Word& World

Supplement Series 1
1992

The Stilling of the Storm

(Matthew 8:23-27)
JACK DEAN Kingsbury
Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
Richmond, Virginia

T ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, THOSE OF US ACQUAINTED WITH ROY HARRISVILLE

A .may have heard him reflect on his scholarly career and wonder aloud whether
he has not made a mistake in attempting to "bomb the universe." What Harrisville
means when he speaks of '1?ombing the universe" is that he has not been con­
cerned, as is fashionable with scholars today, to concentrate his research on only
one sector of the New Testament. Instead, he has written extensively in a broad
range of areas: New Testament hermeneutics; the historical Jesus; the synoptic
gospels, especially Mark; and the Pauline corpus. The truth of the matter, however,
is that it is precisely because Harrisville has not narrowed the application of his
considerable talents to one area of New Testament research that he has had such
great influence on his colleagues, on the immense number of students he has
taught, and on the church at large. It is, then, in tribute to Harrisville's having
"bombed the universe" that I, as one less daring, contribute this article to this
commemorative issue.
Today yet, one cannot write on Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm
(8:23-27) without recalling the origins of redaction-critical method. Moreover, it is
particularly appropriate to recall these origins here, since early on redaction criti­
cism captured Harrisville's interest and became the approach he has used to
explore the gospels.
It was in 1954 that Hans Conzelmann's Die Mitte der Zeit (retitled in English
as The Theology of St LukeT fairly exploded on the field of New Testament studies
and inaugurated the long era in which redaction criticism became the method of
choice for investigating the gospels. In reliance on Conzelmann's work on Luke,

^In reality, the English title of Conzelmann's book was taken from its German subtitle, Studien zur
Theologiedes Lukas, Beitrdgezurhistorischen Theologiel? (Tubingen: Mohr). The English edition: New York:
Harper & Row, 1961.

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Willi Marxsen followed in 1956 with the first redaction-critical study of Mark.^
Though not until 1969, it was nonetheless Roy Harrisville, in collaboration with
James Boyce, Donald Juel, and William Poehlmann, who translated Marxsen's
book into English under the title Mark the Evangelist.^ Not only this, but two years
prior to the appearance of this translation, Harrisville had himself sketched his
own redaction-critical understanding of Mark, in the fascinating book he entitled
The Miracle of Mark.
As is apparent, in the first years of redaction-critical study the gospels receiv­
ing the lion's share of attention were Mark and Luke. Still, several years earlier
than even the publications of Conzelmann and Marxsen, Gunther Bomkamm of
Heidelberg fame had written a short article on Matthew 8:23-27 entitled "Die
Sturmstillung im Matthausevangelium" (translated as "The Stilling of the Storm in
Matthew").^ Though scarcely noticed when first published, by the decade of the
'60s Bornkamm's article had become highly acclaimed in scholarly circles and was
regarded, in retrospect, as the harbinger of redaction-criticism. Indeed, to this day
it retains this honor. But seminal though Bornkamm's article proved to be, it ought
not be treated, as has sometimes been the case, as the final word on the interpreta­
tion of Matthew 8:23-27. In what follows, I should like to explore this pericope
afresh. The idea is not to ignore Bornkamm's interpretation but, building on it, to
show that this pericope is perhaps expressive of more "Matthean theology" than
even he envisaged.

