Hi everyone. Welcome back to daily gospel exegesis. We're going to do a verse-by-verse

exegesis of the text, as we always do. So this is the gospel reading. You'll hear

at today's Mass. I'll read through it all once, and then we'll have a go of breaking it down to

see if we can work out what did it mean in its original context. We're doing a proper Bible study of the

text. So today's reading is John chapter 6 verses 16 to 21. In the evening the disciples went down to the

shore of the lake and got into a boat to make for Copernum on the other side of the lake. It was getting

dark by now and Jesus still had not rejoined them. The wind was strong and the sea was getting rough. They had rowed three

or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming towards the boat. This frightened

them, but he said, it is I. Do not be afraid. They were for taking him into the boat, but in no time it reached the shore at the place

they were making for.

So what's the context of this reading?

Obviously we're looking at John's version of Jesus walking on the water.

So Jesus has just fed the

5,000 near the Sea of Galilee. That was earlier on the same day. At the end of that story,

Jesus goes alone up into the hills around the Sea of Galilee, so he goes up there to pray.

And he basically tells the disciples that he wants him to go on ahead and he's going to meet them later.

Now, we have here Jesus Walking on the Water.

This is a famous story, though usually we hear Matthew or Mark's version.

John has his own version of Jesus Walking on the Water.

This is one of the few stories in John that also appears in the Synoptic G gospels. Only Luke doesn't have an account of

Jesus walking on the water. So obviously John, who is probably aware of Matthew and Mark's versions,

he felt that he had something else to add here. Or maybe he felt it was important for his audience

...