In the Old Testament the power
both to still the raging sea (Job 26:12; Isa 51:15; Jer 31:35; cf. Pss
89:9[10]; 107:29) and to trample upon the back of the sea (Job 9:8; Hab 3:15;
Ps 77:20) belongs to God alone, deriving ultimately from his victory over primeval
sea. Accordingly, it is not accidentally that Jesus’ walking upon the sea (Matt
14:25; Mark 6:48; John 6:19) is described in the language of Yahweh walking or
trampling on the back of the sea (note especially Job 9:8 LXX: kai peripatōn
hōs ep’ edaphous epi thalassēs “and (who) walks on the sea as if on ground”).
Similarly, Jesus’ calming of the sea borrows upon the terminology of Yahweh’s
stilling of the hostile sea, especially when its stilling is done through the
divine rebuke (gā’ar, LXX: epitimân, Job 26:11). The sea is also
found of the divine rebuke in Pss 18:15[16] (= 2 Sam 22;16); 104:7; 106:9; and
Isa 50:2; Satan is similarly rebuked in Zech 3:2. Whether Jesus’ stilling of
the sea still retained the age-old connotations of a battle against the chaos monster
(as in Job 26:11-12; Ps 89-10[10-11]) or only the power of the creator to
control his creatures (as in Ps 107:29), Jesus is clearly depicted as
exercising divine control: “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey
him?” (Mark 4:41 & //s). The evangelist used the theophanic connotations of
this language to suggest that Jesus possessed divine power (2 Macc 9:8 claims
that Antiochus IV had thought himself capable of commanding the waves of the
sea, only to find himself a lowly mortal indeed. Antiochus, as his name
Epiphanes implies, regarded himself as the incarnation of the god Zeus).
The matter of Jesus sleeping on
the storming sea must be interpreted within this epiphanic context. Previous
commentators have failed to appreciate the full significance intended by the
evangelists. Some have missed the point totally, taking Jesus’ sleep as an
indication of his humanness. Fatigued by the demands that the crowd had made
upon him, Jesus was forced to seek refuge in the boat where he promptly fell
asleep, oblivious to developments around him. Closer but still wide of the mark
are those who interpret Jesus’ ability to sleep peacefully and undisturbed in
such circumstances as a sign of his perfect trust in the sustaining and protective
power of God. However, it is not the faith of Jesus but of his disciples that
is on trial here. Finally, despite obvious similarities between Jesus’ calming
of the storm and Joan 1, the sleeping Jesus cannot be adequately explained as
the evangelists’ attempt to portray “one greater than Jonah.” Both the motive and
the result of the sleep are different in the two stories. Jesus’ disciples do
not awaken him to intercede with God as in Jonah 1:6. Rather, the disciples
call upon Jesus even as the distressed sailors of Ps 107:23-30 called upon
Yahweh to save them from the storm. (Bernard F. Batto, “The Sleeping God: An Ancient
Near Eastern Motif of Divine Sovereignty,” in Batto, In the Beginning:
Essays on Creation Motifs in the Ancient Near East and the Bible [Siphrut
Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures 9; Winona Lake, Ind.:
Eisenbrauns, 2013], 155-56)
Commenting on Mark’s understanding of this event and it evidencing
an early High Christology, Batto notes that:
Mark personified the sea and identified
it with the demonic. Accordingly, the sea is rebuked (epitimān) by
Jesus in almost identical terms (siōpa, pephimōso “Quiet! Be
silent”) as the demon in Mark 1:25 (phitōthēti “Be silenced!”). Even the
reaction of the bystanders is similar (compare 4:41 with 1:27). The sea as an extension
of the demonic is evident also in the following incident of the possessed man
in the land of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-20). When Jesus cast the legion of
demons out of the man, these entered the swine and rushed headlong over the
cliff into the sea—appropriately to their rightful home, for the sea was considered
to be the source of evil (Dan 7:2-3; Rev 13:2; contrast Rev 21:1).
Patently, Mark was drawing upon
the long biblical tradition of the creator’s battle with the chaos monster,
though the latter is reinterpreted more specifically as the diabolic kingdom of
Satan and his cohorts. Indeed, a major theme in Mark is the conflict between
the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil; it is a battle to the death. Just as
the Israelites had called upon Yahweh to awaken and save them in their
tribulation, so Jesus’ beleaguered disciples wake Jesus for help against the
sea which threatened to engulf them. And like Yahweh, Jesus arises and stills
the demonic sea. Accordingly, the image of the sleeping Jesus is modelled after
that of the sleeping divine king. His sleeping indicates now powerlessness but
the possession of absolute authority. The power of the demonic kingdom is only
apparent, not real, as is evident when Jesus awakens and still the raging of
the sea. (Ibid., 156-57, emphasis in bold added)
