The reasons why Matthew and Mark recorded Jesus\u27 walk on water

A report of someone walking on water clearly would strain the limits of the most credulous hearer, even in the first century A.D. Surely Matthew, Mark, and John in recording Jesus\u27 walk on water realized the incredibleness of this story even in their own time. Further, the miracle fulfilled no Jewish expectation nor Old Testament prophecy. So why did each include it in his Gospel? The major purpose of this paper consists in answering that question for the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. An examination of the historical context and the essential exegetical points and book contexts of each Gospel reveals that each evangelist saw the miracle as crucial in the development of the first disciples. The paper thus answers a prior question, namely, why did Jesus perform this miracle? The above lends itself to another end. The historicity of gospel events has now recently come under attack in evangelical circles also. The debates concerning Robert Gundry\u27s particular use of redaction criticism (see JETS 26/1, March 1983) are yet fresh in mind. His methodology causes him to seek only how the miracle functions in the lives of the readers and thus he misses any historical significance of the walk. Rut the present writer maintains that the value of the miracle for the reader derives in an essential way out of that initial historical purpose. The paper also provides a reconciliation of the seemingly contradictory responses of the disciples to the miracle (Matt 14:33: Mark 6:51-52). The examination of such responses provides a major key in unlocking the theological purpose of a given writer. This paper thus promotes a (mild) use of redaction criticism as an interpretive tool