History Globe
Question
Where did Jesus walk on water?
On the Sea of Galilee, on the night after the feeding of the five thousand, between the north-eastern shore and the plain of Gennesaret on the north-west: the disciples set out by boat toward Bethsaida, by Mark, or Capernaum, by John, were caught by a head wind “in the midst of the sea”, and landed at last “into the land of Gennesaret”. The map point stands on the lake; its Bethsaida and Gennesaret points lie about 13 km apart in a straight line, Capernaum and Gennesaret about 7 km. The lake is about 21 km long and 13 km wide, so “the midst of the sea” was a few kilometres from any shore, and no spot on the water can be marked.
Matthew tells it: “the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.” The fourth watch was between three and six in the morning. Mark adds that he “would have passed by them”; John, that they “had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs”, about 5 km, when they saw him, and that once he was taken in “immediately the ship was at the land whither they went”. Only Matthew tells of Peter walking toward him and sinking. The storm that Jesus stilled with “Peace, be still” is another night, on the crossing to the country of the Gadarenes on the eastern shore.
The winds are real: the lake lies about 210 m below sea level in the rift valley, and winds drop onto it from the heights around, from the hills of Galilee on the west and at times from the Golan on the east, raising sudden short seas against which a rowing boat makes no way. A fishing boat of the first century, 8.2 m long, found in the mud of the north-west shore near Ginosar in 1986, when a drought lowered the lake, shows the kind of craft the disciples rowed. Gennesaret, where they came ashore, is the fertile plain between Magdala and Capernaum that Josephus praises; the sick were brought to Jesus there in the morning. The map's Galilee tour shows the stages in Mark's order.
Scripture: Matt 14:22–34; Mark 6:45–53; John 6:16–21; Mark 4:37–39; Job 9:8
Sources
- Straight-line distances between the places' points (Bethsaida, Gennesaret, Capernaum): OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data (CC BY 4.0)
- Josephus, Jewish War 3.506-521 (the lake and the plain of Gennesaret)
- S. Wachsmann, The Sea of Galilee Boat: An Extraordinary 2000 Year Old Discovery (1995)
- T. Zohary, A. Sukenik, T. Berman and A. Nishri (eds.), Lake Kinneret: Ecology and Management (2014), the lake's dimensions and level
- R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC, 2002), on Mark 6:45-52
- History Globe question “How big is the Sea of Galilee?” and tour “Jesus in Galilee, after Mark”
Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.