And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.
- KJV And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
- BSB During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the sea.
- NKJV Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
- NLT About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In the early morning Jesus comes to them walking on the sea. He displays divine power over creation itself.
Overview
In the fourth watch, near dawn, Jesus approaches the struggling disciples by walking on the water. This act, which Scripture elsewhere ascribes to God alone treading the waves, reveals His divine nature. The miracle assures believers that Christ has sovereign mastery over the chaos that threatens them and comes to His people in their need.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 9:8He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.
- Mark 6:48Seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and he would have passed by them,
- John 6:19When therefore they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing near to the boat; and they were afraid.
- Matt 24:43But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
- Ps 93:3–4The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
- Luke 12:38They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so.
- Ps 104:3He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.
- Rev 10:8The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.”
- Rev 10:5The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to the sky,
- Rev 10:2He had in his hand a little open book. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 14:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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