When Jesus Walked on Water

I recently posted on Jesus’s Resurrection appearance in John 21, where the disciples meet him at the Sea of Galilee. I argued that this scene, or something like it, was the very oldest version of the Resurrection story as it would have been known, for instance, to Paul around 50AD, and that it long predated the familiar story of Jesus meeting Mary Magdalene in the garden. We miss this point because the present structure of the Fourth Gospel lets us read the Galilee story as a later appearance, as Jesus’s visit to his faithful followers.

Whatever we make of that idea, there is no doubt that this scene is presented as a post-Resurrection appearance. Others have suggested that the same incident might also be depicted in the Gospels in another setting, but where the story’s original context has become confused.