When Mark reports the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, he uses a line not found in the other Gospel accounts. And this unique line connects us to Old Testament scenes of glory and revelation.
In Mark 6:45–52, the disciples are in a boat and heading to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, without Jesus. Late into the night, the conditions on the water were preventing the disciples from making progress (6:48).
So Jesus approached—without a boat. “And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 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” (Mark 6:48–50).
Let’s compare the other Gospel accounts.
Matthew 14:25–26, “And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, ‘It is a ghost!’ and they cried out in fear.”
Luke’s Gospel does not report this event.
John 6:19, “When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.”
The Gospel accounts tell us that Jesus was walking on the water during the fourth watch of the night (sometime between 3:00 am and 6:00 am). These accounts also tell us that the disciples had a frightened response. Only Mark’s Gospel tells us Jesus meant to pass by them (Mark 6:48).
That’s not the verb we were expecting. We would expect that Jesus’s intention was to go directly to them (not pass by them), to get into the boat immediately (not pass by them). So what’s going on with this action of passing by the disciples?
The description is an allusion. In the Old Testament, when God “passes by,” he is revealing glory.
In the story of Moses and the mountain in Exodus 33–34, God promises to “pass by” Moses. The request was, “Please show me your glory” (Exod. 33:18), and God’s response was, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name…” (33:19). God told Moses, “I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by” (33:22). Then, in Exodus 34:6, “The LORD passed before him…”
Think now of Elijah. While Elijah was on Mount Horeb (also known as Sinai—the same mountain where Moses was in Exod. 33–34), “…the LORD passed by…” (1 Kgs. 19:11). The mountain and action are identical to the experience of Moses, where the Lord passed by Moses and now Elijah.
This Old Testament background should inform the way we understand Mark’s statement that Jesus “meant to pass by them” (Mark 6:48). Walking on water was a revelation of glory, of deity, of identity. The God of Moses is the God of Elijah, and this God is upon the Sea of Galilee.
Consider these references in the book of Job and Psalms:
In Job 9:8, God is the one “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea.”
In Job 9:11, the Lord “passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.”
In Psalm 77:19, “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.”
Jesus walks on water, and this action reveals his deity. According to Mark 6:48, Jesus “meant to pass by them.” In the Old Testament, God is the one who subdues the waters and treads the waves. That poetic language in the Old Testament takes on a physical sense in the New Testament. The Word became flesh, and the Word walked upon the water.