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Did Jesus Really Walk On Water? By Jeremy D. Joy |
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The lead paragraph in a recent USA TODAY article by Bill Kaczor stated: “Jesus walked on water, according to the Bible, but a Florida State University professor says he may have actually walked on a hard-to-see patch of ice.” The headline is not breaking news. For centuries, skeptics have explained the miracles of Jesus as natural phenomena in order to undermine His bold and controversial claim to be the Son of God. However, it raises a legitimate question: did Jesus really walk on water? The miracle of walking on water is recorded in Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:15-21. Jesus had previously fed five thousand men with five loaves of bread and two fish resulting in a tidal wave of popular support. They wanted to make Him a king by force, but they failed to understand His true mission and identity (John 6:15). Jesus instructed the disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee in a boat and He went to a mountain to pray alone after dismissing the multitude. As they crossed the sea, a sudden storm developed, which was not unusual, and the wind impeded their progress. In the fourth watch of the night, between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM, Jesus approached them walking on the water, but they thought He was a ghost. They heard Jesus speak and Peter even walked on the water until he began to sink. When Jesus joined them in the boat, the wind ceased, they worshipped Him as the Son of God, and they landed immediately on the other side of the sea. The miracle was proof of His deity: only God can walk on water, calm the sea, and supernaturally transport the disciples to their destination! Doron Nof, a professor of oceanography, said a rare combination of water and atmospheric conditions in the Sea of Galilee two thousand years ago produced a patch of floating ice that would have been hard to distinguish from the unfrozen water surrounding it. I want to be sure that I understand the distinguished professor: the disciples thought Jesus was walking on water, but He was in fact riding a chunk of ice in high-speed winds in the middle of a churning sea. Thanks for nothing! If you think that the accounts of Jesus walking on the water in Matthew, Mark, and John are outlandish, then the “gospel” according to Professor Nof is even more outlandish. Some of the disciples were fisherman by trade and no doubt had fished the Sea of Galilee from childhood. They would have been able to distinguish a floating patch of ice from normal sea water. They had nothing to gain and everything to lose by claiming that Jesus really walked on the water. They were credible eyewitnesses—the wild speculations of men notwithstanding. |
