Matthew 14:22-27 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him to the other side… Shortly after passing the spot which was the scene of the terrible discomfiture of the Christian hosts by Saladin, we came to the brink of a vast hollow, and the Lake of Tiberius lay slumbering far beneath our feet. The sun was nearly at the zenith, and diffused a flood of dazzling light upon the waters, just ruffled by a passing breeze, on which we beheld a solitary bark, a mere speck, slowly making its way toward Tiberias. That city, with its huge castle and turreted walls, a pile of melancholy ruins, lay scattered along the nearer shore. The lake, about ten miles long, add five or six broad, was embosomed in mountains, or, to describe it more correctly, was like a great caldron sunk in the lofty table-land, which broke down to its edge in steep cliffs and abrupt ravines. At one end we could see where the Jordan flowed into it, and, beyond, the lofty peak of Mount Hermon covered with eternal snow. There was no wood on the hills, there were no villages on the shore, no boats upon the water; there was no sound in any direction. If there was beauty, it was that of the intense blue sky of Palestine, reflected in the blue expanse of waters, and over-canopying a landscape of serene, but corpse-like, placidity, like a countenance fixed in death, but upon which there yet lingers something of a parting smile. (W. H. Bartlett.) Parallel Verses KJV: And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. |
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