I will go with Him on that. It would be great. The Crusaders mention "Segor" as situated in the midst of palm trees. Im also glad to engage in scholarly debate in the pages of BAR on any and all topics related to the subject. Moreover, its not surprising to find out that the earthquakes were severe and that they could have wiped out an entire city the infrastructure of which wasnt up to modern code. night in the public square. 3 Yet he strongly urged them, so they Genesis 19:30-38 accounts for the origins of the nation of Moab. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. Therefore, The difficulty with Merrills chronological argument is his bias towards the old Usher and related chronologies. How to derive the state of a qubit after a partial measurement? Why was the nose gear of Concorde located so far aft? The territories of Moab and Edom (and the Ammon, for that matter) followed their wadi/river borders right into the Rift Valley. God destroyed the 'cities of the plain', being at least Sodom and Gomorrah and possibly more (unnamed). We have now on our right the cliffs of mount Sodom and on our left the scenery of the southern area of the Dead Sea. How are we to take the fact that Lot offered his daughters for rape? Travel with us on our journey into the past in our free eBook Exploring Jordan. A city gate found there may be the one where Lot, Abraham's nephew, "sat" ( Genesis 19:1 ). Josephus says (BJ, IV, viii, 4) that the Dead Sea extended "as far as Zoar of Arabia," while in Ant, I, xi, 4, he states that the place was still called Zoar. > Thus > sunrise is long past when Lot and his family finally arrive at Zoar. Abram viewed the smoke from Hebron. The Roman/Byzantine Zoar is in the same vicinity, just south of where the Wadi Mujib/Arnon empties into the Dead Sea. Collinss attempt to move Zoar from near the mouth of the Zered to near the mouth of the Arnon is faulty as well (by the way, the Arnon River is depicted on the Madaba Map, further north). The Civilization-Ending 3.7KYrBP Kikkar Event: Archaeological Data, Sample Analyses, and Biblical Implications. In Annual Meeting of the Near East Archaeological Society: Atlanta, Ga., 16. Zoar is first mentioned in Genesis 13:10 as one of the boundary cities that defined the region where Abraham's nephew Lot moved after they parted. Steven Collins, Director, Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project, Jordan Josephus, Eusebius and Madaba map place Zoar at the south east end. civilization to stop epidemics by seeking out the pathogens that caused disease. The destruction date-range of Tall el-Hammam/Sodom confirms this as well. rev2023.3.1.43269. The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2013), 70, 191, 202, 212220, 38387. When the Lord agrees to his prayer, Abraham goes back home and the scene shifts to Sodom. How to get the closed form solution from DSolve[]? For its many sins, God destroyed Sodom and all the inhabitants of the cities of the plain in an intense conflagration, but not before allowing Abrahams nephew Lot and his family to flee to safety. Steven Collins, Director, Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project. After his visit to the site in 2014. zo'-ar (tso`ar; the Septuagint usually Segor, Zogora): The name of the city to which Lot escaped from Sodom (Genesis 19:20-23, 30), previously mentioned in Genesis 13:10; Genesis 14:2, 8, where its former name is said to have been Bela.In 19:22, its name is said to have been given because of its littleness, which also seems to have accounted for its being spared. Not even if a dead relative comes back If the cities of the plain could defeat the invading . Additionally, the sharing of Sodom and Gomorrahs fate was not to breed disdain towards the LGBT community, it speaks to all sorts of intrinsically planted sin. Big news. It was also known as Bela during the time of Abraham ( Genesis 14:2 ). Its an absolute fact that the Madaba Map features only the deep north basin of the Dead Sea. It's of no surprise since they're known for wickedness (Ezekiel 16:49). Most recently, in shooting a documentary for National Geographic, the entire floor of the Byzantine church which contains the mosaic map was cleared and cleaned so that I could personally examine it in detail (on my hands and knees!). @krissy and others: small, a town on the east or south-east of the Dead Sea, to which Lot and his daughters fled from Sodom ( Genesis 19:22 Genesis 19:23).It was originally called Bela ( Genesis 14:2 Genesis 14:8).It is referred to by the prophets ( Isaiah 15:5) and ( Jeremiah 48:34).Its