The passage
      v35-37. Jesus has been preaching beside the sea of Galilee and rounding up his teaching with personal instruction to the disciples. Following his usual practice of moving on to continue his gospel ministry, the team sets sail for the Eastern shore of the lake. Evening sailing was usually much safer, certainly than the afternoons when the wind often increased. On this occasion a storm hit and the boat was about to be swamped.
      v38-39. The disciples, many of them experienced fisherman, were afraid of the severity of the storm. They woke Jesus and virtually accused him of not caring about their fate. Jesus responds by stilling the storm. He actually "rebukes" the storm, commanding it to be silent. This is exactly the way he treats the demonic powers. Powers have threatened Jesus and his disciples, and Jesus responds by muzzling them with a word of authority.
      v40-41. Having rebuked the wind, Jesus rebukes the disciples with two questions which they answer themselves in their exclamation, "who is this?" They have not yet worked out who Jesus is and as consequence, are afraid and without faith. Although the crowds hear only mysteries (parables), the disciples have the secrets of the kingdom carefully explained to them. Yet, at this stage, they have yet to understand that Jesus "is the Christ, the Son of God". They do not understand that Jesus is ushering in the kingdom of God with power and authority and that no force can stand against this heavenly man and his mission.

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?
          "Tho the tempest rage and the wild winds blow,
          Not an angry wave shall our bark oer-flow."
      In early Christian art it was not unusual to depict the church as a boat driven hard in a perilous sea, and Jesus in the midst, surrounded by a drenched crew. Some of the crew are depicted filled with fear as they watch the waves plunge into their boat, while others are at peace as they look to Jesus - "steadfast and sure while the billows roll."
      The church is indeed like a boat tossed against the "wings of strife." The storm that came against Jesus had the overtones of the dark domain. The storm represented powers opposed to God's new initiative in Jesus. Jesus was calling out a people to be with him, and the darkness sought to engulf his plan. The church today is constantly affronted by the power of the secular city. The waves come from the front, denouncing the Christian ethic, denouncing the historicity of our faith, eradicating our influence within society. The waves come from behind, seeking to "conform" us to the world, sneaking entertainment concepts into worship, leading us to believe that marketing, selling, that the adoption of secular management criteria, are our only hope for future survival. Thus, like the disciples of old, we are filled with fear, and this because we have little faith.
      In similar terms, as individuals, we find ourselves as if a boat tossed against the "storms of life." It's bad enough trying to understand who we are in this ever- changing melting pot called life. As they say, "men are stuffed", if you're over forty you're useless.... where is the sanity in it all? Yet, worse, our faith is constantly submerged in doubts and questions. Our discipleship is debilitated by fear.
      The answer to our problem is simple. If our anchor is "fastened to the Rock which cannot move" then we "can defy the blast, through strength divine." Will Christianity survive the affront of secularization and the test of marketed religion? Will the individual believer be able to survive the "billows roll"? The answer, of course, is yes, for "we have an anchor that keeps the soul."

v35
      oyiaV (a) "evening" - evening, sunset.
      genomenhV (ginomai) aor. part. "came" - having become, come into being, been born.
      legei (legw) pres. "he said" - A historic present, used for narrative style.
      dielqwmen (diercomai) aor. subj. "let's go over" - let us go through, pass through. Hortatory subjunctive. Here obviously "let us cross over".
      eiV to peran "to the other side" - The country east of Lake Galilee; "to the eastern side of the lake."

v36
      afenteV (afihmi) aor. part. "leaving" - sending away, letting go, going away, releasing. Sometimes given the sense "dismiss", although Mark does not use the word this way. Taylor notes the alternate reading and argues that it is a Greek correction of the original Aramaic
      wJs hJn "as he was" - Obviously making the point that Jesus was already in the boat. So, it is the disciples who leave the crowd for the boats. "So they left the crowd, and took him along without disembarking", Barclay.
      autou pro. "[there were also other boats with] him" - him, it. Either with Jesus or with the boat. No further mention is made of the other boats, but it is obviously one of those interesting pieces of the original setting preserved in the oral tradition.

