Symbolism 2: The great silence, 4:39, is in the Hellenistic philosophy of Epicurus

and later in the whole ancient philosophy a symbol for the mental balance, which is the goal of the philosophical instruction.

The calming of the storm, which is described as an actual event, is therefore of the same character. If this is so, one may ask: Does Mark commit the reader to the interpretation as historical narrative or parable?

Or does the evangelist give his audience a freedom of interpretation to choose one or the other? Is the reader allowed to decide whether to see the story as real or as a parable?