Professing Themselves To Be Wise

Did you get to read the article below in USA Today or on various internet sites? It is a prime example of ignorace and stupidity the intellectual community is engaged in today. I do not consider myself a biblical scholar, but this is an easy on. The average middle schooler that has any knowledge of the Gospels could handle this one.

First I reprint the article, followed by my letter to USA Today's editorial board.

Eddie
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Jesus May Have Walked On Ice?
By Jim Loney- Wed Apr 5, 9:20 AM ET


The New Testament says that Jesus walked on water, but a Florida university professor believes there could be a less miraculous explanation -- he walked on a floating piece of ice.
Professor Doron Nof also theorized in the early 1990s that Moses's parting of the Red Sea had solid science behind it.

Nof, a professor of oceanography at Florida State University, said on Tuesday that his study found an unusual combination of water and atmospheric conditions in what is now northern Israel could have led to ice formation on the Sea of Galilee.

Nof used records of the Mediterranean Sea's surface temperatures and statistical models to examine the dynamics of the Sea of Galilee, which Israelis know now as Lake Kinneret.
The study found that a period of cooler temperatures in the area between 1,500 and 2,600 years ago could have included the decades in which Jesus lived.

A drop in temperature below freezing could have caused ice thick enough to support a human to form on the surface of the freshwater lake near the western shore, Nof said. It might have been nearly impossible for distant observers to see a piece of floating ice surrounded by water.
Nof said he offered his study -- published in the April edition of the Journal of Paleolimnology -- as a "possible explanation" for Jesus' walk on water.

"If you ask me if I believe someone walked on water, no, I don't," Nof said. "Maybe somebody walked on the ice, I don't know. I believe that something natural was there that explains it."
"We leave to others the question of whether or not our research explains the biblical account."

When he offered his theory 14 years ago that wind and sea conditions could explain the parting of the Red Sea, Nof said he received some hate mail, even though he noted that the idea could support the biblical description of the event.

And as his theory of Jesus' walk on ice began to circulate, he had more hate mail in his e-mail inbox.

"They asked me if I'm going to try next to explain the resurrection," he said.
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To: USA Today Editorial Board


Regarding the article on Doron Nof, "Jesus May Have Walked On Ice," this is actually pretty hillarious. It also shows the lengths to which those who do not want to believe will go to try and explain away the person & power of divinity. It also confirms the scripture which states, "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Romans 1:22

My question is why go through all of the hassle of trying to explain away the miracle vs. just discrediting or rejecting the validity of the texts? It is much simpler, believable, and honest to just say it is legend and a story added by a biblical writer.

Here are the problems with Nof's thesis.

1) Surely the people of Palestine in 31 A.D. knew what ice was, if it is common at that time and someone would have commented on this.

2) What were the disciples and Jesus doing out on a partially frozen lake? Did they have winter garb on or were they out in freezing weather in robes and sandals?

3) Nof says that, "A drop in temperature below freezing could have caused ice thick enough to support a human to form on the surface of the freshwater lake near the western shore" and that, "it might have been nearly impossible for distant observers to see a piece of floating ice surrounded by water."

The problem is that, the disciples were not distant. According to the biblical account, the disciples had rowed a great distance before Jesus walked out to them on the lake.

>"When they had rowed three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified.<" John 6:19 NIV

Then Jesus asked Peter to come out of the boat and he did, and also walked on water, thus we would now have to have 2 pieces of floating ice.

When Nof accepts the biblical account that the incident occurred, he accepts that the account is valid, but he merely tries to explain why it happened in an acceptable non-supernatural way. Unfortunately this explaination is harder to swallow than accepting the miraculous account.

Eddie Huff
Tulsa, OK