Matthew 14:26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

When the disciples saw him—they were troubled— It is well known, that it is never intirely dark on the water; not to urge that the moon might perhaps now be in the last quarter, as it must have been, if this was about three weeks before the passover. By that little light, therefore, which they had, the disciples seeing Jesus, but not perfectly discerning who it was, were much terrified, and said, It is certainly an apparition, or evil spirit, [Φαντασμα]: for no human body, they conceived, could thus be supported by the water.