1.
In the synoptic gospels, the story of the stilling of the storm occurs in three
versions: Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25; and Matthew 8:23-27. In assessing these
versions, Bomkamm argues that whereas in Mark and Luke the stilling of the
storm is a clear-cut miracle story, in Matthew it has become a story about disciple­
ship.^ Without wishing to disagree with Bomkamm, I should nonetheless like to go
further and contend that, under the pen of Matthew, the stilling of the storm has
become a paradigm of disciples in mission that conveys a warning: engaged in
mission, disciples must beware lest they succumb to bouts of "little faith."
To begin with Mark's version of the story (4:35-41), its context, structure, and
style indicate that the primary focus is on Jesus and the great miracle he performs.
Contextually, Mark depicts Jesus as entering a boat so as to deliver his discourse in
parables to the great crowd standing on the shore (4:1). His discourse ended, Jesus
remains in the boat and commands the disciples to embark on a journey that takes
them across the Sea of Galilee and back (4:35-5:43). In the course of this journey,
Jesus performs four stupendous miracles. Out on the sea, Jesus stills a "fierce"
storm (4:35-41). Arriving on the sea's eastern (gentile) shore, Jesus drives the

^Der Evangelist Markus: Studien zur Redaktionsgeschichte des Evangeliums, Forschungen zur Religion
und Literatur des Alien und Neuen Testaments 49 (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht).
^Subtitle: Studies on the Redaction History of the Gospel (Nashville: Abingdon).
^Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1967.
^The German has been reprinted in Gunther Bomkamm, Gerhard Barth, and Heiz Joachim Held,
Uberlieferung und Auslegung im Matthausevangelium, Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alien und
Neuen Testament 1 (Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1960) 48-53; English: idem. Tradition and Inter­
pretation in Matthew, New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963) 52-57.
^"The Stilling of the Storm," 49,51 (ET, 53,55).
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 Kingsbury, The Stilling of the Storm

demons out of Legion, a "fierce" demoniac whom no one could subdue (5:1-20).
Returning again to the western (Jewish) side, Jesus, on his way to Jairus' home,
heals a woman afflicted with a "fierce" disease: for twelve years, she has been
hemorrhaging (5:25-34). Finally, arriving at Jairus's house, Jesus rescues his
twelve-year-old daughter from death, the "fiercest" of all maladies with which
humans must contend (5:21-24,35-43). As is plain, by embedding the stilling of the
storm in a context that celebrates Jesus as a spectacular miracle-worker (4:35-5:43),
Mark invites the reader to construe the stilling of the storm as a spectacular miracle
story.
In structure, too, Mark's version of the stilling of the storm can be seen to
focus on Jesus and the great miracle he performs. Formally, Mark's version is
virtually a model of what form critics understand a miracle story to be. First, Mark
describes the "problem" the disciples face, a storm at sea (4:35-38). Second, Mark
portrays Jesus as "solving" this problem by calming wind and wave (4:39a-b). And
third, no sooner has Jesus performed the miracle than Mark, as narrator, "con­
firms" this (4:39c). Indeed, even the story's last two verses (4:40-41), which serve
the purpose of associating it with such broader themes in Mark's Gospel as the
"faith" of the disciples and the "identity" of Jesus, are not extraneous to the miracle
itself. In telling of the disciples' lack of faith (4:40), Mark reveals retrospectively
that the storm was by no means the only "problem" the disciples faced out on the
sea. And in the way the disciples pose the question of Jesus' identity (4:41), they,
too, "confirm" that Jesus has in truth stilled wind and sea.
Finally, the style in which Mark narrates his version of the stilling of the
storm corroborates the view that he would have the reader regard it as a straight­
forward miracle story. The hallmarks of Mark's style are vividness and verisimili­
tude. Thus, Mark properly characterizes the storm as a "tempest," or "fierce gust of
wind."7 Moreover, in describing this storm and its aftermath, Mark dramatically
highlights the great plight of the disciples ("the waves were crashing against the
boat," 4:37); the great calm of Jesus ("But he was in the stern sleeping on the
cushion," 4:38); the strikingly realistic manner in which the disciples address Jesus
("Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 4:38); the astonishingly author­
itative commands by which Jesus effects the miracle ("Be quiet! Be muzzled!" 4:39);
and the deeper spiritual problem that motivated the disciples' anxious behavior
("Have you still no faith?" 4:40).
Accordingly, scrutiny of Mark's mode of narrating the stilling of the storm
reveals that the latter is an exemplary miracle story. Nor is the case any different
when one turns to Luke's version of this story (8:22-25). Contextually, Luke to all
intents and purposes situates the stilling of the storm in the same sequence of
events as does Mark: shortly after Jesus has narrated the parable of the sower and
its interpretation (8:4-15), he embarks on a journey across the sea and back (8:22-
56). While on this journey, Jesus stills wind and wave (8:22-25), drives the demons
out of Legion on the gentile side of the sea (8:26-39), and, upon returning to the
Jewish side, heals the woman with a hemorrhage (8:43-48) and raises the daughter
of Jairus from the dead (8:40-42,49-56).

^Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2d
ed., trans, and rev. W. F. Arndt, F. W. Gingrich, and F. W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979)
463.

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Structurally, Luke's version of the stilling of the storm, like Mark's, closely
approximates the form of the genre "miracle story": After depicting the "problem"
that the storm creates for the disciples (8:23-24a-b), Luke describes Jesus as "solv­
ing" this problem by calming wind and wave (8:24c) and then, as narrator, he
"confirms" that Jesus did in fact perform the miracle (8:24d). In addition, Luke
likewise follows Mark by using the end of the story to stress that lack of faith was
also integral to the "problem" the disciples confronted out on the water and to
present the disciples as themselves "confirming" that Jesus mastered wind and
wave (8:25).
Stylistically, Luke, though he streamlines Mark's version of the stilling of the
storm, nonetheless narrates it in a manner that is also both vivid and verisimilar.
To illustrate, Luke calls attention at the outset of the story to the inward calm of
Jesus by noting that the voyage has scarcely begun when Jesus falls asleep (8:23),
emphasizes the immensity of the danger in which the disciples find themselves by
observing that the boat fills with water (8:23), and underscores the enormity of
both the miracle Jesus performs (by depicting him as confronting "raging waves,"
8:24 [NRSV]) and of the authority of Jesus (by twice mentioning that he performs
the miracle simply by "rebuking" wind and wave, 8:24-25). On balance, therefore,
Luke's version of the stilling of the storm, like that of Mark, proves itself to be a
typical miracle story in the sense that Luke's main concern is to present Jesus as
performing a spectacular miracle.

IL
When one turns from Mark and Luke to Matthew's version of the stilling of
the storm (8:23-27), the character of the story changes noticeably. To demonstrate
this, we shall examine, in turn, the context, structure, style, and purpose of the
story.
Although Matthew situates the stilling of the storm within the wider context
of ten miracle stories (chaps. 8-9), the immediate context in which it appears does
not center on miracle working but on discipleship. Indeed, this immediate context,
though it encompasses only two pericopes including the stilling of the storm
(8:18-22,23-27), is nonetheless clearly marked off through Matthew's repeated use
of the catchword "to follow" (akolouthein, 8:19, 22, 23). Throughout his gospel,
Matthew uses the verb "to follow" both literally and metaphorically. When used
literally, "to follow" denotes the mere act of coming or going after a person or
thing in time, place, or sequence. This is what it means in 9:19, where Matthew
remarks that Jesus arose and "followed" a certain ruler to his house. When used
metaphorically, "to follow" connotes coming or going after a person as a calling or
way of life, that is to say, as a person's disciple.
The latter is the way in which Matthew uses "to follow" in the immediate
context in which we find the stilling of the storm (8:18-27). When the scribe
approaches Jesus and declares, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go"
(8:19), the reader is to know that it is the intent of the scribe to abandon his former
way of life and, by joining himself to Jesus, enter on a new calling and way of life.®

®For a treatment of the way in which Jesus deals with this scribe, see Jack Dean Kingsbury, ''On
Following Jesus: the 'Eager'Scribe and the 'Reluctant' Disciple (Matthew 8:18-22)," New Testament Studies
34 (1988) 47-52.

