Kata Markon

[Susan Jeffers <SusanJeffers AT compuserve.com>]

Greetings!

Last meeting of a local Bible study group we discussed Mark 6:47-52.
Someone asked whether "walking on water" was something Mark's readers or
Jesus' followers or any of the others "back then" would have been familiar
with.  In other words, are there other biblical instances of this
miraculous behavior, or extrabiblical examples, in the way that one can
find extrabiblical precedent for such other synoptic miracles as virgin
birth, healings, and casting out demons.

I think the person was asking in part because the phrase "walking on water"
is a common metaphor today for anyone who shows amazing ability to go where
others can't or do what others can't.  Everyone knows the story.  Maybe
everyone in Mark's audience "knew the story" of what it meant to walk on
water -- did they?

Thanks!

Susan Jeffers