Israeli scientist: Jesus may have walked on ice, not water

Jesus walked on water, according to the New Testament, but a professor says he may have actually walked on a hard-to-see patch of ice.

Doron Nof, a Florida State University professor of oceanography, said a rare combination of water and atmospheric conditions in the Sea of Galilee 2000 years ago may offer a scientific explanation for one of the miracles recounted in the Bible.

Nof, a native of Israel, said a patch of ice floating in the Sea of Galilee - which is actually a freshwater lake - would have been difficult to distinguish from unfrozen water surrounding it.

"I'm not trying to provide any information that has to do with theology here," Nof said in an interview Wednesday. "All we've thought is about the natural process. What theologians or anybody else does with that, it's their business, so to speak."

According to the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark and John, Jesus' disciples were out on the Galilee at night when a storm came up. Jesus walked to the terrified men, who thought he was a ghost, according to the accounts.

Darrell Bock, a professor of New Testament studies at the Dallas Theological Seminary, lightheartedly dismissed the idea that Jesus walked on ice.


Israeli scientist: Jesus may have walked on ice, not water