·
30 William Wilberforce,
Social Reformer, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson, was an English abolitionist,
and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in
the British Empire.
He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (also
known as the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade) and helped achieve
passage of the Slave Trade Act of
1807, which ended British trade in slaves.
·
31 Ignatius of Loyola,
Founder of the Society of Jesus,
1556 was a Spanish Basque priest and theologian, who founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and
became its first Superior General.[2]
- 4 Jean-Baptiste Vianney, Curé d'Ars,
Spiritual Guide, 1859
OLD TESTAMENT: 2 Samuel 11: 1 - 15 (RCL)
2Sam 11:1 (NRSV)
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent
Jo'ab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Am'monites,
and besieged Rab'bah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2 It happened,
late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the
roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman
was very beautiful. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was
reported, "This is Bathshe'ba daughter of Eli'am, the wife of Uri'ah the
Hit'tite." 4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and
he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she
returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David,
"I am pregnant."
6 So David sent
word to Jo'ab, "Send me Uri'ah the Hit'tite." And Jo'ab sent Uri'ah
to David. 7 When Uri'ah came to him, David asked how Jo'ab and the people
fared, and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uri'ah, "Go down to
your house, and wash your feet." Uri'ah went out of the king's house, and
there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uri'ah slept at the entrance
of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to
his house. 10 When they told David, "Uri'ah did not go down to his
house," David said to Uri'ah, "You have just come from a journey. Why
did you not go down to your house?" 11 Uri'ah said to David, "The ark
and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Jo'ab and the servants of my
lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to
drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not
do such a thing." 12 Then David said to Uri'ah, "Remain here today
also, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uri'ah remained in Jerusalem
that day. On the next day, 13 David invited him to eat and drink in his
presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch
with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning
David wrote a letter to Jo'ab, and sent it by the hand of Uri'ah. 15 In the
letter he wrote, "Set Uri'ah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and
then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die."
2 Kings 4: 42 - 44 (Roman Catholic, alt. for RCL)
2Kin 4:42 (NRSV) A
man came from Ba'al-shal'ishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man
of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Eli'sha
said, "Give it to the people and let them eat." 43 But his servant
said, "How can I set this before a hundred people?" So he repeated,
"Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the LORD,
"They shall eat and have some left.'" 44 He set it before them, they
ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.
PSALM 14 (RCL)
Psal 14:1 (NRSV)
Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God."
They are corrupt,
they do abominable deeds;
there is no one
who does good.
2 The LORD looks
down from heaven on humankind
to see if there
are any who are wise,
who seek after
God.
3 They have all
gone astray, they are all alike perverse;
there is no one
who does good,
no, not one.
4 Have they no
knowledge, all the evildoers
who eat up my
people as they eat bread,
and do not call
upon the LORD?
5 There they shall
be in great terror,
for God is with
the company of the righteous.
6 You would
confound the plans of the poor,
but the LORD is
their refuge.
7 O that
deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
When the LORD
restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will
rejoice; Israel will be glad.
14 Dixit insipiens (ECUSA BCP)
1 The
fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” *
All
are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there
is none who does any good.
2 The
Lord looks down from heaven upon
us all, *
to
see if there is any who is wise,
if
there is one who seeks after God.
3 Every
one has proved faithless;
all alike have
turned bad; *
there
is none who does good; no, not one.
4 Have
they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who
eat up my people like bread
and
do not call upon the Lord?
5 See
how they tremble with fear, *
because
God is in the company of the righteous.
6 Their
aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but
the Lord is their refuge.
7 Oh,
that Israel's deliverance would come out of Zion! *
when
the Lord restores the fortunes of
his people,
Jacob
will rejoice and Israel be glad.
Psalm 145: 10 - 11, 15
- 18 (Roman Catholic)
Psalm 145: 10 - 18 (alt. for RCL)
Psal 145:10 (NRSV)
All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
and all your
faithful shall bless you.
11 They shall
speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your
power,
12 to make known
to all people your mighty deeds,
and the glorious
splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion
endures throughout all generations.
The LORD is
faithful in all his words,
and gracious in
all his deeds.
14 The LORD
upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all
who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all
look to you,
and you give them
their food in due season.
