But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:
But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out - "for fear" (Matthew 14:26). He would appear to them at first like a dark moving speck upon the waters; then as a human figure; but in the dark tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lord, they take it for a spirit. Compare Luke 24:37.