Jesus Walking on Water

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Hope1960 said:
I looked it up and found an article suggesting a theory I’ve read before, which is that Jesus was really walking on ice. Thoughts?
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Was He skating? Maybe? But He never slipped? He wore sandals, right?

That begs two distinct roads, questions, and insights:

*Jesus stood on ice (or walking.)
That means it had to be significantly cold. For the Sea of Galilee has salt. How cold does have to be for salt water to freeze? But then again, who is on a boat on ice? The Apostle’s? What a strange sense of reasoning.

*Jesus stood and walked on water (the Apostle’s thought they saw a ghost.)
They were at first afraid. Then Jesus called out to them that it was Him. Then Saint Peter asked that Jesus call him to Him. So that he may walk on water. So he stood off of the boat, began to walk, and then suddenly began to sink. Jesus reached down to Saint Peter, and said “ye of little faith.” “Why do you doubt?”

The story of Christ wouldn’t make sense if it was ice. Because, a boat, sinking, and salt water just don’t add up. For if it did add up, then first the writers would had posited ice was there. And had nothing to do with faith.

The ice theory would mean they dressed warmly, would had a difficult time moving a boat around - after all - how was the ice more solid where Jesus stood? And yet not the ice Saint Peter had? Did the boat move close to where Jesus stood, and Saint Peter stepped out to where Jesus was standing? Was this for Saint Peter to gain confidence in stepping out of the boat and going onto ice, fighting the fear of drowning? Or Saint Peter never stepped off of a boat before?

But Saint Peter was a fisherman, with a boat. Kinda bad story telling if you ask me, of a person, and reality with the ice theory. I would then posit with that story/theory, you would be walking on thin ice. 😉 Happy and Joyous Lent!
 
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BoyGenius said:
That means it had to be significantly cold. For the Sea of Galilee has salt. How cold does have to be for salt water to freeze? But then again, who is on a boat on ice? The Apostle’s? What a strange sense of reasoning.
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The articles include the possibility there were ice floes or chunks of ice.
 
Hope1960 said:
I was told by another poster that Jesus walked at least a mile on the Sea of Galilee.
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Does anyone know if that’s true? Because I doubt ice could’ve been solid, able to be walked upon for a mile or more. Correct?
 
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Dan_Defender said:
Ice strong enough to walk on takes time to form… scientist use a ‘freezing degree days’ factor to predict it… yes DAYS… the Bible story implies Jesus was praying for HOURS… of course ice also takes days to thaw… and Peter sinking would have been less than an hour of Jesus walking… so the time frames alone do not support this ‘theory’
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How do theologians know that the ice wasn’t formed days before Jesus prayed?
 
He could have been walking on ice, sure! You betcha! Or He might have used these :crazy_face::
 
The sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake, just to clear that up. But even in the winter it doesn’t get down below double digits Celsius.

The author of the “spring ice floe” theory waves his hand at the improbability of ice forming thick enough to stand on. He claims that, possibly, this weather phenomenon could have happened in the climate of Jesus’ time once every 31 to 160 years. Today the likelihood is less than one in 10,000 years. Never mind that there’s no record of it ever happening. What a heck of a coincidence that it lined up with the time Jesus and the apostles were there.

No, if the sea of Galilee had iced over or Jesus rode a chunk of ice we’d be reading that in the gospel account instead. It would have been a more historically remarkable event than Jesus walking on water.

It’s a nonsensical proposition put forward by someone determine to dismiss any possibility the miraculous account was recorded accurately.
 
James214 said:
But even in the winter it doesn’t get down below double digits Celsius.
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In the first link I posted it says this, about the temperatures there:

<<<<<<<<< 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.>>>>>>>>
 
Hope1960 said:
Also, below it says (from my second link) pretty much what you also said. This isn’t a Catholic site, but is it correct?

<<<<<<<<<<<<<But the Sea of Galilee does not have ice floes, and the idea that it has had them in the past is outrageous speculation. This idea is not based on historical records or scientific observation. There are no records at all, ancient or modern, of ice floes ever having occurred on the Sea of Galilee (as these academics admit in their paper). Their claim involves the most tenuous and esoteric of reasoning.>>>>>>>>>>>>
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Is this, above, (in the arrows) true?
 
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Hope1960 said:
<<<<<<<<< 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.>>>>>>>>
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This is the 2006 Nof paper, right? If by same decades Nof means the 1,000 year period where he says temperatures may have dropped that low for two days once or twice, and then it actually did, and significant ice actually managed to form, and coincidentally it happened in the same few years of Jesus’ ministry, and one of those “blocks” of ice was large enough to hold a person, and Jesus was crazy enough like a fox to ride one of these blocks out into the middle of the lake having never seen ice before, and was able to stay on the ice without proper equipment like ice shoes, and there was at the same time not enough ice to damage the apostles’ boat. … Then we still can’t account for Peter’s walking on water nor can we account for why none of the Gospel accounts record this ice forming on the lake in connection with this event.

The Gospel account was written while some of the apostles were still living, so we can give it the benefit of it being something they actually witnessed. I guess Nof set out with the open mind that the account is reliable, since he doesn’t claim it was fabricated, yet he ends up with an explanation for a natural Jesus walking on the water that is more convoluted and improbable than the events as described.
 
Yes it’s true that there’s no evidence, historical or observed, that ice floes have ever formed on the sea of Galilee. Nof only claims that there is a possibility that the correct weather conditions to bring the surface temperatures below freezing
could feasibly occur once a millenia or so. Everything else past that is wild speculation.
 
I once stepped in quicksand while traversing a dry lakebed. Realizing I was sinking and could not turn back, I started running farther into the quicksand. I ran so fast I was able to tread about 20 feet of the stuff and make it to dry land. Out of curiosity, I found a six feet long piece of driftwood and used it to see how deep the quicksand was. It swallowed the entire piece of wood with no problem. To this day, I feel something miraculous happened to save me.
 
James214 said:
Nof only claims that there is a possibility that the correct weather conditions to bring the surface temperatures below freezing

could feasibly occur once a millenia or so.
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And even then, if those weather conditions happened, it wouldn’t have lasted long enough for the ice to form so thick and widespread that a man could walk on it, correct?
 
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I was able to go back and look at your link. It’s the same paper.

A mass large enough and thick enough to stand on would have to develop like a sheet. You’ll get about 4 inches of ice growth, the minimum considered safe for ice skating, at -4 Celsius. In a week. 2 days wouldn’t make an inch of the stuff.

Quite simply, if you’re going to believe that as an alternative explanation, you might as well believe the Gospel account as written.
 
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