16 You open your
hand,
satisfying the
desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is
just in all his ways,
and kind in all
his doings.
18 The LORD is
near to all who call on him,
to all who call on
him in truth.
145 Exaltabo te, Deus (ECUSA
BCP)
10 All
your works praise you, O Lord, *
and
your faithful servants bless you.
11 They
make known the glory of your kingdom *
and
speak of your power;
12 That
the peoples may know of your power *
and
the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; *
your
dominion endures throughout all ages.
14 The
LORD is faithful in all his words *
and
merciful in all his deeds.
15 The
Lord upholds all those who fall; *
he
lifts up those who are bowed down.
16 The
eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord,
*
and
you give them their food in due season.
17 You
open wide your hand *
and
satisfy the needs of every living creature.
18 The
Lord is righteous in all his ways
*
and
loving in all his works.
19 The
Lord is near to those who call
upon him, *
to
all who call upon him faithfully.
NEW TESTAMENT: Ephesians 3: 14 - 21 (RCL)
Ephe 3:14 (NRSV)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in
heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of
his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with
power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may
have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who
by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than
all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 4: 1 - 6 (Roman Catholic)
Ephe 4:1 (NRSV) I
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the
calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with
patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one
Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and
through all and in all.
h/t Montreal Anglican
The author, writing in
Paul’s name, has told us of Paul’s insistence on Gentiles being the equal of
Jews in the Church. He has written: “Gentiles have become fellow heirs”
(v. 6),
members of the same Church as Jews, sharers in Christ’s saving activity, as
part of God’s plan. Because of his (Gentile) readers’ “faith in the Lord Jesus
and ... [their] love toward all the saints” ( 1:15)
and because they are sharers in the “boundless riches of Christ” (v. 8)
and should not “lose heart over ... [his] sufferings” (v. 13),
he now prays to the Father (v. 14),
kneeling in solemnity, to God the source of life itself, of very existence
(“name”, v. 15).
(In Greek, patria, “family” is a pun on pater,
“Father”, v. 14.)
His prayer includes four
petitions:
·
for inward strengthening (“inner being”, v. 16)
through the Spirit;
·
for the Risen Jesus to be the source of (“rooted”, v. 17),
and basis for (“grounded”), their outward expression of love;
·
that God may give them the power to understand (as all can) the totality
of Christ’s love (v. 18 –
or of God’s saving plan for humans); and
·
to so know Christ’s love that they grow into full knowledge of God’s
ways (v. 19).
(Stoic philosophy sought
systematized knowledge of all, but for Christians experiential knowledge of
God’s love is infinitely more than this.) The prayer concludes (vv. 20-21)
with a doxology, praise to God, for whom there are no limits to
achievement, and whose actions we can in no way limit: may his power, shown in
Christ, be shown in the Church, in its life, for all to see.
erses 1-21: A prayer for wisdom, interrupted by a
parenthesis on Paul’s mission to the Gentiles (vv. 2-13).
[ NOAB]
After v. 1,
Paul digresses (v. 2-12).
He continues with his intended thinking in v. 14.
This passage depends on Colossians 1:23-29.
[ NJBC]
Verse 1: “Paul” was a “prisoner” because he had aroused
the hostility of the Jews by advocating the equality of the “Gentiles” in the
Church. See Acts 21:21, 28 for
hostility towards him in Jerusalem. See also Acts 22:21-22.
[ NOAB]
Verses 2-13 are a parenthesis on Paul’s role in the
revelation of the mystery. [ NJBC]
Verse 2: “for surely you have already heard”:
Literally if indeed you have heard, but in the sense that they have
surely already heard. [ NJBC]
Verse 3: “the mystery was made known to me by
revelation ... the mystery of Christ”: This notion is also found in
Colossians 1:25-26:
“I became its [the Church’s] servant according to God's commission that was
given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has
been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to
his saints”. The word “mystery” here (but not in 5:23)
refers to God’s age-long purpose, now disclosed to his chosen, to call Gentiles
as well as Jews to share in Christ’s redemptive work. [ NOAB] See also 1QpHab (*Qumran
Habakkuk Pesher) 7:4-5; 1QH
(Hymns) 9:21 ( Vermes: 1:21).
