Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 14:25

"And in the fourth watch of the night he came unto them, walking upon the sea." — Matthew 14:25 (ASV)

In the fourth watch of the night — The Jews, since their conquest by Pompey, had adopted the Roman division of the night into four watches, and this was therefore between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., in the dimness of the early dawn. John adds, as from a personal memory and as guarding against explanations that would minimize the miracle (such as that our Lord was seen on the shore or was swimming to the boat), that they were about twenty-five or thirty furlongs from the point from which they had started—that is, as the lake was five miles wide, nearly three-fourths of the way across.

Walking on the sea — Here, again, we have to choose between the simple acceptance of the supernatural fact as another instance of His sovereignty or rejecting it as a legend. On the former supposition, we may see in it something like an anticipation (not unconnected, perhaps, with the intensity of that crisis in His life) of the spiritual body of which we see another manifestation in the Transfiguration, and which became normal after the Resurrection, reaching its completeness in the wonder of the Ascension. We speculate almost involuntarily on the nature and, as it were, the process of the miracle, asking whether the ordinary laws that govern motion were broken, suspended, or counteracted by higher laws. No such questions seem to have occurred to the disciples. They, still not free from the popular superstitions of their countrymen, thought that it was “a spirit” (better, a phantom or spectre), perhaps taking a familiar form to lure them to their destruction or as a token that some sudden misfortune had deprived them of that loved Presence. Therefore, in their vague terror, they were troubled and cried out in fear.