Where Did Jesus Walk On Water?

Where was it that Jesus walked on water? Does the Bible tell us precisely where it was at?

Jesus of Nazareth

We know that Jesus was from Nazareth which is in Galilee and though He was born in Bethlehem, He was not raised there but in Nazareth and His primary circuit for proclaiming the kingdom of God was in the region of Galilee. This was near the Sea of Galilee so that is likely where Jesus walked on the water. There are three accounts of this miracle and they seem to show different perspectives of each of the authors but they all took place on the same sea; the Sea of Galilee. The first one is from the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew’s Account

Just after Jesus’ feeding of the “five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matt 18:21) “he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone” (Matt 18:22-23) “but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea” (Matt18:24-25). What was the disciple’s reaction? Would they say, “Hey, Jesus, here we are!”? No, because “when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear” (Matt 18:26). Probably just as we would react so Jesus reassures them “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matt 18:27).

Jesus walks on Water

Right after Jesus calmed the disciples fear by telling them, “it is I” “Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt” (Matt 18:28-31) “And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matt 18:33), again, just as we would probably do. Cleary, this was on the Sea of Galilee where this took place.

Mark’s Account

Mark’s account of Jesus walking on water is very close to that of Matthew’s account and Mark gives us better information on where they were at as Mark writes “he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd” (Mark 6:45) and if you know the cities that lay around the Sea of Galilee, you know that Bethsaida is on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee so “when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out” (Mark 6:47-49). The boat being “out on the sea” and Jesus instructing them to go “to the other side, to Bethsaida,” it had to be the Sea of Galilee.

John’s Account

Like Matthew and Mark’s account, John has the walking on water incident coming right after the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1-14). You can also see John talking about where Jesus was as he writes that “Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias” (John 6:1) and the Sea of Tiberias is the same as the Sea of Galilee. It was sometimes called the Sea of Tiberias because the city of Tiberias lay right on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee so “When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them” (John 6:16-17). Since they “started across the sea to” go to “Capernaum” and Capernaum lies on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, this must have been the place where “they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat” (John 6:19).

Conclusion

Walking on water was not Jesus’ greatest miracle. I believe the regeneration of a person may be the greatest miracles that we can ever experience because we were dead in our sins (Eph 2:1) but Christ died to bring us new life and as new creations in Christ (2nd Cor 5:17), we now have the mind of Christ (1st Cor 2:16). Without the Holy Spirit’s new birth in us, we would be headed to the lake of fire (Rev 21:8) and our fate would be sealed for all eternity (Rev 20:12-15) so let Jesus’ words sink deep into your mind if you’re not yet saved in John 3:36 where He says “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.