[ NJBC]
Verse 3: “by revelation”: The author writes in 1:17:
“ pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you
a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him”. See also Acts 9:3-4 (Christ
appears to Paul on the road to Damascus). In Galatians 1:12,
Paul writes that he “did not receive it [the gospel] from a human source, nor
was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ”. [ NOAB]
Verse 3: “as I wrote above ...”: i.e. in reference to
the mystery of Christ mentioned in 1:9 and 2:13-17;
however, some scholars see this as a reference to all the letters of Paul, so
to them Ephesians was written by Paul. [ NJBC]
Verse 3: “in a few words”: The “words” are 1:8b-10:
“With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the
fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things
on earth”. [ NOAB]
Verse 5: “In former generations”: i.e. in Old Testament
times.
Verse 5: “holy apostles”: In Colossians 1:26 says
“the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has
now been revealed to his saints”. The author wishes to recall the solid
foundation on which the church is built (see 2:20),
and therefore underscores the role of apostles and prophets. [ NJBC]
Verse 8: “the very least”: In 1 Corinthians 15:9,
Paul writes “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God”. [ CAB]
Verse 9: “God who created”: At creation, God
established his providential control of the cosmos, and only in the present era
are his designs becoming known. [ NJBC]
Verse 10: “rulers and authorities”: God’s wisdom put an
end to their control (see 1QS (*Qumran Rule of the Community) 4:18-23) through
subjugation of all things to Christ.
Verse 14: “bow my knees”: The normal Jewish posture for
prayer was standing (see Mark 11:25 and
Luke 18:11, 13).
See also Romans 11:4; 14:11,
Philippians 2:10.
In Isaiah 45:23,
bowing the knee is a token of homage to the universal king.
The prayer completes the
circle: from God as the source of life to God as the goal of humanity.
Verse 15: “family in heaven”: One scholar sees a Gnostic
influence here. They believed that families or generations in
heaven controlled the universe.
Verse 15: “name”: God, the creator of all the families
of beings, established his power and control over all creation in the act of naming
them: see Psalm 147:4,
Isaiah 40:26,
Genesis 2:19-20.
[ NJBC]
Verse 18: “height and depth”: Paul uses these words in
Romans 8:39.
Some think that use of dimensions is as in Ezekiel 42; 47; 48,
where dimensions of the Temple, and of Jerusalem, are spoken of at length.
Similar dimensional data is given in Revelation 21:9-27.
However, in the context of Ephesians, they may describe God’s plan of salvation
or, more likely, the love of Christ – mentioned in the preceding and following
verses. [ NJBC]
Verse 17: “Christ may dwell”: Usually Paul refers to
the Holy Spirit as dwelling in people, but to him, the Risen
Christ and the Holy Spirit are interchangeable in Romans 8:9-11 –
because the Risen Jesus is the source of the Spirit (Acts 2:23).
Verse 21: “the church” and “Christ Jesus” are necessary
complements of each other. [ NOAB]
GOSPEL: John 6: 1 - 21 (RCL)
John 6: 1 - 15 (Roman Catholic)
John 6:1 (NRSV)
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the
Sea of Tibe'rias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the
signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down
there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was
near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said
to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 He
said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip
answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of
them to get a little." 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother, said to him, 9 "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves
and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" 10 Jesus said,
"Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in
the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the
loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were
seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied,
he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing
may be lost." 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the
five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is
indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."
15 When Jesus
realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
16 When evening
came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started
across the sea to Caper'naum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to
them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they
had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and
coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, "It
is I; do not be afraid." 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat,
and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
The stories of the
feeding of the five thousand and of Jesus walking on the water are familiar to
us from the other gospels, but John presents them a little differently. Most
obviously, note “Sea of Tiberias” (v. 1):
this was the official Roman name for the Sea of Galilee. John is concerned
to locate the events precisely geographically and in time
(“Passover”, v. 4),
although “after this” (v. 1,
also used elsewhere in the book) is somewhat vague. John tells us about certain signs (of
which these stories are two) which he hopes will encourage belief, be a
starting point for understanding Jesus, and show Christ for who he is.
