Kata Markon

["George Young" <gwyoung AT morgan.ucs.mun.ca>]

Susan Jeffers wrote:

> 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.

There are actually quite a few extra-biblical instances of water-walking
episodes: Buddhist parallels, Hellenistic parallels, as well as parallels in
the Qumran corpus, the Targumim, and the Midrashim.  Bultmann and Dibelius
also have something to say about this passage vis-a-vis parallels.  Two good
secondary sources for this sort of material, including the role of the
fantastic (e.g., 'miracles') in New Testament narrative, are

George W. Young, _Subversive Symmetry: Exploring the Fantastic in Mark
6:45-56_ (Leiden: Brill, 1999), and

Patrick J. Madden, _Jesus' Walking on the Sea: An Investigation of the
Origin of the Narrative Account_ (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1997).

Sincerely,

George W. Young, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies
Queen's College Faculty of Theology
210 Prince Philip Drive
St. John's  NF
CANADA   A1B 3R6
Tel. (709) 753-0116
Fax. (709) 753-1214
email: gwyoung AT morgan.ucs.mun.ca