v37
      lailay (ay apoV) "furious squall" - storm, whirlwind, hurricane, squall. "a fierce gust of wind", BAGD; "then came a violent squall of wind", Phillips.
      anemou (oV) gen. "-" - [there came about a great squall] of wind. Descriptive genitive.
      epeballen eiV "broke over" - were throwing into. Here in the sense, "the waves were breaking into the boat."
      wJste "so that" - Introducing a consecutive clause expressing the result of the wind.
      hdh "-" - [so that] already. The storm was such that the boat was "already" swamped.
      gemiqesqai (gemizw) pres. pas. inf. "nearly swamped" - to be filled. The boat was filling up, became full; "it was about to sink", CEV.

v38
      hn .... kaqeudwn (kaqeudw) pres. part. "he was sleeping" - sleeping. Periphrastic imperfect "Jesus was in the back of the boat with his head on a pillow", CEV.
      to proskefalaion (on) "a cushion" - The article implies only one cushion. Possibly a rowers leather seat cushion, of which there would be more than one, or possibly a cushion for a guest who would normally be placed in the stern of the boat.
      egeirousin (egeirw) pres. "[the disciples] woke [him]" - they raise, lift up = rouse. Historic present for a vivid narrative.
      soi dat. pro. "[don't] you [care]" - [is it not a care] to you.
      apollumeqa (apollumi) pres. mid. "we drown" - we are perishing, ruined. The words are a rebuke, but notice how they are softened in Matthew and Luke; "Is it of no concern to you that we are perishing/drowning?"; "Teacher, are we to drown, for all you care", Moffatt.

v39
      diegerqeiV (diegeirw) aor. pas. part. "he got up" - having been woken out of a sleep, aroused completely. Although most illustrations have Jesus now standing up in the back of the boat, blond hair blowing in the wind, arms outstretched like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments (minus the staff), "got up" is better rendered "he awoke." It is very unlikely that Jesus would be foolish enough to stand up in a small sailing boat during a storm. "And he woke up", Moffatt.
      epetimhsen (epitimaw) aor. "rebuked" - he rebuked, warned sternly. As God rebukes the wilds of nature, so Jesus rebukes the wind and speaks as its master. Possibly "he checked the wind", Moffatt.
      siwpa (siwpaw) pres. imp. "Quiet" - keep silence, am silent. Imperative, "be silent." Calvin says that Jesus' addressing the sea serves "to show that the power of his voice reached the elements, which were devoid of feeling." Cranfield sees no demonic power behind the wind that is driving the sea. Yet, given that the story is tied to Jesus' overcoming of the "legion", it is likely that we are dealing with something more than Jesus' mastery over nature. If this is the case, it is very unlikely that he would have uttered a rather pathetic "hush", NJB.
      pefimwso (fimow) perf. pas. imp. "be still" - be muzzled, silenced. The construction gives an emphatic sense to "be still" and reinforces the sense that Jesus is instructing the dark powers of the underworld, particularly as he uses the same word of silencing an evil spirit, cf. 1:25. It's "be still (get back in your box!) and stay that way."
      ekopasen (kopazw) aor. "died down" - ceased, dropped. Note the ring of the eyewitness in the vivid brevity of this story. "The wind dropped and there was a great calm."
      galhnh megalh "completely calm" - a great calm. Taylor notes that the long vowels in the Greek serve to promote "an atmosphere of complete peace."

v40
      deiloi adj. "afraid" - cowardly, afraid, fearful, timid.
      ouJtwV "-" - thus. Textual variant. "why are you afraid like this", Moffatt.
      oupw ....... pwV ouk "[do you] still [have] no [faith]?" - not yet ..... how, how is it possible that, not. The text is disturbed here with these words either alternating or left out. Both readings, "do you not yet have faith?", or "how is it that you do not have faith?", make the point that by this time the disciples should have learned something of Jesus' mission and so be able to trust him. So, rather than Phillips "what has happened to your faith?", the sense is probably "have you still no faith?", NJB.
      pistin (iV ewV) "faith" - reliance upon, trust, faith. There is debate over the intended focus of this faith. Many commentators see the faith as focused in God, his fatherly care, not in Jesus' mission, cf. Taylor. Yet, the context is the disciples' fear of being swamped by the storm. Jesus is the messiah inaugurating the kingdom of God. Can nature, or more particularly the powers of darkness, resist the dawning of the new age? The Reed Sea could not stand in the way of Israel, nor the river Jordan, and certainly a storm on lake Galilee is unlikely to overcome the mission of the messiah, the Israel of God.