Sea of Galilee
This story, as narrated in the fictional novel “Countdown to Adam”, takes place in Heaven to an audience assembled in the great banquet hall in the Museum of Remembrance. The guests are soon to be treated to a lecture on the geology of the Sea of Galilee and its surroundings. The lecturer is the Great Geologist himself, Professor Jesus of Nazareth.
Figure 1 Sea of Galilee
“The last of the tour guests filed out of the spiral tunnel into what could best be described as an elegant, spacious banquet hall. There was a buzz throughout the room. Jesus stood and raised his hands, the que to cease conversing and to be seated; as he did, the entire room began to transform into the scenic panorama of a large, tranquil lake surrounded by majestic mountains; everyone soon realized they were seated with Jesus and his disciples, not in a banquet room, but beside the Sea of Galilee. It all seemed so real, complete with waves and fishing boats and flowers and birds.
“Beloved angels and sons of Adam: welcome. I trust you enjoyed your tour thus far. Isn’t this lovely? I often return to this place; I have so many fond memories here. It was right over there that I met Simon Peter and his brother Andrew; they were casting a net into the lake, hoping to catch a bunch of tilapia or carp. I called them to abandon their fishnets to become fishers of humans. Right behind me was our ministry headquarters, the home of Peter’s mother-in-law, and next to it the synagogue where I preached. See that high mountain over there; some call it the Mount of Transfiguration; that is where I brought Peter, James and John to meet Moses and Elijah; it was there they heard my Father speak. There is a reason for this setting; many have inquired how I orchestrated the creation of this body of water and the larger, very salty sea to the south. I can assure you, all of this was meticulously planned, down to the finest detail; it didn’t ‘just happen.’
Figure 2 Dead Sea (credit: timeout.com)
Note: Beautiful pillars of salt crystals form in the Dead Sea.
“The two large bodies of water here in the Jordan Valley, one fresh and the other salty, are reminders of life and death; the Sea of Galilee beside us is teaming with life. In stark contrast, no life can exist in the Dead Sea south of here. But there was a time, roughly thirty thousand years before I came to Earth, that the Sea of Galilee was also dead, many times saltier than the oceans. In fact, if you were to drill through the muds and sands on the bottom of this lake, you would soon encounter salt deposits thousands of feet thick. The entire Jordan River valley was part of a single, 100-mile-long very saline sea, Lake Lisan. When the last glaciers in the Ice Age retreated, the climate here became extremely arid; within about 1000 years Lake Lisan evaporated. The structure that formed the Sea of Galilee was already in place but well hidden beneath the deep waters of Lake Lisan. As evaporation continued, Lake Lisan dried up and exposed the very salty ancient Sea of Galilee. Soon fresh water from the melting snowpack on Mount Hermon formed the Jordan River and poured fresh water into the Sea of Galilee, cleansing of its salt and transforming it into a freshwater lake; one might say it experienced a resurrection. By contrast, the Dead Sea only became saltier because, unlike its northern sister, it had no outlet for the water.”
Figure 3 Lake Lisan Strata at Qumran (credit: thenaturalhistorian.com)
Note: The Dead Sea scrolls were discovered inside caves within Lisan sedimentary deposits.
At that moment, someone asked a question about how the Sea of Galilee filled with freshwater fish after having been “dead” for so long. Jesus turned to Phillip and Andrew, two of his (fisherman) disciples familiar with the lake, and asked if they wanted to comment on that.
Andrew began, “Sure. That’s an easy one. One day we had just crossed over the lake and were by the shore when a great crowd of people approached to hear Jesus preach. Phillip and I told Jesus the people were hungry. We found a boy with five loaves of barley and two fish and brought the boy to Jesus. He told us to take what bread and fish we had, fill a bunch of baskets, and distribute them to the masses. By the time we were finished, thousands had eaten lunch, and there was even food left over. I don’t imagine filling the Sea of Galilee with tilapia, carp, sardines, and a host of freshwater fish would have been a problem for God.”
Jesus thanked them for their testimony, and continued with his story, “Brothers and sisters, I appreciate your faith in miracles, but it really wasn’t necessary to stock the lake with fish by speaking them into existence; in this case, I chose the way of natural processes. Once the Sea of Galilee transitioned from salt water to a freshwater lake, freshwater fish, already living near the headwaters of the Jordan River in rivulets and ponds to the north, happily made their way downstream into their new lake-home. By the way, here’s a little fishing tip: the north side of this lake has always been the best place to catch fish – just ask Peter; that’s because fresh nutrients are brought in via the Jordan River and seven local springs. So, allow me to dig a little deeper into the geologic preparation for these two important bodies of water, including the Dead Sea which is ten times saltier than the ocean.
Figure 4 Strait of Gibraltar (credit: Salama)
Note: You are looking north from Africa toward the “Rock of Gibraltar” in Spain. Depth of the water is about 1000 feet.
“Before there was a Dead Sea or Sea of Galilee, there was Lake Lisan; before Lake Lisan was Lake Amora; before Lake Amora was Sedom Lagoon; before Sedom Lagoon was the Mediterranean Sea; and before the Mediterranean Sea was Lago Mare. I’ll begin this story with an event which you saw in the exhibit hall called the Zanclean Flood – by the way, this flood had nothing to do with the times of Noah, as some have speculated. There was a time when the Atlantic Ocean connected with a vast inland body of salt water, Lago Mare; it stretched all the way from Gibraltar through Israel to the Red Sea. When my plan to collide Africa into Europe (using the geologic tool called Plate Tectonics) had caused the Strait of Gibraltar to close, Lago Mare was cut off. Time and an arid climate caused evaporation and a rapid rise in salinity. Using two great fault zones, the Hercules and Tarik, as levers, 5,960,000 years ago I reopened the Strait of Gibraltar. This event, called the Zanclean Flood, allowed the Atlantic Ocean to pour into and again fill the three-mile-deep Mediterranean basin. Then suddenly 5,330,000 years ago I closed the Strait; the new body of water became known as Sedom Lagoon. In a short 1000 years, 75 percent of water was lost to evaporation, leaving pockets within the Mediterranean Basin, the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea with salinity sometimes 50 times greater than that of the oceans.
Figure 5 Sedom Lagoon (credit: ResearchGate)
Then major climate change occurred – the Ice Age. During times of cold when glaciers formed, excessive moisture and meltwater filled the salty basins; water poured into the Jordan Valley from the Mediterranean Sea through a gap just north of Mount Carmel. During times of warm (interglacial) evaporation would resume and isolate pockets of water such as the Dead Sea. Repeated cycles of cold and warm continued to restock the salty lakes, making them even more saline. About one million years ago I rose the elevation of the Judean Mountains, permanently cutting off the Jordan Valley from the Mediterranean Sea, forming Lake Amora. The last ice age arrived and formed Lake Lisan; when it evaporated it exposed the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea for the first time.
Jesus once again turned to Phillip and Andrew. “Brothers, did I answer your question?”
“And then some”, came the reply. “Perhaps a parable next time?”
