Scientists find evidence that Jesus didn’t feed 5,000 people with bread and fish

Scientists might have debunked the miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish

Rather, the 'miracle' is more likely to have been caused by a natural phenomenon.

Researchers have been monitoring the oxygen levels in the water and the wind speed and direction on the surface of Lake Kinneret, famously known as the Sea of Galilee in the New Testament.

The results from the temperature sensors and oxygen monitoring devices allowed them to cross-reference results with historical accounts of fish die-offs: the sudden mass deaths of fish in a particular region.

Answeringgenesis.org's research found periods when winds across the surface of the lake were powerful enough to pull oxygen from its depths.

Due to the lack of oxygen, sudden die-offs could occur. To someone standing on the shore, it just looks like an abundance of fish rising toward the surface, allowing them to 'be easily collected by a hungry populace', as described in the Bible story.

So when Jesus told his disciples, who'd fished all night and caught nothing, to throw their nets on the other side of the lake, their success was more likely to do with a mass die-off, than a biblical miracle.

Matthew 14:13-21 tells the story:

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.