A photo of a book covered in white crystals has been posted on Facebook with a claim that it shows a miracle.
The caption reads: “An ancient bible has been found at the bottom of the ocean and is still Readable! Type Amen and share this Miracle.”
It was shared on a Kenyan Facebook group page with more than 140,000 members. Many users who saw it seemed convinced of the “miracle”, and typed “Amen”.
But a reverse image search shows that the image first appeared online on 18 May 2014 in a blog article about artistic crystallisation experiments on books and paper.
We contacted the author, Catherine McEver, who is based in the US state of California.
“I am the artist who created the crystallised book you are referring to,” she told Africa Check. “It was made as a piece of art and has nothing to do with the bible or religion.”
McEver said she was aware that people had been using her photo to spread false information.
“I became aware that someone stole the crystallised book image from my blog a while ago and was falsely claiming it was an ancient bible fished out of the sea. That is not true. It was art, made by me, just a few years ago.”
She said the book is “an old German-English dictionary” – not a bible.
She also explained how she gave the book its appearance.
“The process of crystallising the book is quite easy. You make a super-saturated solution of 20 Mule Team Borax and then immerse the book (or any object) in the solution until crystals form.
“You will find complete instructions as well as many other types of objects I have crystallised on my blog.” - Grace Gichuhi (11/06/2019)
The caption reads: “An ancient bible has been found at the bottom of the ocean and is still Readable! Type Amen and share this Miracle.”
It was shared on a Kenyan Facebook group page with more than 140,000 members. Many users who saw it seemed convinced of the “miracle”, and typed “Amen”.
But a reverse image search shows that the image first appeared online on 18 May 2014 in a blog article about artistic crystallisation experiments on books and paper.
We contacted the author, Catherine McEver, who is based in the US state of California.
“I am the artist who created the crystallised book you are referring to,” she told Africa Check. “It was made as a piece of art and has nothing to do with the bible or religion.”
Old German-English dictionary
McEver said she was aware that people had been using her photo to spread false information.
“I became aware that someone stole the crystallised book image from my blog a while ago and was falsely claiming it was an ancient bible fished out of the sea. That is not true. It was art, made by me, just a few years ago.”
She said the book is “an old German-English dictionary” – not a bible.
She also explained how she gave the book its appearance.
“The process of crystallising the book is quite easy. You make a super-saturated solution of 20 Mule Team Borax and then immerse the book (or any object) in the solution until crystals form.
“You will find complete instructions as well as many other types of objects I have crystallised on my blog.” - Grace Gichuhi (11/06/2019)
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