Mark 4:35-41
4:35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
4:36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.
4:37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.
4:38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
4:39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
4:40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
4:41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
[35]Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ὀψίας γενομένης· διέλθωμεν εἰς τὸ πέραν.
[36]καὶ ἀφέντες τὸν ὄχλον παραλαμβάνουσιν αὐτὸν ὡς ἦν ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ· καὶ ἄλλα δὲ πλοῖα ἦν μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ.
[37]καὶ γίνεται λαῖλαψ ἀνέμου μεγάλη, τὰ δὲ κύματα ἐπέβαλλεν εἰς τὸ πλοῖον, ὥστε ἤδη αὐτὸ βυθίζεσθαι.
[38]καὶ ἦν αὐτὸς ἐπὶ τῇ πρύμνῃ ἐπὶ τὸ προσκεφάλαιον καθεύδων· καὶ διεγείρουσιν αὐτὸν καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· διδάσκαλε, οὐ μέλει σοι ὅτι ἀπολλύμεθα;
[39]καὶ διεγερθεὶς ἐπετίμησε τῷ ἀνέμῳ καὶ εἶπε τῇ θαλάσσῃ· σιώπα, πεφίμωσο. καὶ ἐκόπασεν ὁ ἄνεμος, καὶ ἐγένετο γαλήνη μεγάλη.
[40]καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· τί δειλοί ἐστε οὕτω; πῶς οὐκ ἔχετε πίστιν;
[41]καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν καὶ ἔλεγον πρὸς ἀλλήλους· τίς ἄρα οὗτός ἐστιν, ὅτι καὶ ὁ ἄνεμος καὶ ἡ θάλασσα ὑπακούουσιν αὐτῷ;
Comments
Jesus and his crew sail to the ‘beyond’ (πέραν). Τhe gale and sea are personified, and are also scolded like restive creatures.
[35] εἰς τὸ πέραν: πέραν, adv., ‘on the other side’; freq. the adv. becomes, as here, the neuter noun τὸ πέραν, ‘the opposite side’ (in cl. Gk prose: LSJ s.v., I.4). διέλθωμεν < διέρχομαι, ‘go or pass through’ which here connotes going across.
[37] λαῖλαψ ἀνέμου: λαῖλαψ, ἡ, ‘furious storm, hurricane’ (already in Homer: LSJ, s.v.A.1). This poetic noun becomes common in later Gk prose. ἄνεμος, ὁ, ‘wind’ (already in Homer: LSJ s.v.). (It seems to be etym. related to the Latin animus or anima, and in either case is derived from the Sanskrit vb ‘to breathe’: Chantraine, s.v.).
The combined term λαῖλαψ ἀνέμου suggests a ‘gale’ or ‘gale-force winds’. We can imagine the howling, screeching wind.
[38] ἦν… καθεύδων: lit., ‘was lying asleep/ was sleeping’. Καθεύδω, ‘Ι lie asleep’ (cl. Gk prose: LSJ s.v., II; also in LXX: Muraoka s.v.). The periphrastic impf. becomes common in koine Gk., and can be used alongside the simple imper.
[39] ἐπετίμησε τῷ ἀνέμῳ: ἐπιτιμῶ (άω), ‘Ι rebuke, censure’, c. dat., of persons or things. (In Mk 1:25 the rebuke takes the form of a command in the imper. φιμώθητι καὶ ἔξελθε).[1]
καὶ εἶπε τῇ θαλάσσῃ· σιώπα, πεφίμωσο: Jesus’ address to the sea is a rebuke cast as two commands, ‘be silent’, and the more emphatic ‘shut your mouth’. πεφίμωσο, 2nd pers. sg., imper., pf., mid. voice < φιμοῦμαι (φιμόομαι), mid./pass. < φιμῶ (όω), ‘I muzzle an animal’; ‘shut’ (a mouth in Eur. Fr. 479: see Montanari s.v.). The command πεφίμωσο is synonymous with φιμώθητι (in Mk 1:25) = ‘Keep your mouth shut’ (verging on a mid. pass.).
The wind and esp. the sea are personified—the sea figuratively has a mouth. At the same time it is animalised, being addressed an ox or other creature with a mouth out of control. See also on v. 41 below.
ἐκόπασεν ὁ ἄνεμος: κοπάζω, ‘Ι abate’ (cl. Gk) is used by Hippocratic physicians (hence a medical usage); but it also is used of natural phenomena, including fire (LSJ s.v.).
In a famous passage in Herodotus 7.191, a gale destroyed a large number of the Persians’ invading fleet off the coast of northern Euboea (Cape Artemisium) in the summer of 480 BC. Whereupon Persian magi ‘cast magical spells on the wind’ and (whether by coincidence or not, as Herodotus editorialised) it abated on the fourth day. The historian uses the very same sentence as Mark: “ἐκόπασεν (sc. ὁ ἄνεμος)”.
[41] ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν: ‘they feared a great fear’; φόβον is a cognate acc., having the same etym. stem and expressing the same idea as the vb (ἐφοβήθησαν). This syntax redoubles the notion of fear felt by the crew.
ὁ ἄνεμος καὶ ἡ θάλασσα ὑπακούουσιν αὐτῷ: personification continues. The wind and sea have been called, and the sea commanded; they now ‘give ear’ (the basic meaning of ὑπακούω already in Homer: LSJ s.v., I.1). Construed, as here, with dat. pers. ὑπακούω means ‘heed an order given by someone’ in LXX (cf. Muraoka s.v., d).
[1] See my comments on Mk 1:25 (Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, 28th Jan. 2024).
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 