The crowds are attracted
by Jesus’ miracles (“signs”, v. 2)
but faith in him is only skin-deep. Note the links to the story of the Exodus,
of Israel’s deliverance and of the formation of the first Israel:
the “mountain” (vv. 3, 15,
Sinai), Jesus’ question to Philip and his answer (vv. 5-7,
like Moses’ question to God and God’s answer – when God gives the people meat
to eat), and feeding the crowd (vv. 11-13,
like the gift of manna in the wilderness.) Philip thinks in material terms, as
did Moses (v. 7),
but Andrew is more resourceful (vv. 8-9).
“Barley loaves” were the food of the poor.
V. 11 looks
forward to the Last Supper; “given thanks” translates eucharistesas.
In v. 14,
the people misunderstand who Jesus is; they believe him to be “the prophet”.
(In Deuteronomy 18:18,
God tells Moses that he will raise a prophet like Moses who will speak what God
commands. By Jesus’ time, people expected a prophet to come to usher in the age
to come, the messianic age.) The people want to make him a king, a political
Messiah, but Jesus refuses (v. 15).
Note “Jesus had not yet come to them” (v. 17):
John assumes that his readers already know the story. In v. 20,
“It is I” translates the Greek phrase ego eimi – the words
which God uses to identify himself to Moses in the Greek translation of
Exodus 3:14.
The parallels are
Matthew 14:13-27,
Mark 6:32-51 and
Luke 9:10-17.
Jesus walking on the water is not found in Luke.
Some scholars question
the order of chapters 4, 5 and 6 as
we have them. Geographically, the sequence should be 4 then 6, then 5.
In 2 Kings 4:42-44,
Elisha performs a similar feeding miracle. The gift of manna is recorded in
Exodus 16 and
Numbers 11.
[ CAB]
Verse 1: “After this” and the fact that the verbs in
v. 2 are
in the imperfect imply that there had been an interval during which Jesus had
performed many “signs” (v. 2)
not recorded in this gospel. [ BlkJn]
Verse 1: “Sea of Tiberias”: Herod Antipas founded the
city of Tiberias about 20 AD, to honour Tiberias Caesar; the lake was renamed
after the city. [ NOAB]
Verse 3: Unlike Mark, John does not tell us that the
hour is late and the people are distressed. [ NJBC] These details are not
pertinent to his purpose of writing the gospel.
Verse 3: “the mountain”: BlkJn offers hill country.
Verse 4: “the Passover, the festival of the Jews”:
Either John is writing for a Gentile audience unfamiliar with Judaism, or the
word Passover was also used in Christian circles. This is the
second Passover mentioned in this gospel. The first is mentioned in 2:13.
[ BlkJn]
Verses 5-7: Moses’ question to God and God’s answer are in
Numbers 11:13-23.
Verse 7: “Philip”: He is also mentioned in 1:43-51 (his
calling); 12:20-22 (“Greeks”,
Gentiles, wish to see Jesus); 14:1-11(Jesus
is the way to the Father). [ BlkJn]
Verse 7: “Six months’ wages”: Literally two
hundred denarii. The normal pay for a labourer was one denarius per day. [JBC]
Verse 9: Andrew’s resourcefulness is only found in
John. It is a rare insight into the personality of a disciple. [ JBC]
Verse 9: “barley loaves” were eaten by poorer people. [ HBD]
Verse 11: A scholar suggests that John omits the
breaking of the bread because Jesus’ legs were not broken on the cross. 19:32-33 tells
us: “Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other
who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he
was already dead, they did not break his legs”.
Verse 11: “took ... given thanks ... distributed”: This
is the eucharistic language
of the Church. [ NOAB] The
word eucharistesas occurs in the stories of the Last Supper:
see Mark 14:23;
Matthew 26:26;
Luke 22:17, 19.
See also 1 Corinthians 11:23-26;
Matthew 15:36; Didache 9. [ BlkJn]
Verse 12: “were satisfied”: Literally were
filled. [ BlkJn]
Verse 12: “so that nothing may be lost”: The careful
avoidance of any waste of the bread was natural for a Jew, but also
characteristic of the Eucharist.
Only Gentiles would let dogs eat from the table: see Mark 7:28 (the
Syrophoenician or Canaanite woman) and Matthew 15:27.
[ BlkJn]
Verse 13: “they gathered them up”: An act of reverential
economy towards a gift from God. [ NOAB]
In Didache 9:4,
the same word is used for gathering the eucharistic bread. This is a
symbol of the gathering of the church.
