While scientists can debate whether or not such extraordinary destruction was caused by a meteor-type event or other heavenly phenomena, what is not debatable is the effect.
And that destruction—in location, time and description—directly matches the biblical event. To this point, archaeology has confirmed dozens of personalities in the Hebrew Bible 53, according to this count , dozens of places, dozens of wars, etc.
Here, at the northern tip of the Dead Sea, we have scientific corroboration for a biblical miracle. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation.
He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace. The finds at Tall el-Hammam and the surrounding area have confirmed just such an event. Even today, the region remains synonymous with death. And certainly, the damage would have created billowing clouds of smoke visible for hundreds of miles around—such as what Abraham saw.
Why the utter destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? For thousands of years, it was believed that the cities were destroyed primarily for their sexual sins, especially homosexuality.
However, due to the current popularity of homosexuality, some biblical apologists argue otherwise. They posit an alternative interpretation: that the prime sin of Sodom was the lack of hospitality toward foreigners. Does this explain why Sodom and Gomorrah, above all cities on Earth, were wiped out? What about those like the Assyrians, who lined city walls with the heads and skins of foreigners?
Their threat was to rape, and possibly kill -- not to have any kind of romantic encounter. There are more than 20 references to Sodom and Gomorrah in Scripture after Genesis Only two of them mention sexual sins at all. So I removed them when I saw it. Jude 7 says that Sodom and Gomorrah "gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. This phrase likely refers to the attempted rape of angels, given that Jude 6 refers to the Nephilim of Genesis 6 "the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling".
That was not the original interpretation of the Sodom story, which dates back to the 14th century BC. Isaiah 1 equates the sin of Sodom with oppressing marginalized groups, murder, and theft. Tubb believes the early Bronze Age is the only time that towns matching the description of Sodom and Gomorrah could have existed.
Marco showed her a rock face containing layers of chalk and rock. In one place, there was a huge fault line caused by an ancient earthquake. By measuring how far an individual layer slipped, Marco could measure the size of the earthquake.
The slippage was one metre and 75cm - meaning an earthquake measuring at least a six, on the Richter scale. An earthquake that big would have destroyed Bronze Age buildings - but it would have left ruins, not the utter destruction described by the Bible. For Harris's idea to be plausible, the earthquake would have had to trigger a landslide.
This is possible when there is loosely packed ground that contains lots of water. Shaken up by an earthquake, the water can rush to the surface, and the ground can turn to water - a phenomenon called liquefaction. On a slope, this can become a landslide. Professor Frostick believed the ground around the Dead Sea was capable of liquefying. However, the towns had to be built on ground that contained lots of water, so they must have been right on the water's edge.
For Harris's theory to stand up, he needed to explain why towns like Sodom might have been built at the water's edge. He believes the answer is that some towns might have needed to be built as close as possible to a source of asphalt, a naturally occurring substance that was invaluable in ancient times. The Egyptians used asphalt to embalm their dead: their word moumiah, 'mummy' to us, means asphalt. According to organic chemist Arie Niessenbaum, pure blocks of asphalt can be formed on the Dead Sea floor, and these can then float to the surface.
This Dead Sea floating asphalt has been chemically fingerprinted and matched to asphalt contained in early Bronze Age artefacts found in Egypt. That means there was an early Bronze Age trade in asphalt from the Dead Sea to Egypt - and settlements may have existed where people collected it.
After establishing that Sodom and Gomorrah may have been Bronze Age towns, that there was a reason why they might have been built on the edge of the Dead Sea, and that a strong ancient earthquake may have liquefied the ground, one important question remained.
Though many people believe that sodom and gomorrah did exist and was destroyed, why look for alternative theories and answers as to how and why it was destroyed? The God of the bible states clearly, Is there anything that's impossible with God? God allowed Abraham to Question him why he was going to destroy the Five Cities, and Abraham did Question God about it, but in a respectful way.
There's not a lot of difference between 50 Righteous people and 10 but in Abraham's eyes he needed to Question God about it, and God knew that.
