[B-Greek] Walking on Water
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Mar 5 00:21:46 EST 2010
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Lindeman" <oblchurch at msn.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 4. marts 2010 22:10
Subject: [B-Greek] Walking on Water
> PERIPATWN EPI THS THALASSHS Mark 6:46
>
> I've been having a discussion with a friend who contends that Jesus is
> walking "by the sea" in the above passage rather than walking "upon the
> sea". I see that elsewhere St. Mark uses PARA THN THALASSAN when referring
> to Jesus as walking "by the sea" to call the first disciples. I also notice
> also that the disciples of Jesus KATEBHSAN EPI THN THALASSAN in John 6:16.
> This seems to me to imply that the disciples went down to the very edge of
> the water in order to enter the boat.
>
> So then, my question is this... Just how plausible is "walking by the sea"
> in Mark 6:46 ?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Rich Lindeman
It baffles me that anyone could even suggest this possibility. It may be caused
by a culture or tradition of word-study-mode which tends to ignore the context.
William Barclay wrote a book called New Testament Words, so he is keen on word
studies.
As you have noticed Mark 6:48 has EPI with genitive for Jesus walking on the
lake and John 6:16 has EPI with accusative for the disciples going down to the
lake. There is a tendency for EPI with genitive to be static, describing a
position on something, and EPI with the accusative to be dynamic, describing a
movement onto or towards something. I am not suggesting that all Greek writers
always observed such a distinction, but I still think it is discernable as a
general pattern.
The distinction - or lack of it - between accusative and genitive for this
expression plays out in Matt 14:25 where most mss have EPI THS QALASSHS, but a
good number have EPI THN QALASSAN. NA27 has chosen the accusative because of its
particular assumptions, while the genitive is more in keeping with the normal
usage of EPI as shown in the other passages.
John 6:19 has the same variation between genitive and accusative, but here p75
is alone in having the accusative THN QALASSAN, and NA did not adopt it. This is
of interest for Matt 14:25, but I won't go into textual criticism here.
P75 does not include Matthew or Mark, so we can guess but cannot check what it
did there.
Iver Larsen
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