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 Kingsbury, The Stilling of the Storm

Again, when Jesus orders the disciple in 8:22 to "follow me!" he is, in effect, telling
the disciple that his total allegiance is due Jesus alone.’ And when in the opening
words of the stilling of the storm (8:23) Matthew reports that the disciples "follow"
Jesus into the boat, such "following" is to be construed against the background of
the earlier command Jesus issued the disciples in 8:19. In 8:19 Jesus, seeing a crowd
about him, orders the disciples to set sail for the other side of the sea. Hence, as the
disciples in 8:23 now follow Jesus into the boat, they are not only trailing along
behind him but also obeying his command, which is a mark of discipleship.
Consequently, by binding together the immediate context in which he has embed­
ded the stilling of the storm through metaphorical use of the verb "to follow,"
Matthew indicates that the stilling of the storm, though it is a miracle story,
nevertheless stands under the sign of discipleship and is to be interpreted in this
light.
A glance at the structure of Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm
supports this argument. In Mark and in Luke, the flow of the action in the story is
typical of that of a miracle story: it moves from "problem" to "solution" to "confir­
mation," whereby the "solution" constitutes the climax of the story (Mark 4:39a-b;
Luke 8:24c). In Matthew, by contrast, this narrative flow is disturbed, and the
climax of the story focuses as much, or more, on the theme of discipleship as it does
on the miracle Jesus performs.
To be specific, Matthew begins his version of the story quite conventionally
by describing the "problem" the disciples face: encountering a fierce storm at sea
that threatens to swamp their boat, the disciples arouse the sleeping Jesus and
appeal to him for rescue (8:24-25). Having thus begun the story, however, Matthew
"disturbs" the anticipated flow of the action by not narrating the "solution," which
is the miracle Jesus accomplishes, until after Jesus has reprimanded the disciples:
"Why are you cowards, O little-faithed ones?" (8:26a-b). Such "tampering" with
the story's action is striking, and the reason is that it creates a picture of Jesus that,
curiously, portrays him as finding it more urgent to reprimand the disciples than
to do anything about the hurricane winds and sinking boat. Accordingly, it is only
after Jesus has reprimanded the disciples that Matthew tells of the miracle Jesus
performs, the "solution" to the problem, and "confirms" that Jesus has in truth
performed it (8:26c). Then, too, hand in hand with the way Matthew alters the
structure of the story goes the deft use he makes of the literary devices of "show­
ing" and "telling." It is noteworthy that whereas Matthew "shows" Jesus repri­
manding the disciples,^^ he himself, as narrator, "tells" of the miracle Jesus
performs.^^ What this means is that the miracle Jesus performs is not described
with the same dramatic force as is his reprimand to the disciples. In sum, therefore,
the result of Matthew's having "disturbed" the structure of the stilling of the storm
is that Jesus' reprimand to the disciples assumes a prominence that rivals or even
surpasses what otherwise is the climax of the story, the miracle Jesus performs. So
again, Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm, though it is a miracle story, is
primarily about discipleship.
A stylistic examination of Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm

