apostles and increase their faith.

[14] Cook and Evans note that the "Lord Save me" cry of Peter is similar to Matthew 8:25 and Mark 4:38 in the calming the storm episode and again emphasizes the reliance of the disciples on Jesus.

[13] Cook and Evans also echo Pentecost's interpretation that the detail regarding "many stadia away" and "battered by the waves" were intended to emphasize that Jesus could walk on the water far away from the shore, on a rough sea, thus establishing his dominance over nature.

[12][13] R. T. France has also pointed out that the details regarding the boat being a long way from the shore, and the portrayal of Peter sinking are intended as a confirmation of the depth of the water.

[15] Scholars such as Ulrich Luz and separately Dale Allison view the pericope as instrumental in asserting the divinity of Jesus among early Christians.

[9] 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.

[19] Catholic scholar John P. Meier believes that the miraculous walk on water is a purely theological narrative, without historical foundation.

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).

[20] 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.

[21] 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.

[23] Furthermore, the motif of walking on water was associated with kings like Xerxes or Alexander, but also rejected and satirized as humanly impossible and as proverbial for the arrogance of the rulers by Menander, Dio Chrysostom or in 2 Maccabees 5:21.

[24] Adela Yarbro Collins concludes that the text characterizes Jesus as Messiah and king of Israel endowed with divine properties.

[24] Russian skeptic Kirill Eskov in his "Nature"-praised work The Gospel of Afranius argues that it was politically prudent for the local Roman administration to strengthen Jesus's influence by spreading rumours about his miracles via active measures, with this story originating as a well-crafted deliberate lie.

He contends that these methods of exegesis rely on factual interpretations and fail to capture the full meaning of the text based on its structure.