[B-Greek] HQELON OUN LABEIN AUTON EIS TO PLOION Jn 6:21

Tony Pope borikayaama_tekiri at sil.org
Wed Jun 4 10:15:06 EDT 2008


Bob Meyers wrote:

> Ok, perhaps I had checked Alford on this passage too hurriedly, and
> failed to mentally shift into low gear which is required in reading
> him.  But I wasn't trying to deliberately misrepresent him.  His
> opening words on the passage were, "There surely can be no question in
> the mind of an unprejudiced reader, that it is John's {more
> importantly, God's - BWM} intention to relate a miracle . . ."

I am not trying to deny the miracle of the storm being stilled. Alford's opening words are given as 
comments on the Greek words PER[IPATOUNTA] EPI THS QAL[ASSHS]. They are aimed at those who have 
wished to interpret them as meaning that Jesus was walking on the shore.

> In view of John 20:31, shouldn't this be the first major consideration
> for every narrative in John, especially those involving the absolute
> EGW EIMI verses (except 9:9, of course)?   And it certainly is not,
> with the vast majority of "scholars;" but instead they seem to me to
> have an agenda of the exact opposite.

> It seems to me that  _all_ of the EGW EIMI passages in John, without
> any apparent predicate (4:26, 6:20, 8:24,28,58, 13:19, and the three
> times repeated (rather "strangely" so) in John 18), are filled with
> supernatural accompaniments appropriate to claims of Messiaship ---
> and even more, of Deity.  The three in John 8 may seem to be an
> exception?  What about the sequel after they, having the Lord Jesus
> surrounded and about to stone Him, how He, with His disciples yet,
> "hid himself, ... passed by ..."?  And in ch. 9, "as they were passing
> by, saw a man who had been blind from his birth" --- now how did these
> briefly visiting Galileans to Jerusalem all know that?  And on and on
> and on with one miracle on top of another in their dialog, even before
> the healing miracle took place.

Well, it's a fair point. But IMO, this argument does not enable us to distinguish between two 
miracles in John 6 or three. I would say that an added miracle whereby the occupants of the boat 
were transported in an instant from the middle of the lake to the shore would need to be signalled 
by more explicit language, as in the case of Philip in Acts 8.

> >They were afraid : -- 

> I can vouch for the truth of that remark, after reading of similar
> occurrences in the Bermuda Triangle.

> >but on being reassured by His voice,
> >they were willing to take Him into the
> >ship ; and upon their doing so, the ship in a comparatively short time (or perhaps _immediately, 
> >by
> >miracle_, but I prefer the other) was AT THE LAND TO WHICH THEY HAD BEEN GOING (my caps --- BWM),

> These are the other words which would seem completely trite, as well
> as EUQEWS (others have shown possibly not; but it very much also
> remains, at least, "possibly so" --- at least most of my Bible
> versions take it that way).  With a several mile trip over water, in a
> dark night (or maybe He also made the moon appear? - fine with me)
> isn't John carefully saying that they arrived at a pinpoint
> destination along miles of shoreline with obviously paying little to
> no attention to the intricate navigation which would be required?

Even in the dark, and with no moon at 3 a.m. (it being probably a week or so before the Passover 
full moon), surely there would be enough starlight to make out the outline of the hills unless the 
cloud cover was very dense. And if, as seems reasonable to assume even if impossible to prove, the 
miracle of the stilling of the storm had left a clear sky, I cannot see that experienced fishermen 
would need intricate navigation to get home to Capernaum. They would use the stars to navigate by.

A number of commentators have made reference to Psalm 107.30, and indeed the closing words of Jn 
6.21 may well have their point in alluding to that passage, which was surely well-known to them as 
sailors. Be that as it may, I do not see that John's language requires any more than to say it was 
"plain sailing" after Jesus got in the boat.

Tony Pope





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