Jesus Appeared To His Disciples By The Sea Of Galilee

Title: Jesus Appeared To His Disciples By The Sea Of Galilee
Artist: Alexandre Bida
Medium: Etching
Size: 28 x 21 cm
Date: 1873
Location: From Illustrations by Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art; or, The Gospel Life of Jesus: With the Bida Illustrations. by Edward Eggleston. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1874.

John 21:1-14 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” He called out to them. “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

We now know that the Gospel of Mark ended at 16:8... or do we? There are scholars who state that the ending of Mark can be found in John 21. John 21 has synoptic affinities which do not appear in John 1-20: the sons of Zebedee appear, the disciples are fishing, 28 words in John 21 do not appear elsewhere in John, but only in the synoptics. Further, Mark 14:27-28, 16:7 states that Jesus will reappear in Galilee. There are other clues that Mark foreshadows John 21. The disciples will be unaware of the empty tomb, because the women told no-one of what they saw (Mark 16:8). Accordingly, in John 21, Peter and other disciples have lost hope and returned to the lake; for having witnessed the risen Christ before, they now fail to realize Jesus is present in 21:4. The whole story is more like a first appearance to the disciples than a "third".

Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France and was a painter of the Romantic period. During Bida's youth, he traveled and worked in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugène Delacroix, but with an artist's eye for precision and perfection, he soon developed his own style. He was also an illustrator of the Holy Bible. As a Bible illustrator, Bida's Les Saints Evangeles was published in 1873. In it, the four gospels were enriched by his twenty-eight etchings. Of Bida's work, it was said that he brought a truth and genius that made his Christ reverent, refined, dignified, and strong.

Jesus Walks on the Sea

Title: Jesus Walks on the Sea

Artist: William Hole

Medium: Printed book illustration

Size: 29 x 24 cm

Date: c.1905

Location: From “The Life of Jesus of Nazareth Portrayed in Colours.” London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

The fifth miracle account that displays Jesus' power over nature is recorded in Matthew 14:22-32. This miracle is known as Walking on Water, or Jesus Walks on the Sea.

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat was already over a mile from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against them. Around three in the morning, he came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. "It's a ghost!" they said, and cried out in fear. Immediately Jesus spoke to them. "Have courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." Peter answered Him, "Lord, if it's You, command me to come to You on the water." "Come!" He said. And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

Hole uses his water colors to dazzling effect in his rendition of the disciples as they sight Jesus crossing the sea. The water shimmers, the clouds tumble, the moon glistens, and most of all, Jesus shines. There is no doubt that he is walking on water, no possibility of a sandbar or concealed isthmus. It is easy to understand the disciple’s terror, for they still failed to comprehend the true nature of their Lord.

William Hole (b. Salisbury 1846 – d. 1917) relocated to Edinburgh as a youth where he received his education at the Edinburgh Academy. After serving for a time as an apprentice to a civil engineer, he decided that he wanted to see more of the world. While traveling through Italy he befriended some artists in Rome who convinced him that he should pursue a career in art. On returning to Edinburgh, he began formal training in both painting and etching at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Title: Christ Walks on Water

Artist: Ivan Aivazovsky

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: tbd

Date: 1888

Location: tbd

Once Jesus has given the command, walking on water is simply a matter of trusting the One who has performed so many miracles in the past. Peter's failure comes as he observes the wind, looking to his situation rather than to God's power that is sustaining him. Still, Peter knows by this point whom to cry out to! It is important to note that while Jesus is disappointed with Peter's inadequate faith, Peter has still acted in greater faith than the other disciples - he is learning. Faith cannot be worked up by formulas or emotion, but it grows through various tests as we continue to trust our Lord and he continues to teach us. Faith grows out of a relationship with the Person of Jesus, and in no other way.

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (July, 1817 – May, 1900) was a Russian painter of Armenian descent. He was born in the town of Feodosiya, Crimea (modern-day Ukraine) to a poor Armenian family. His parents' family name was Aivazian. Some of the artist's paintings bear a signature, in Armenian letters, "Hovhannes Aivazian" . His talent as an artist earned him sponsorship and entry to the Simferopol gymnasium No.1 and later the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, from which he graduated with a gold medal. Earning awards for his early landscapes and seascapes, he went on to paint a series of portraits of Crimean coastal towns before travelling throughout Europe. In later life, his paintings of naval scenes earned him a long-standing commission from the Russian Navy stationed in the Black Sea.

Christ Calming the Storm

Title: Christ Asleep during the Tempest

Artist: Eugene Delacroix

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 50.8 x 61 cm

Date: c 1853

Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The third miracle account that displays Jesus' power over nature is recorded in Matthew 8:23-27. It is known as Christ Calming the Storm.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Delacroix painted fourteen variations of this New Testament lesson in faith. In the earlier works, the seascape is more prominent; in the later ones, as here, Christ's bark occupies a more significant place. After Vincent van Gogh saw this version in Paris in 1886, he wrote, "The 'Christ in the Boat'—I am speaking here of the sketch in blue and green with touches of violet, red and a little citron-yellow for the nimbus, the halo—speaks a symbolic language through color alone."

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (April 1798 – August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as a leader of the French Romantic school. In 1815 he entered the studio of the neoclassical painter Pierre Narcisse Guérin, where he met Théodore Géricault, a romantic painter by whom he was much influenced. Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on color and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modeled form. Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement.

Title: Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Artist: Ludolf Backhuysen

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 58.4 x 72.4 cm

Date: 1695

Location: Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana.

If the disciples thought the boat might sink with Jesus aboard, it was because they did not understand Jesus' identity. His power over the sea, however, forces them to grapple afresh with that question. Faith in Jesus' authority flows from conviction concerning his true identity. In biblical tradition it was God whom the seas obeyed, as in Psalm 89:9 “You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them”. The astonishment of Jesus' disciples is therefore understandable. Their cry for Jesus to save them reflects one sense of the Greek term save ("deliver safely") but probably also alludes on a literary level to Jesus' broader mission.

Ludolf Backhuysen (or Bakhuizen ) (December, 1630 – November, 1708) was a German-born painter who was the leading painter of seascapes in Amsterdam during the last quarter of the 17th century. His compositions, which are numerous, are nearly all variations of one subject, the sea, and in a style peculiarly his own, marked by intense realism or faithful imitation of nature. His earliest biographer declared that he was "taught by nature" and reported that he often put to sea when a storm threatened in order observe the changing conditions of sky and water.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Title: The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 161.7 x 129.8 cm
Date: 1633
Location: Missing.

The painting depicts the miracle of Jesus calming the waves on the Sea of Galilee as recorded in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4:35-41. Having finished teaching to the multitudes on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told his disciples to sail with him to the other side. En route, a great storm of wind rose, and the waves beat into the boat so strongly that the boat was filling. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion and they woke him saying “Teacher, don’t you care that we are going to perish?”... And Jesus replied “Why are ye fearful? Have ye not yet faith?”

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history, his work contributing to a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age. Surprisingly, for painter from a seafaring nation, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee is Rembrandt’s only known seascape.

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole 13 works of art. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was among the works of art stolen whose combined value has been estimated as high as $300 million. A reward of $5 million is offered for information leading to the return of the works of art in good condition