Preliminary observations on Mark 4:35-41

As we read the Gospels we continue to wonder why the disciples “didn’t get it.” From early ministry until even after Resurrection this seems to be a constant recurring thing, in the synoptics and in John

This is an earlier one and one that seems more understandable. They had left what they had and had followed a man of great leadership and charisma, but their understanding was just that, they were following a man – and man in lower case.

And what lower-case man can stop the weather?

When I was a child and heard the story the KJV word “ship” was used. I guess back then I was thinking of a large vessel, maybe something like the Queen Mary. I had a harder time imagining a storm big enough to sink it and then thinking that it must have been a REALLY BIG storm.

Somehow realizing that the ship was really a boat seems to make the disciples’ fear more understandable but has not made me think the calming of the storm less miraculous.

And I really like the way the passage end in the Message where the disciples are saying, "Who is this, anyway? "Wind and sea at his beck and call!"

I know that most Bible translations or versions do not capitalize pronouns and nouns referring to God and that many modern sources, Christian and secular, no longer do so either. I continue to do so in my own writing because I think that sometimes it makes what I am writing clearer but do not necessarily infer hostility to Christianity or to God when the capitalization is not done. The reference above was only used as an illustration that divinity was not something they were yet attributing to their Friend and Leader.