Habakkuk 3:15

Hebrew Bible

13 You march out to deliver your people, to deliver your special servant. You strike the leader of the wicked nation, laying him open from the lower body to the neck. Selah. 14 You pierce the heads of his warriors with a spear. They storm forward to scatter us; they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. 15 But you trample on the sea with your horses, on the surging, raging waters. 16 I listened and my stomach churned; the sound made my lips quiver. My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, and I shook as I tried to walk. I long for the day of distress to come upon the people who attack us.

Matthew 14:22

New Testament

23 And after he sent the crowds away, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. 24 Meanwhile the boat, already far from land, was taking a beating from the waves because the wind was against it. 25 As the night was ending, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 Peter said to him, “Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the water.”

 Notes and References

"... The story of Jesus calming the sea is found in Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22-25. The story of Jesus walk­ing on the sea is found in Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:16-21. Both stories are found only in Matthew and Mark. If the majority of New Testament scholars are correct, Mark was written first. Then some years later, Matthew com­ posed his own Gospel, using Mark’s Gospel as one of his sources. If this historical reconstruction is correct, one may dis­cern Matthew’s purpose and message by noting how he has changed his own Gospel from Mark’s. Already in the Markan formulation both stories are epiphanic, that is, they are revela­tory of the true identity of Jesus as divine. In the Hebrew Bible the power both to still the raging sea and to trample upon the back of the sea belong to God alone. Though mediated to Mark principally through biblical tradents, these motifs derive ultimately from the common Semitic Combat Myth in which the Creator triumphs over primeval sea by quelling it and treading victoriously upon it. It is not accidental, therefore, that Mark describes Jesus’ walking on the sea in the very language used to depict Yahweh trampling on the back of the sea. Likewise, Jesus’ calming of the sea utilizes the language of Yahweh still­ing the hostile sea by rebuking it ..."

Batto, Bernard Frank Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition (p. 178) Westminster John Knox Press, 1992

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.