Didache 9:4 says “As this broken bread was
scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy
Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for
Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever and ever.”
Verse 14: “the prophet”: Deuteronomy 18:18 actually
refers to an order of prophets. People believed that the line of
prophets that had ended with Malachi in the 400s BC would be restored before
the end of the era.
1QS (Rule of the Qumran Community) 9:10-11 says:
“They [the men of the Community] should not depart from any counsel of the law
... until the prophet comes...” [ Martinez]
CD (Damascus Document)
6:8-11 says: “And the nobles of the people are those who have arrived to dig
the well with the staves that the sceptre decreed, to walk in them throughout
the whole age of wickedness ... until there arises he who teaches justice at the
end of days. ...” [ Martinez]
Verse 14: “the prophet”: The crowd may have been
thinking of Elijah, whose return had been prophesied in Malachi 4:5,
but we cannot expect theological precision from an excited crowd. [ BlkJn]
Verse 15: “make him king”: The true nature of Jesus’
kingship is only revealed at his trial. [ NJBC]
The devil offers to make him king during his temptation in the wilderness: see
Luke 4:1-13 and
Matthew 4:1-11.
See also 18:33-37 (Pilate
questions Jesus) and 19:12-15.
Verse 15: “he withdrew”: The fourth sign ends like the
third (see 5:13),
with Jesus quietly leaving the scene, conscious that he had failed to produce
the effect he intended. [ BlkJn]
Verse 15: “by himself”: Did the disciples share in the
people’s enthusiasm? Matthew 14:22 and
Mark 6:45 both
imply that Jesus forced the disciples to cross the lake again
immediately.
To BlkJn, the misunderstanding of Jesus’
action marks the end of his attempt to lead a mass movement into the Kingdom of
God. The alternative course which he now begins to follow, and which led to the
Cross, will be foreshadowed in the discourse, 6:26ff.
Verse 17: “dark”: This symbolizes the lost and
bewildered state of the disciples, “when Jesus had not come to them”.
Recall 1:5:
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”.
Nicodemus comes “by night” ( 3:2).
In 8:12,
Jesus says: “‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk
in darkness but will have the light of life’”. See also 11:10; 12:35-36; 13:30 (Judas
goes out into the night). [ BlkJn]
Verse 18: The topography of the land around the Sea of
Galilee renders it subject to sudden storms. [ JBC]
Verse 19: “Jesus walking on the sea”: This recalls God’s
control of the waters in the act of creation (see Genesis 1:1-10)
and the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt by the miraculous crossing
of the sea. For God’s power over the sea, see also Psalms 74:12-15; 93:3-4.
It was through God’s control over the sea that the first Israel emerged (see
Exodus 14:19-15:21;
Psalms 77:16-20; 107;
Isaiah 51:10-11).
John implies that Jesus is the new Moses; in the following verses, he is seen
to be greater than Moses, for he has the power to bring forth the new Israel. [ JBC] The synoptic gospels
emphasize the disciples’ lack of faith; John does not.
Verse 19: “on the sea”: BlkJn offers by the lake on
the basis that the same preposition and construction is found in v. 21(where
he translates “reached the land” as got by the land ) – so to
him this is not a miracle: Jesus returns towards Capernaum by land while the
disciples travel by boat. He argues that John used a source independent from
Mark (where in 6:48 this
construction does mean on the lake – NRSV: “on the
sea”). BlkJn sees a
pattern to this gospel in which the sign at Cana, a miracle, corresponds to the
Feeding of the Five Thousand while the Cleansing of the Temple, not a miracle,
corresponds to this story.
Verse 19: “terrified”: BlkJn offers sailed for
“rowed”. The disciples are “terrified” because they are off a lee shore, and
likely to be driven on to it.
Verse 20: “It is I”: It being dark, Jesus may be merely
identifying himself: the disciples would know his voice. But it is never safe
to assume that John does not intend a deeper meaning, so perhaps we should see
here another instance of Jesus identifying himself theologically, as the Logos. [ BlkJn]
Verse 21: The disciples are lost at sea, and probably
far off course (per the other gospels) but after Jesus appears, the boat
“immediately” reaches “the land to which they were going”. Probably this is
another miracle.
