We consider a model of ballistic quasi-one-dimensional semiconducting wire with intrinsic spin-orbit interaction placed on the surface of a bulk s-wave superconductor (SC), in the presence of an external magnetic field. This setup has been shown to give rise to a topological superconducting state in the wire, characterized by a pair of Majorana-fermion (MF) bound states formed at the two ends of the wire. Here, we demonstrate that besides the well-known direct-overlap-induced energy splitting, the two MF bound states may hybridize via elastic tunneling processes through virtual quasiparticle states in the SC, giving rise to an additional energy splitting between MF states from the same as well as from different wires.