[B-Greek] FANTASMA & Time Reference in Matt. 14:22-27, Mk 6:45-62

John Sanders john.franklin.sanders at gmail.com
Fri Jun 6 03:55:10 EDT 2008


Although I do not have any information that can add to the conversation,
there are a few comments I would like to add.



I checked the sun rise data for 30 March at the latitude of 23.9142 N and
35.733 East (which is pretty near the location under discussion).  The three
data points: nautical sunrise (05:32:38 hours), civil sunrise (06:01:44) and
sun rise (06:26:30)  should give us a working set of information as to what
could be taking place as for light, etc.  The previous day's sun set is
18:29 hours.



Nautical sunrise is when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon.  It is
still dark, but it is at this hour that a sailor will be able to discern the
shoreline, etc.  Civil sun rise is when the sun is at 6 degrees below the
horizon, this is when there is sufficient light that one can do things. This
is first light, the twilight before the real sunrise.  Sun rise is when the
sun is at the horizon.



>From all that I have read, and that is the extent of my knowledge, the
fourth watch ends at sun rise.  The night is divided into four watch from
sun set to the following sunrise.  If we assume that the pericope under
discussion occurred about a week before Passover, then the night watches
would have been 12 hours and 3 minutes approximately.  The fourth watch is a
technical term, it signifies when the change of the guard takes place.  The
night was evenly divided by watches.  I would suspect the watches were
signaled by some form of protocol which probably consisted of noise of some
sort (gongs, bugles, horns, whatever).  Although precision within a watch
may not be obtainable, the change of watches can be identified in many
cases.



The text indicates heavy winds but not a stormy (that is, lightning type
stormy) weather.  From what I gather from reading the texts, they left the
evening before, and by the fourth watch, when Jesus begins his walk on
water, they were still rowing.  Boats on water in the ancient world had a
very high accident rate, I am sure OSHA would have curtailed most
operations. This is speculative on my part, but I would expect them to be
exhausted and worried. Anyway, there is about 25 minutes of light before the
watch ends (assuming the watch ends at sunrise).  As for seeing the Christ
walking on the water, I suppose it can be because he radiated in the night,
or it was already twilight.  The text does not say.  It would appear to me
that this is a problem for the director of a film, the reader of the text
can just read and choose her own (his own) surmise.



John Sanders
Suzhou, China



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