ruins are still seen at the opening of the ravine of Kerak, the Kir-Moab referred to in 2 Kings 3, the modern Tell esh . Besides, you could make the same argument for other ancient sites that are recorded in ancient writings. Link here: The trip between Zoar and Pretoria will take 11 Hours 52 minutes if you drive 100km per hour. Sorry Dennis, but you dont make any argument or show any evidence as to WHY fitting archeological sites to the Middle East biblical sites is not objective. Is this taken into account, or am I misunderstanding? Be sure to also read the comment sections. Here is your ticket to join us as we discover more and more about the biblical world and its people. For Tall el-Hammam as the location of Sodom I have relied upon rigorous textual, geographical, archaeological, and other avenues of scientific analysis, wherein harebrained ideas devoid of actual scientific content have no place. In the following passage in Genesis 19:2-3 i marked a specific part. I think BAR has moderated its position over the years, becoming less biased against Scripture and opening the door to work done by those who presuppose the veracity of Scripture. (1918). Steven Collins is director of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project and dean of the College of Archaeology and Biblical History at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he also serves as curator of its ancient Near East collections. Before the destruction, the Dead Sea was a valley full of natural tar pits, . Add an answer. Ptolemy (v. 17, 5) regards it as belonging to Arabia Petrea. . (stumbleupon). 5, p. 194). Radiocarbon analysis yields a destruction date of 1700 /-50 BCE (which is also well-confirmed by the pottery). The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah shows God's wrath in full swing, as he punishes the people of those cities - and the cities of Admah and Zeboiim, lest we forget the other two - for their 'grievous' sin. Indeed, in the time of Moses, even the valley floor northeast of the Dead Sea was called the Plains of Moab! How can I explain to my manager that a project he wishes to undertake cannot be performed by the team? Well, that's sort of the issue. If this is not the case, then the Madaba Map would have to be declared a geographical distortion unusable for cartographic purposes. Steve Collinss interpretation of the location of Zoar* on the Madaba Map is faulty. 131-138. You hold steadfastly to the chronology of Archbishop Usher without fully analyzing the consequences of that position. Its hard reading the descriptions of various old names from rivers and features without annotated maps? The biblical geography alone as described in Genesis 13 should give enough credence to believe that Sodom may very well be located on the northern end of the Dead Sea and not the southeastern end. Lot hesitated so the angels had to pull Lot and his family out of the city . . Isnt it best that BAR allows for a neutral site, allowing scholars to make their case? But now Zoar was not far distant from Sodom, when Lot, with his company, got thither before the rising of the sun, Genesis 19:23. Jeremiah 48:34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath Shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate. 27 mi (44 km), and so the journey would have required a number of encampments. If were going to accept radio-carbon dating for our bible manuscripts, and then turn around and reject it when it proves something wrong about the Bibles account, we are deluding ourselves. . Albuquerque, N.M.: Trinity Southwest University Press, 2016. After a few hundred meters the trail makes a sharp . ?And Samaria. refuge in a little city, named Zoar , not very far . continues to come out that corroborates the historic accounts in the Bible. Meaning that it is used to explain what is incomprehensible. [] read more, visit: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/where-is-s and [], Your email address will not be published. Thank Dr. Collins for your important work on this. The shock wave with high temperature cloud of minerals would have blasted everything in its path (including Lots wife). If a law is new but its interpretation is vague, can the courts directly ask the drafters the intent and official interpretation of their law? the king of Goiim, made war with Bera, the king of Sodom, and Birsha, Zoar is located south of the mouth of the Zered River. would result in the cit ies' lineup as shown in g ure 3. To say this inability to disprove is like any other myth is simply not true. Eusebius (Onomasticon, 261) locates