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 (compare 8:8; 9:6).

Stories about nature miracles occasionally circulated in antiquity, usually either stories about deities (R. Grant 1986:62) or legends about heroes of the distant past (as in Diog. Laert. 8.2.59; Blackburn 1986:190; compare t. Ta`anit 2:13). Parallels to the Jonah story (Cope 1976:96-98) can link the disciples' amazement at Jesus' stilling of the storm to God's stilling the storm in the Jonah story (Jon 1:15-16); other backgrounds in the Hebrew Bible also point to Jesus' identity with God (see in Lane 1974:176). In biblical tradition it was God whom the seas obeyed (as in Job 38:8-11; Ps 65:5-8; 89:8-9; France 1985:162). The astonishment of Jesus' disciples is therefore understandable (Mk 4:41; 6:51)! 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 (Mt 1:21).