Add parallel Print Page Options

22 [a]But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”

The Calming of the Storm at Sea. 23 [b](A)He got into a boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a violent storm[c] came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 8:22 Let the dead bury their dead: the demand of Jesus overrides what both the Jewish and the Hellenistic world regarded as a filial obligation of the highest importance. See note on Lk 9:60.
  2. 8:23 His disciples followed him: the first miracle in the second group (Mt 8:23–9:8) is introduced by a verse that links it with the preceding sayings by the catchword “follow.” In Mark the initiative in entering the boat is taken by the disciples (Mk 4:35–41); here, Jesus enters first and the disciples follow.
  3. 8:24 Storm: literally, “earthquake,” a word commonly used in apocalyptic literature for the shaking of the old world when God brings in his kingdom. All the synoptics use it in depicting the events preceding the parousia of the Son of Man (Mt 24:7; Mk 13:8; Lk 21:11). Matthew has introduced it here and in his account of the death and resurrection of Jesus (Mt 27:51–54; 28:2).