Research team says Jesus' walk on water might have been on ice patch

Published: 2006-04-11

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Jesus' walk across the Sea of Galilee may actually have been made possible by a rare and isolated patch of floating ice, according to an Israeli-American academic research team. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark describe how Jesus sent his disciples to Bethsaida on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and joined them later in the evening, reaching their boat by "walking on the sea." A research team of oceanographers from Florida State University, Colombia University in New York and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said it has found data to refute the biblical account. The findings were made public in the April 2006 issue of the Journal of Paleolimnology, a Canadian science journal that focuses on the science of prehistoric bodies of water. "What we can do is explain something that in today's climate seems unacceptable but which could have happened 2,000 years ago," said researcher Nathan Paldor, chairman for atmospheric sciences at the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University.

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