On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:35-41 NRSV)
Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray. When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid." Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:45-52 NRSV)
Commenting on these two passages, and how they subvert Roman imperial ideology, Adam Winn wrote:
Power over nature. On two occasions Mark presents Jesus as possessing power over the natural world. In Mark 4:35-41 Jesus calms a raging sea storm with a simple audible command. In Mark 6:45-52 Jesus walks on the waters of the Sea of Galilee in the middle of raging storm, and when he gets into the boat with the Twelve, the winds cease. Interpreters have proposed a wide variety of significance and backgrounds, for these two pericopes (e.g., an adaptation of the Jonah narrative, Jesus as one acting like Yahweh, or a creative imitation of a Homeric episode), all of which might produce meaningful readings. But in light of my proposed reconstruction of Mark’s historical setting, another strong contender emerges.
Calming sea storms and bringing peace to the seas was a common motif in propaganda of ancient rulers. Second Maccabees 9:8 describes Antiochus IV as one who believed he had the power to “command the waves of the sea.” This motif shows up prominently in description of Augustus, who himself claimed to bring peace to the seas by ridding them of pirates, making them safe for Roman travel (Res Gestae divi Augusti 4.25). Philo’s description of this achievement is significant: “This is the Caesar who calmed the torrential storms on every side . . . This is he who cleared the sea of pirate ships and filled it with merchant vessels” (Philo, On the Embassy to Gaius 145-46). Roman inscriptions praise Augustus as “overseer of every land and sea,” a phrase that was also attributed to the emperor by the Augustan poets. Augustus’s successors also sought to associate themselves with such power. In light of this motif Jesus’ control of the winds and waves take on a political and polemical dimension. I contend that through these stories Mark not only places Jesus in the company of the greater rulers of the world but also demonstrates Jesus’ superiority to them. While Augustus might bring metaphorical peace to the seas and calm the storms. Jesus is literally able to do both. Such stories would have functioned as powerful responses to Flavian propaganda and would have further demonstrated Jesus’ superiority to Vespasian. (Adam Winn, Reading Mark’s Christology Under Caesar: Jesus the Messiah and Roman Imperial Ideology [Downer’s Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2018], 85)
