Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters; These see Yahweh’s works, and his wonders in the deep. For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves. They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble. They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their […]
⛓ Read Psalm 107 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion5
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
The stilling of the storm closely follows the psalm's mariners who cry to the LORD in the tempest, whereupon 'he made the storm a calm and the waves were stilled' and brought them to harbor. The shared sequence (sea-peril, cry, divine stilling, calm) gives strong Volume and the clearest scriptural template for the pericope.
High confidenceThe storm-stilling sequence—seafarers in distress, a stormy wind lifting the waves, a cry to the LORD, and his making 'the storm a calm, so that its waves are still'—maps closely onto 4:37-39. The verbal echo of the LORD stilling waves into calm is distinctive (high volume) and thematically frames Jesus exercising divine prerogative over the sea.
High confidenceThose at sea in distress cry out, and God stills the storm so the waves are hushed and he brings them to harbor. Mark's distressed rowers, contrary wind, and the wind ceasing when Jesus enters the boat closely follow this psalm's sea-rescue script. Strong structural and thematic correspondence.
High confidenceSeafarers in a storm, the waves mounting, their crying to the LORD, and his stilling the storm to a calm ('he makes the storm a calm') is the controlling intertext; high volume and tight thematic coherence with disciples crying 'Save us' and the 'great calm.'
High confidenceThose who go down to the sea, caught in a storm with waves mounting, cry to the LORD, who stills the storm to a whisper and brings them to harbor. Matthew's contrary wind, distressed boat, terror, cry, and the ceasing of the wind map onto this sea-rescue psalm where the LORD masters the deep.
High confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Seafarers in a wind-tossed storm cry out and God 'made the storm a calm' and 'brought them to their desired haven' — strikingly close to the boat reaching land 'immediately' (v.21). Good Coherence though John gives stilling-by-arrival rather than rebuke of the storm.
Medium confidence◇ Figural1
A typological pattern re-read in a later text — no verbal quotation, high figural coherence.
The opening of the sea-voyage sets up the psalm's tableau of those who 'go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters'; here the verbal contact is minimal (mere embarkation and difficult sailing), so the echo is faint and anticipatory, gathering force only when the storm breaks. Thematic coherence is real but volume is near zero at this stage.
Low confidence