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The Life of ChristSection 47 / 113
Section 047 · Mighty Works

Stilling the Storm

A squall on the lake, a sleeping Master, and a word that stops the wind, after which the calm is more frightening than the storm, because of what it says about who is in the boat.

Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41; Luke 8:22–253 of 4 accountsReading: CCE

Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.

ProvenanceJSTJoseph Smith TranslationCCECovenant Christian EditionDeleted text shown struck, attributed
Study: reading text with parallel accounts; changes available.

Note. One small JST change in each Gospel, and Luke’s is the telling one: the disciples are filled not with water but with fear, which is the thing Jesus actually addresses.

? How to read this edition

The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.

JST
Green: Joseph Smith Translation. Where the Covenant Christian Edition departs in substance from the King James text and the change is in the JST (confirmed against the parallel-column edition). Modernized English (“has” for “hath,” “you” for “thou”) is not marked.
CCE
Burgundy: Covenant Christian Edition. Where the CCE’s reading departs from the King James but the change is not in the Joseph Smith Translation manuscript (e.g. “this day I have begotten you” at the baptism). Some are Joseph’s own readings from his sermons; the section’s Joseph Smith commentary then gives the sermon.
MatthewKJVMatthew 8:23–27CCEMatthew 4:5NT 1NT 2

23And when he had entered into a ship, his disciples followed came unto him. 24And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. 25And his disciples came unto him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, else we perish. 26And he said unto them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?

MarkKJVMark 4:35–41CCEMark 2:20NT 2

35And the same day, when the evening had come, he said unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. 36And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat over into the ship, so that it was now full. 38And he was in the stern of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said unto him, Master, do you not care that we perish? 39And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace; be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40And he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? 41And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

LukeKJVLuke 8:22–25CCELuke 6:6NT 2

22Now it came to pass, on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples, and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake and they launched forth. 23But as they sailed, he fell asleep. And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water fear and were in danger. 24And they came to him and awoke him, saying, Master, Master we perish. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they, being afraid, wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this? For he commands even the winds and water and they obey him.

Cross-references · other works
Job 38:8–11 (CCE 12:2) · hitherto shall you come, but no further↗Psalm 89:9 (CCE 89:3) · you rule the raging of the sea↗Psalm 107:28–30 (CCE 107:5) · he makes the storm a calm↗Jonah 1:5–6 (CCE 1:2) · the prophet asleep in the ship while the sailors cry out↗
Margaret Barker · binding the sea

The One Act That Identified the Creator

The disciples’ question is not rhetorical wonder: it is a recognition, and Barker names what they recognized. In first-temple theology the created order was held together by an “eternal covenant,” a system of bonds; and the bond that mattered most, the one the Old Testament returns to again and again, was the boundary set for the sea. To still the sea was not a display of strength but a signature. Barker draws the line to this verse herself, in a footnote.

Temple and Timaeusin The Great High Priest: The Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy (2003), ch. 11 · main text with n. 47 ↗
1 Enoch preserves fragments of a poem about the eternal covenant, and the great “oath” which forms the heavens and the earth, maintains the bounds of the sea and keeps the sun, moon and stars in their courses (1 En.69). When these bounds were transgressed, the whole created order collapsed… The “Unbound” was the “deep”, which flooded over the earth in the time of Noah as a result of human wickedness, but did not exist in the new creation of John’s vision: “A new heaven and a new earth… and the sea was no more” (Rev.21.1 [Rev. 8:8]). Everything was within the Holy of Holies and so it was all “Limit”. Binding/limiting the sea was the great sign of divine power: (Job 26.10; 38.10; Jer.5.22 [Jer. 3:6]; Prov. 8.27 [Prov. 1:37],29; also Ps.104.9 [Ps. 104:2] using another word for boundary, gebul).⁴⁷ — [n. 47:] Hence the question “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mk.4.41.
Atonement: The Rite of HealingSociety for Old Testament Study, 1994 · Scottish Journal of Theology 49.1 (1996) ↗
The eternal covenant was the system of bonds which established and maintained the creation, ordering and binding the forces of chaos. There are several places in the Old Testament where this older view of the creation is implied at e.g. Job 38.8-10: “Who shut in the sea with doors and prescribed bounds for it?”; or Jeremiah 5.22: “I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, the eternal rule which it may not transgress”; or Psalm 104.9: “You set a boundary that (the waters) should not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth”.

The second passage never mentions Mark, and is set here only as the background the first one draws on. The first is Barker’s own application: the footnote citing Mark 4:41 hangs directly on the sentence about binding the sea.