FYI,
A miracle no less, if true. I wonder if the Myth-Buster guys will try
to duplicate this? :)
"Did Jesus Walk on Water? Or Ice? - Scientist says Sea of Galilee could
have had frozen patches in Jesus' day"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12152740/from/RSS/
illustration of how rare phenomena might have allowed such a feat
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Photos/060404/spring.jpg
: Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the
: Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is
: said to have walked on water, a scientist reported Tuesday.
: The study, which examines a combination of favorable water and
: environmental conditions, proposes that Jesus could have walked on an
: isolated patch of floating ice on what is now known as Lake Kinneret
: in northern Israel.
: Looking at temperature records of the Mediterranean Sea surface and
: using analytical ice and statistical models, scientists considered a
: small section of the cold freshwater surface of the lake. The area
: studied, about 10,000 square feet (930 square meters), was near salty
: springs that empty into it.
: The results suggest temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4
: degrees Celsius) during one of the two cold periods 2,500 to
: 1,500 years ago for up to two days, the same decades during which
: Jesus lived.
: With such conditions, a floating patch of ice could develop above the
: plumes, resulting from the salty springs along the lake's western
: shore in Tabgha. Tabgha is the town where many archeological findings
: related to Jesus have been found.
: "We simply explain that unique freezing processes probably happened in
: that region only a handful of times during the last 12,000 years,"
: said Doron Nof, a Florida State University professor of oceanography.
: "We leave to others the question of whether or not our research
: explains the biblical account."
: Nof figures that in the last 120 centuries, the odds of such
: conditions on the low-latitude Lake Kinneret are most likely
: 1-in-1,000. But during the time period when Jesus lived, such “springs
: ice” may have formed once every 30 to 60 years.
: Such floating ice in the unfrozen waters of the lake would be hard to
: spot, especially if rain had smoothed its surface.
: "In today's climate, the chance of springs ice forming in northern
: Israel is effectively zero, or about once in more than 10,000 years,"
: Nof said.
: The findings are detailed in April's issue of the Journal of
: Paleolimnology. Nof has posted a PDF file of the research to his Web
: site.
--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@earthlink.net>
