Luke 8:22-23

Stilling of a Storm

8:22 One ¹  day Jesus ²  got into a boat ³  with his disciples and said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So ⁴  they set out, 8:23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. Now a violent windstorm ⁵  came down on the lake, ⁶  and the boat ⁷  started filling up with water, and they were in danger.

[8:22]  ¹ tn Grk “Now it happened that one.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here δέ (de) has not been translated either.

[8:22]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:22]  ³ sn A boat that held all the disciples would be of significant size.

[8:22]  ⁴ tn Grk “lake, and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the response to Jesus’ request. In addition, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[8:23]  ⁵ tn Or “a squall.”

[8:23]  ⁶ sn A violent windstorm came down on the lake. The Sea of Galilee is located in a depression some 700 ft (200 m) below sea level and is surrounded by hills. Frequently a rush of wind and the right mix of temperatures can cause a storm to come suddenly on the lake. Storms on the Sea of Galilee were known for their suddenness and violence.

[8:23]  ⁷ tn Grk “they were being swamped,” but English idiom speaks of the boat being swamped rather than the people in it, so the referent (the boat) has been supplied to reflect this usage.