A narrow stone street in a first-century town at dusk, robed figures walking past market stalls toward a glowing wheel of light at the end of the street.

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The Ancient World Behind the Text

Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.

Mark 4:35-41, The storm on the lake

A storm swamps the boat while Jesus sleeps. He rebukes the wind and the sea, and the disciples ask who he is.

The GospelsMark

Mark 4:35-41

Mark 4:35-41, in every translation this tool compares.

What is going on here

Crossing at evening, the disciples hit a violent storm and the boat starts to fill. Jesus is asleep on a cushion in the stern. They wake him, he orders the wind and sea to be still, and the calm frightens them more than the storm did.

The ancient world behind it

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{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/kingdom-of-god\/","n":"God's kingdom","s":"Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.","r":""}

Also in this passage

Keener describes a surviving Galilean fishing boat of the period, about 27 feet long and 7.5 feet wide, with places for four rowers (Garland gives 25.5 by 7.5 by 4.5 feet, carbon dated to between 120 BC and AD 40, with coins of AD 29 to 30 inside and room for a crew of five and ten passengers), and notes that rental contracts excused damage only from acts of God such as storms. Wright hears an echo of Jonah, asleep in a storm, and notes the contrast. Wright reads the calming of the storm as the parables acted out: God's kingdom at hand. The lake lies about 690 feet below sea level (the Zondervan Atlas) and wind funneled down the western valleys can raise waves over seven feet; the cushion was probably a ballast sandbag under the stern deck (Garland).

Related passages

Mark 6:30-52, Bread in a deserted place, a walk on the sea Mark 5:1-20, Legion among the tombs Mark 4:1-34, Parables by the lake Matthew 8:18-34, Let the dead bury their dead, the storm and Gadara

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 4:37, 4:38 and 4:41
N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 4:35-41
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Mark 4:39 and 4:41
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 19 and ch. 42
David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 4:36, 4:37 and 4:38
Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, Sea of Galilee

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