Thu Dec 12th, 2024

Israeli researchers give a scientific explanation to Jesus' "miraculous catch"

The miraculous catch, by Bassano. Photo: Jacopo Bassano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.The miraculous catch, by Bassano. Photo: Jacopo Bassano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A study led by the Kinneret limnological laboratory, in collaboration with the Volcani Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Griffith University of Australia, and recently published in Water Resources Research, has reached a scientific conclusion that aims to explain the miracle of Jesus' fishing, narrated in the New Testament.


In the biblical account, Jesus turns failed fishing attempts into a bountiful catch in the Sea of ​​Galilee. According to the study, the cause could be a natural phenomenon of mass fish die-offs, caused by strong winds that stir up deep, oxygen-poor waters, suffocating the fish and causing them to float to the surface.

The hypothesis arises because this type of ecological event has been reported throughout history in the Sea of ​​Galilee, in the 1990s but also in 2007, 2021 and 2023.

Because the Sea of ​​Galilee is stratified, it has an upper layer of water that is warm and rich in oxygen, and a lower layer that is cold and low in oxygen. When strong winds blow from the west, this creates a surge of oxygen-depleted water that is lethal to fish, which float away when they die and become accessible to fishermen.

5 thoughts on “Israeli researchers give a scientific explanation for Jesus’ “miraculous catch””
  1. If this is what scientists say, how do they explain that the phenomenon occurred precisely when Jesus told his disciples, the fishermen, to cast their nets? Assuming that this is what scientists say, how can they explain that Jesus knew when the phenomenon was going to occur?

  2. And if they are dealing with serious issues? The story does not have to be literal. Any exegete knows that!

  3. Really? What a coincidence, that just when Jesus told them to cast their nets, immediately after a fruitless night, they suddenly ran out of oxygen and what's more, the miraculous catch is narrated as having happened twice at different times, once at the beginning of Jesus' public life and another after the resurrection. Was there a problem with oxygen in both cases? So how dangerous must fish be in that sea!!! I'd rather continue walking on this planet.

    1. What they are is blasphemy against our Lord Jesus Christ, surely when he multiplied the loaves to feed 4000 it was because of a cold rise in the leavening flour although at that time the bread was eaten without yeast or the basket with fish that multiplied in the basket there was also a cold air because of those Israelites who look for the 4pstss of the cat is that My Lord and God leaves them alone to their free will and then he pays well

  4. The biblical account clearly mentions that Jesus' disciples "fished all night and caught nothing." And they couldn't do that if there was a storm stirring up the water in the lake. Besides, the disciples were not scavengers who were out to fish for dead fish.
    These Israeli scientists prove that they are very stupid to reach such wrong conclusions.

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