Some scholars draw attention to the
sea-walking motif in Greco-Roman literature, where not only the gods but even
certain divine men are ascribed the power to walk on water . . . . There are,
however, some important differences and qualifications that should be taken
into account. For instance, divinity is rather loosely ascribed to Xerxes for
bridging the Hellespont (Herodotus, Hist. 7.56; Dio Chrysostom, Or.
3.30-31), a technological achievement rather than a miracle . . . Unlike Jesus,
Abaris requires the assistance of a magical arrow to travel over waters
(Porphyry, Vit. Pyth. 29). Besides the gods themselves, the closest
parallels are found in references to sons of the gods, who are more
straightforwardly described walking on water: Euphemus, son of Poseidon
(Apollonius Rhodius, Argon. 1.179-84); Iron, son of Poseidon (Hesiod =
Ps. Eratosthenes, frg. 182); and Hercules, son of Zeus (Seneca, Herc. Fur.
322-24). Yet none of these divine men both walk upon the sea and recuse
others from the sea’s perils as Jesus does in Matthew. While this does liken
him more to the gods in the Greco-Roman literature in this respect (Homer, Il.
13.26-20; Virgil, Aen. 5.800-21; Hesiod, Homeric Hymns 22;
Theocritus, Id. 22.1-26; Diodorus Siculus, Hist. 4.43.1-2; BGU
423.6-7 = SelPap I, 112), a number of OT resonances in Matt 14:22=233
)Heil, Jesus, 31-67) make it more likely that Jesus’s sea-walking
ability is to be interpreted primarily within a Jewish context, which reserves
sea-walking for Yahweh alone . . .(Ray M. Lozano, The Proskynesis of Jesus
in the New Testament: A Study on the Significance of Jesus as an Object of
“Proskuneo” in the New Testament Writings [Library of New Testament Studies
609; London: T&T Clark, 2020], 57 n. 18)
Further Reading
Peter M. Head on the High Christology of Matthew's Account of Jesus' Walking on the Water
