John 14:18

14:18 “I will not abandon ¹  you as orphans, ²  I will come to you. ³ 

Job 9:8

9:8 he alone spreads out the heavens,

and treads ⁴  on the waves of the sea; ⁵ 

Psalms 29:10

29:10 The Lord sits enthroned over the engulfing waters, ⁶ 

the Lord sits enthroned ⁷  as the eternal king.

Psalms 93:4

93:4 Above the sound of the surging water, ⁸ 

and the mighty waves of the sea,

the Lord sits enthroned in majesty. ⁹ 

Matthew 14:25-26

14:25 As the night was ending, ¹⁰  Jesus came to them walking on the sea. ¹¹  14:26 When ¹²  the disciples saw him walking on the water ¹³  they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear.

Mark 6:49

6:49 When they saw him walking on the water ¹⁴  they thought he was a ghost. They ¹⁵  cried out,

Luke 24:36-39

Jesus Makes a Final Appearance

24:36 While they were saying these things, Jesus ¹⁶  himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ¹⁷  24:37 But they were startled and terrified, thinking ¹⁸  they saw a ghost. ¹⁹  24:38 Then ²⁰  he said to them, “Why are you frightened, ²¹  and why do doubts ²²  arise in your hearts? 24:39 Look at my hands and my feet; it’s me! ²³  Touch me and see; a ghost ²⁴  does not have flesh and bones like you see I have.”

[14:18]  ¹ tn Or “leave.”

[14:18]  ² tn The entire phrase “abandon you as orphans” could be understood as an idiom meaning, “leave you helpless.”

[14:18]  ³ sn I will come to you. Jesus had spoken in 14:3 of going away and coming again to his disciples. There the reference was both to the parousia (the second coming of Christ) and to the postresurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples. Here the postresurrection appearances are primarily in view, since Jesus speaks of the disciples “seeing” him after the world can “see” him no longer in the following verse. But many commentators have taken v. 18 as a reference to the coming of the Spirit, since this has been the topic of the preceding verses. Still, vv. 19-20 appear to contain references to Jesus’ appearances to the disciples after his resurrection. It may well be that another Johannine double meaning is found here, so that Jesus ‘returns’ to his disciples in one sense in his appearances to them after his resurrection, but in another sense he ‘returns’ in the person of the Holy Spirit to indwell them.

[9:8]  ⁴ tn Or “marches forth.”

[9:8]  ⁵ tn The reference is probably to the waves of the sea. This is the reading preserved in NIV and NAB, as well as by J. Crenshaw, “Wÿdorek `al-bamote ‘ares,” CBQ 34 (1972): 39-53. But many see here a reference to Canaanite mythology. The marginal note in the RSV has “the back of the sea dragon.” The view would also see in “sea” the Ugaritic god Yammu.

[29:10]  ⁶ tn The noun מַּבּוּל (mabbul, “flood”) appears only here and in Gen 6-11, where it refers to the Noahic flood. Some see a reference to that event here. The presence of the article (perhaps indicating uniqueness) and the switch to the perfect verbal form (which could be taken as describing a past situation) might support this. However, the immediate context indicates that the referent of מַּבּוּל is the “surging waters” mentioned in v. 3. The article indicates waters that are definite in the mind of the speaker and the perfect is probably descriptive in function, like “thunders” in v. 3. However, even though the historical flood is not the primary referent here, there may be a literary allusion involved. The psalmist views the threatening chaotic sea as a contemporary manifestation of the destructive waters of old.

[29:10]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the descriptive function of the preceding perfect.

[93:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “mighty waters.”

[93:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the Lord.”

[14:25]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “In the fourth watch of the night,” that is, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.

[14:25]  ¹¹ tn Or “on the lake.”

[14:26]  ¹² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[14:26]  ¹³ tn Grk “on the sea”; or “on the lake.” The translation “water” has been used here for stylistic reasons (cf. the same phrase in v. 25).

[6:49]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “on the sea,” “on the lake.” The translation “water” has been used here for stylistic reasons (cf. the same phrase in v. 48).

[6:49]  ¹⁵ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[24:36]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:36]  ¹⁷ tc The words “and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’” are lacking in some Western mss (D it). But the clause is otherwise well attested, being found in Ì⁷⁵ and the rest of the ms tradition, and should be considered an original part of Luke.

[24:37]  ¹⁸ sn The disciples were still not comfortable at this point thinking that this could be Jesus raised from the dead. Instead they thought they saw a spirit.

[24:37]  ¹⁹ tc This is not a reference to “a phantom” as read by the Western ms D. For πνεῦμα (pneuma) having the force of “ghost,” or “an independent noncorporeal being, in contrast to a being that can be perceived by the physical senses,” see BDAG 833-34 s.v. πνεῦμα 4.

[24:38]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[24:38]  ²¹ tn Or “disturbed,” “troubled.”

[24:38]  ²² tn The expression here is an idiom; see BDAG 58 s.v. ἀναβαίνω 2. Here καρδία (kardia) is a collective singular; the expression has been translated as plural in English.

[24:39]  ²³ tn Grk “that it is I myself.”

[24:39]  ²⁴ tn See tc note on “ghost” in v. 37.