^For a complete discussion of Jesus' interaction with this disciple, see ibid., 52-56.
i^Observe Matthew's use of direct speech in Matt 8:26a-b.
i^Matt 8:26c; contrast Mark 4:39.
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reinforces this conclusion. Whereas the style Mark and Luke employ in narrating
their versions is vivid and verisimilar, Matthew's style, while vivid, is "religious"
in nature. To see this, one need only compare Matthew's description of various
aspects of the story's action with that of Mark. Thus, Matthew sounds the theme of
discipleship at the outset of his story by noting that the disciples "follow" Jesus
into the boat (8:23). For his part, Mark exhibits far less interest in this theme, for he
reports that it is the disciples who take Jesus with them (4:36). Unlike Mark, whose
description of the storm as a "fierce gust of wind" is what one would expect (4:37),
Matthew oddly refers to it as a great "quake" (8:24).^^ Whereas Mark depicts the
disciples as addressing Jesus as "Teache?' (4:38), which is a term of human respect,
Matthew depicts the disciples as addressing Jesus as "Lord" (8:25), which is a more
exalted term that ascribes to Jesus divine status and authority. In Mark, the rhetor­
ical question the disciples put to Jesus is realistic but irreverent in tone: "...do you
not care that we are perishing?" (4:38). In Matthew, the disciples' question assumes
the form of a prayer for deliverance: "Lord, save, we are perishing!" (8:25). And
whereas in Mark, Jesus' charge that the disciples do not yet have faith seems to call
their very discipleship into question (4:40), in Matthew Jesus, in accusing the
disciples of exhibiting "little faith," nonetheless grants that they do in fact believe
(8:26). Throughout, therefore, Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm evinces
a style that is vivid but especially "religious" in tone.
In summary, we have seen that Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm
is noticeably different in character from that of Mark and of Luke. Contextually,
Mark and Luke situate the stilling of the storm within a cycle of miracle stories;
Matthew combines it with a pericope that features the theme of discipleship.
Structurally, Mark and Luke see in the stilling of the storm a typical "miracle
story." Their versions move smoothly from "problem" to "solution" to "confirma­
tion" and reach their climax in the "solution," or miracle that Jesus performs;
Matthew, highlighting the theme of discipleship, alters the structure so that Jesus'
reprimand to the disciples stands out every bit as prominently as does the miracle
Jesus performs. And stylistically, whereas Mark and Luke narrate the story in a
mode that is vivid and verisimilar, the mode in which Matthew narrates it is both
vivid and "religious."

III.
In conclusion of our discussion of the synoptic versions of the stilling of the
storm and especially that of Matthew, it remains for us to ask about their purpose.
In Mark,^3 Jesus is the Messiah-King from the line of David, the royal Son of God
who is the bearer of God's kingdom. The public ministry Jesus undertakes is
primarily one of preaching, teaching, healing, and exorcising demons. As an
episode in Jesus' public ministry, the stilling of the storm attests to him as the
divinely authoritative Son of God who performs spectacular miracles as a sign of
the presence of God's rule. In touching on the disciples' lack of faith at the end of
the story, Mark alludes to the remarkable incomprehension that afflicts the disci­
ples in his gospel: they show themselves incapable of coming to terms with the

^2Qn the significance of this, see below.

i^For a more detailed discussion of the various points made in this paragraph, see Jack Dean
Kingsbury, Conflict in Mark: Jesus, Authorities, Disciples (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989).

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 Kingsbury, The Stilling of the Storm

