19 When 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.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
They were terrified. The other Evangelists explain the cause of that fear to have been, that they thought that it was an apparition, (Matthew 14:26; Mark 6:49.) Now it is impossible not to be seized with consternation and dread, when an apparition is presented before our eyes; for we conclude that it is either some imposture of Satan, or some bad omen which God sends us. Besides, John here holds out to us, as in a mirror, what kind of knowledge of Christ we may obtain without the word, and what advantage may be reaped from that knowledge. For if he present a simple demonstration of his divinity, we immediately fall into our imaginations, and every person forms an idol for himself instead of Christ. After we have thus wandered in our understanding, this is immediately followed by trembling and a confused terror of heart. But when he begins to speak, we then obtain from his voice clear and solid knowledge, and then also joy and delightful peace dawn upon our minds. For there is great weight in these words:
Had rowed - Their vessel was a small one only, something of the boat kind: as to sails, if they had any, they could not now venture to carry them, because of the storm.
Five and twenty or thirty furlongs - Between three and four miles. The sea of Tiberias, on which they now were, was, according to Josephus, War, book iii. chap. 25, forty furlongs, or five miles in breadth; and one hundred and forty furlongs, or eighteen miles, in length. Pliny, lib. v. chap. 15, makes it about six miles broad, and sixteen long.
They see Jesus - See the notes on Matthew 14:25, etc.
So when they had rowed,.... For the wind being contrary, they could not make use of their sails, but betook themselves to their oars, and by that means got
about five and twenty, or thirty furlongs; which were three or four miles, or little more than a league; no further had they got, though they had been rowing from the time it was dark, to the fourth watch, which was after three o'clock in the morning; all this while they had been tossed in the sea;
they saw Jesus walking on the sea; See Gill on Matthew 14:25, See Gill on Matthew 14:26, See Gill on Matthew 14:29.
And drawing nigh unto the ship; though Mark says, he "would have passed by them", Mark 6:48; that is, he seemed as if he would, but his intention was to come to them, and save them from perishing, as he did:
and they were afraid; that he was a spirit, some nocturnal apparition, or demon, in an human form; See Gill on Matthew 14:26.
they see Jesus--"about the fourth watch of the night" (Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48), or between three and six in the morning.
walking on the sea--What Job (Job 9:8) celebrates as the distinguishing prerogative of GOD, "WHO ALONE spreadeth out the heavens, and TREADETH UPON THE WAVES OF THE SEA"--What AGUR challenges as GOD'S unapproachable prerogative, to "GATHER THE WIND IN HIS FISTS, and BIND THE WATERS IN A GARMENT" (Proverbs 30:4) --lo! this is here done in flesh, by "THE SON OF MAN."
drawing nigh to the ship--yet as though He "would have passed by them," Mark 6:48 (compare Luke 24:28; Genesis 18:3, Genesis 18:5; Genesis 32:24-26).
they were afraid--"cried out for fear" (Matthew 14:26), "supposing it had been a spirit" (Mark 6:49). He would appear to them at first like a dark moving speck upon the waters; then as a human figure, but--in the dark tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lord--they take it for a spirit. (How often thus we miscall our chiefest mercies--not only thinking them distant when they are near, but thinking the best the worst!)
*More commentary available at chapter level.