Strolling on the ice floes of the Galilee?

Last updated on: January 16, 2025 at 9:35 pm by Dan Peterson

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Strolling on the ice floes of the Galilee? 2025-01-16T21:35:30-07:00 Dan Peterson

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The cover of Dr. Pitre’s new book

I’ve just begun reading a new book by the Catholic New Testament scholar Brant Pitre, entitled Jesus and Divine Christology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2024). Thus far, I like it very much and find it quite persuasive. I’ll write later, probably in a column, about his overall argument. Right now, though, I would like to share some amusing examples that he mentions of efforts to dispense with the purported miracle of Jesus walking on the water. The most obvious way of getting rid of the miracle is simply to dismiss it as fiction, a later hagiographic invention. Dr. Pitre responds to such dismissals quite well, I think. But I’m more entertained by efforts to take the story more or less as is and then to explain it away.

The account is given in two of the synoptic gospels, as well as in the gospel of John. Here is Matthew 14:22-27, as it reads in the New International Version:

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,”they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Here is it as given in Mark 6:45-51 (NIV):

45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,50 because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed.

And, lastly, this is how the story reads in the NIV translation of John 6:16-21:

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

It has been suggested, Pitre says (on page 67, with footnoted sources), that Jesus was walking “on a great floating raft,” or “wading through the surf near the hidden shore,” or “walking on the very edge of the sea (or in the shallows).” Or, perhaps, he “was on the land but the surface was obscured by a low mist that looked like the sea.” “Perhaps he knew where there were submerged rocks,” or was “walking on a log or concealed sandbar.” Best of all, maybe “Jesus walked on ‘ice floes’ (!) — a theory that was seriously suggested back in 2006 by scientists claiming that ‘Palestine had at least two extended cold periods in ancient times, which would have made it possible for water to freeze near the shore'” (48).

But, if one is intending to reject the testimony of the primary sources — e.g., that “the boat was . . . a considerable distance from land” (Matthew 14:24), “the boat was in the middle of the lake” (Mark 6:47), and “they had rowed about three or four miles” (John 6:19) — why not simply throw those primary sources out altogether? In its current state, Lake Kinneret (often but erroneously called by Christians “the Sea of Galilee”) is approximately thirteen miles in north-south length and seven and a half miles from west to east at its widest point. (Once, in my misguided youth — which came before my misguided adulthood, which in its turn preceded my current misguided senescence — I set out to swim across it. I had made considerable progress when an angry Israeli lifeguard on a paddle board caught up with me.) The three gospel texts agree that the disciples and their boat were nowhere near the shore. Jesus must have walked at least two or three miles to reach them.

The replica of the Book of Mormon plates used in the Interpreter Foundation’s “Witnesses” film project (still photograph by James Jordan)

In support of this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum, which will shortly turn to the recovery of the Book of Mormon, the Interpreter Foundation is calling attention to the short video features that it derived from the theatrical film Witnesses and from that movie’s accompanying docudrama, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Here is yet another of those short video features. (This one runs slightly less than 8.5 minutes.) We hope that you’ll find them inspirational and helpful and that, if you do, you’ll share them with others:

“Episode 7: Did the Witnesses Ever Deny their Testimonies?”

Critics of the Church have claimed through the years that one or more of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon—and of the Gold Plates—eventually denied their testimonies. Is there any truth to these claims? This is Episode 7 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . . These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. For more information, go to https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted—Witnesses of the Book of Mormon at https://witnessesundaunted.com/

And, in the meantime, the Interpreter Foundation continues to die. The latest of our last gasps is ““Made Stronger Than Many Waters”: The Purported Sacred Names of Moses as a Series of Keywords,” which was written by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw and Matthew L. Bowen:

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Past, Present and Future, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-past-present-and-future/. For video and audio recording of this conference talk, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2020-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/videos/calabro/.

“The idea of names as “keywords” has been associated with temples since very early times. In a temple context, the meaning of the term “keyword” can be taken quite literally: the use of the appropriate keyword or keywords by a qualified worshipper “unlocks” each one of a successive series of gates, thus providing access to specific, secured areas of the sacred space. In this presentation, we will explore how a series of names and titles purportedly given to Moses at various points in his life might relate to accounts of his ascents to heaven.”

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