central purpose of either Jesus' ministry (service unto death) or discipleship

(servanthood). Further, in asking about the identity of Jesus, the disciples stand in
a line with the Jewish crowds and their leaders, for whom Jesus' identity is also a
mystery.
For Luke,^^ Jesus is Israel's Messiah-King: Son of David, Son of God, Lord,
and Savior. The public ministry Jesus discharges—which consists of teaching,
preaching, healing, exorcising demons, and otherwise reaching out to those living
on the margins of society—^is best described as a ministry of deed and word.
Within the context of Jesus' public ministry, the stilling of the storm, as one of
Jesus' deeds, attests to him as the divinely authoritative Messiah who performs
spectacular miracles as a sign both of the presence of God's rule and of the
salvation God nnakes available to humans in him. In having Jesus ask the disciples
about their lack of faith in the last verse of the stilling of the storm, Luke calls
attention to the malady that afflicts the disciples throughout his gospel: spiritual
immaturity. And in that the disciples inquire of one another who Jesus is, they
pose a question that is not answered by anyone in Israel until Peter confesses on
behalf of the disciples that Jesus is the Messiah of God.
In comparison with the Markan and Lukan versions of the stilling of the
storm, what is the purpose of Matthew's version? To get at this, I should like to
return to a matter mentioned above in passing, to wit: whereas Mark and Luke
both designate the storm that arises at sea as a "tempest," or "fierce gust of wind,"^^
Matthew prefers to call it a "quake" (seismos, 8:24). That Matthew should describe
this storm as a quake is peculiar and causes one to ask why. Seemingly, the answer
may be found in another place where this term occurs, in Jesus' eschatological
discourse (24:7). Here in this pericope on the stilling of the storm, Matthew refers
to a "quake" at sea; in his eschatological discourse, Jesus refers to "quakes" on
land, that is, to earthquakes. Of significance is the context in which Jesus speaks of
quakes in his eschatological discourse. Looking to the future, Jesus instructs the
disciples on events that will take place in the time following his resurrection and
leading up to his parousia (24:3). During this time, the disciples will be engaged in
their post-Easter mission, that of proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom through­
out the inhabited world (24:14). In the discharge of their mission, Jesus warns them
that they will encounter fierce obstacles: persecutions from without and dissension
from within (24:9-13). If, now, one returns to the stilling of the storm and views it
through the lens of Jesus' eschatological discourse, the theological meaning and
therefore also the purpose of this story becomes clear.
Just prior to the stilling of the storm, Jesus orders the disciples to set sail for
the other side of the sea (8:18), that is to say, Jesus entrusts the disciples with a
mission. Before he and the disciples can embark on this mission, however, Jesus is
approached by two men, first a scribe and then one of his disciples, and he has an
exchange with each of them regarding discipleship (8:19-22). These exchanges
over, Jesus enters a boat and the disciples follow him in (8:23). Removing himself
physically from the disciples, just as he will later do following the resurrection,
Jesus falls asleep. The disciples, left to themselves out on the water just as they will

the various aspects of Luke's gospel-story mentioned in this paragraph, see Jack Dean
Kingsbury, Conflict in Luke: Jesus, Authorities, Disciples (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991).
i5Cf. Mark 4:37 and Luke 8:23.

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All Things New

be left to themselves after Easter, encounter a fierce storm. Fearing that they will be
engulfed by the storm, just as they will later fear that they will be engulfed by
persecutions and dissension, the disciples suddenly abandon their mission. In­
stead of rowing on, they rush to Jesus, rouse him from sleep, and pray that he will
rescue them from perishing. Later, the disciples, tempted to abandon their mission
to the world, will likewise pray to Jesus, for rescue from trial and tribulation. For
his part, Jesus does not condone the fact that the disciples do not fully trust that he
will see them through the mission he has given them. This explains why he
immediately censures them: ''Why are you cowards, O little-faithed ones?" Still,
although Jesus deplores that the disciples have abandoned their mission, he does
not simply leave them to their own devices. On the contrary, he rebukes the winds
and sea and thus graciously enables them to accomplish their mission. In similar
fashion, Jesus will later enable the disciples to accomplish their world-wide mis­
sion by sustaining them with his gracious, powerful presence.
Should this reading of Matthew's version of the stilling of the storm have
merit, it becomes clear that this story is, in the eyes of Matthew, a paradigm of
disciples in mission. As to its purpose, this paradigm conveys a warning to disci­
ples coupled with a promise. The warning this paradigm conveys is that disciples
must beware, for, as they engage in mission, they will always be vulnerable to
attacks of little faith. The promise that attends this warning is that although Jesus
does not condone the fact that disciples succumb to the doubts of little faith,
neither will he leave them to fend for themselves. Just the opposite, he will sustain
them in the hardships they face and enable them to complete the mission he has
entrusted to them.
One of Roy Harrisville's great strengths is that he has never been content
simply to be a highly skilled technician, though he is this and it is no mean
accomplishment. Beyond acquiring technical skills, however, Harrisville has al­
ways striven to capture the theological center of New Testament materials. This is
why he is a gospel preacher without peer, and this is why I have tried to honor him
by penetrating to the theological heart of Matthew's version of the stilling of the
storm.

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