A scientific breakthrough has revealed a strange phenomenon could prove two miracles performed by Jesus 'actually happened'.
The Bible documents dozens of the supposed miracles performed by the Son of God in his life, from his famous party trick of turning water into wine and walking on water to healing the sick, driving out evil spirits and calming a stormy sea.
As many of these marvels occurred some 2,000 years ago, evidence has obviously been pretty scant about the extent of Jesus' miracles.
Now, however, a new scientific study has shed light on one revelation Christ is believed to have done, which even pinpoints a time and place where it actually could have happened.
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The famous story involves the 'Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes', also known as the 'Feeding of the 5,000', and the 'Miraculous Catch of Fish'.
Essentially, Jesus was involved in turning unsuccessful attempts to catch fish into massive hauls from the Sea of Galilee, now known as Lake Kinneret in Israel, on two separate occasions.
Meanwhile, in the Gospel of Matthew, he managed to turn just two measly loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed thousands of people.
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As far-fetched as it sounds, new research published in Water Resources Research suggests there's a possibility Jesus did manage to feed the masses with a mega haul of fish.
The scientists suggest strong winds once churned the lower levels of the water in the lake, causing low-oxygen water from deeper layers to rise up and possibly suffocating the fish.
As they lay dying, they likely floated to the surface, hence presenting fishermen with a killer catch.
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While the story has been impossible to explain for all this time, the new evidence lends a scientific theory to how it could've happened, particularly as mass fish deaths continue to occur in the same location of the lake to this day.
Researcher Yael Amitai, a physical limnologist from the Kinneret laboratory explained: "The Sea of Galilee is a stratified lake. The upper layer is warm and oxygenated, while the lower layer is cold and lacks oxygen.
"When a strong westerly wind blows, it pushes the upper warmer layer of water from the lake’s west to the east, where it piles up, pressing on the existing water.
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"In the west of the lake, water from the lower layer rises. In this way, fluctuations called internal waves are created in the water profile," reports The Times of Israel.
Ehud Strobach, a climate researcher from the Volcani Institute, also demonstrated how the phenomenon was made possible in a dynamic lake model paired with an atmospheric model.
"Using observations from the monitoring program in the Sea of Galilee, we created short 3D lake simulations for two fish kill events,” he said. “These simulations indicate the initiation of internal waves and upwelling of cold anoxic (oxygen-poor) water into the surface at the location and time of the fish kill events.”
As for when it happened, the researchers pose it likely happened in the late spring to early summer due to the rapid temperature changes when the water changes in the period.
Topics: Science, Religion, Israel, World News
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