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Raining down fire is not the same thing as taming the seas. Calling fire from heaven (or bears from the hills) merely shows mastery of natural forces. But taming the seas shows mastery of cthonic forces. That's the difference.
I've never really seen why people make such a big deal out of the differences between John and the other gospels. It's always seemed to me that one could hold everything John says and believes, and everything that the synoptics say and believe, without contradiction. Timing and material is just a matter of authorship -- certainly authors make choices about what material to include and what material to exclude. I should probably mention the traditional belief that it was written by one of Christ's disciples who was still alive late into the first century. I'm not clear what evidence there is that it wasn't written by him.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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