There was Nobody that was Righteous or Good in the way we understand good, though they did have the ability to do good at times, but that wasn't the issue. As the Babylonian Talmud states, they Isolated themselves from the rest of the world, therefore thought they could do as they wish, Only they Never took into account the Possibility that there was an Almighty God, A true God, who could see all the Injustices going on, and that he's the Author and Creator of life who makes the decisions, Not the people of the Five Cities who were Abusing other's and each other, as they were about to do to Lot and the two angels disguised as people as well.
After God finished speaking to Abraham, he destroyed the Cities. But there was another reason God allowed Abraham to Question him, and that was to prove that he was a God of Justice, and that all his decisions are Right, despite our struggles to understand them at times.
That's why we need Faith and Trust. In fact it was Abraham's Faith that made him Righteous in God's eyes, despite his faults.
I am writing a novel using historical settings and this article is very helpful. Many thanks. Steve Powell. I was curious to know how many people may have died in the event we read about in Vayera. Thank you for this fascinating article that serves to assure that Torah is reliable, and also that we may consider the ratio of "righteous" who were living then to the total possible population--re: Abraham's "bargaining" with G-d.
The story has given me courage to pray this way for America today. Loved this, but I've always heard that the flood happened in , and the generations of the sons of Noah span plus years til we get to Abraham, and add the 90 plus years he was at when God began directing him, it's about five hundred years to Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction Making the dating of very plausible I'm interested intrigued!
The Torah timeline is th, much more accurate and reliable then radiometric dating which needs material calibration on dates over 2, years and above. Happy Passover to all. How can the year old cemetery at Numeira be the same size as the year old cemetery at Bab edh-Dhra? Fascinating article. It's a enlightening article and findings especially with reading of this weeks Parshah Vayiera.
Todah for wonderful this wonderful Historical and Torah truth. An excelent article on Sodom and Gemorah. Even i doubted how it was possible for the destruction of the cities by fire and brimstone, but the article drew upon research to explain. Great to see how history and studies of sacred scripture exist hand in hand with eachother. Time and time again, with the help of archaelogy and geology, the Bible is consistent and accurate in details of the ancient times of the Holy Land.
The Bible is still a cut above the rest, for history and lterature. The latest archaeological dig and evidence strongly suggests that the Tall el-Hammam site to the northeast of the Dead Sea is Sodom , more consistent with the Torah description "on the plain of Jordan".
Articles like these make study of places in the Bible interesting. The history supports well with study. This is a truly fascinating and easy to read article. The article about Sodom and Gemorrah is simple amazing. What more can I say! Post more of these. This is a wonderful article, so well researched and clearly written.
I would like to see more articles by Rabbi Reznick. Thanks for adding more. This is a most informative article.
Glad to see evidence that the Genesis narrative can be taken literally. You know what, i don't need a phd to look like a fool. I can't thank you enough for article's like these, they are so helpful, and empowering in a world where so many people try to deny the validity of anything Biblical. Thank you aish for providing yet another one of your informative articles.
Keep up the great work! Hi, I found this article of great interest. I have just returned from Malta where there are more sites of ancient sacred worship that one might expect on such a small island, and even though it was undoubtedly once connected via land bridge to Sicily and North Africa, there are many theories about Malta extant. So I am steeped at this moment in archaeological ponderings and I find this article quite credible and most interesting.
I am not sure I quite understand why some people are so quick to "discredit" the Bible, meaning there are ways to merge modern ways of thinking and also Biblical accounts. Why not an earthquake?
We do know this area of the Middle East is near fault lines. There seems to be evidence for this that is quite compelling in terms of the destruction by fire and brimstone. Thank you for a most interesting and worthwhile article. I have also found in life that there are many ways to view these stories, such as The FLOOD, because there is more than one story running, namely the Noah story and the Mesopotamian one of Gilgamesh.
They seem almost like mirrors. Perhaps the greater "story" was constructed in this way and everywhere one does look there is a kind of mirroring effect. But this is now on to another topic. Think straight , September 29, PM.
I love these work, sent me more. Iam a theology student in kenya, in the Capuchin Franciscan congregation, I study in kenya but Iam a ugandan. Bert says: The cities existed, and they were destroyed. Just as the Biblical account describes.
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