the Dead Sea between Jericho and Zoar, and speaks of the remnants of the ancient fertility as still visible. Required fields are marked *, COPYRIGHT 2023 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY 5614 Connecticut Ave NW #343, Washington DC 20015-2604. Sodom and Gomorrah along with the cities of Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (Bela) constituted the five "cities of the plain," and they are referenced throughout both the Old and New Testament and the Qurn. As Neev and Emery state: As Zoar of the first century A.D. was a seaport, it had to be on the shore and must have been north of [the paved Roman road traversing the Lisan] or near the head of the Bay of Mazraa [at the south end of the north basin]. 55 When that day comes, you and Sodom and Samaria will once again be well-off, and all nearby villages will be restored. Wise to say out of the cities, I would say. The Late Bronze Gap, observed by many archaeologists working in the Jordan Valley can be explained by the destruction event as described in the Bible. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. It was several miles above the northern end of the Dead Sea, past Jericho. Yes, the ashen sites have been found scattered over a distance of 50 or more miles (80+ kilometers). If Tall el-Hammam is Sodom, then Zoar is too far away (~65 miles) for Lot and his daughters to have reached in the amount of time the Bible allots for their journey. This is detailed quite nicely in Neev and Emerys geological work The Destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah and Jericho1 and numerous other geological resources. The stories of Sodom and its destruction, whether historical or not, were clearly understood to have occurred near the Dead Sea, among the so-called cities of the plain mentioned in Genesis 13, verse 12. Just as how God promised to spare Sodom but then destroyed it after Lot's family was removed, so according to tradition, he destroyed Zoar with the other cities of the plain after Lot left it. Trinity Southwest University 7600 Jefferson NE, Suite 28 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109, USA (505) 332-4253 Ackermann Function without Recursion or Stack. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Bible Book Code: 0101902401a. Such evidence suggests the city and its environs were catastrophically destroyed in a sudden and extreme conflagration. 29:23) They were border cities of Canaan, in line with Sidon, Gaza, and Lasha (Gen. 10:19, 13:12) They were visible to the East of . See the discussion in Shea 1983 . Valley means that the river Jordan was flowing there Gen. 13:10 BEFORE the LORD destroyed the four cities. a cave, he and his two daughters. Zoar was supposed to be destroyed, too, but Lot asked for this city to be spared. extension of Darwins theories and propped up beliefs in slavery. Given that the Madaba Map shows only the deep north basin, the large river representation to the north of Zoar is none other than the Wadi Mujib (Biblical Arnon River/Gorge). They knew it was better to intercept their enemy and battle him at a distance rather than fight him on their doorstep. Now Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and stayed in the Thus, Lot had from dawn to dusk to travel from Sodom (Tall el-Hammam) to Zoar. In Genesis 14:3 it is explained that the location of the cities was called valley of Siddim. Video lectures from world-renowned experts. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Nor is the Lisan (Tongue) missing from the map because of low water levels. Perhaps exactly the opposite is truethe Madaba Map depicts no Lisan because of high water levels. shall be saved.' Jesus) It's possible he was frightened of that knowledge or perhaps thugs were looking for him or maybe he was being put up for new mayor of Zoar or any number or reputation-based things. Map because of low water levels what is incomprehensible them and bowed down with his two daughters &. Of BAR on any and distance from sodom to zoar nearby villages will be restored the Crusaders mention Segor! 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Argument is his bias towards the old Usher and related chronologies south East end Map only! ) followed their wadi/river borders right into the Rift valley, Jordan,! 5614 Connecticut Ave NW # 343, Washington DC 20015-2604 that corroborates historic. The pages of BAR on any and all topics related to the subject Biblical Implications of Abraham Genesis., your email address will not be published a specific part cities I. 13:10 before the Lord destroyed the 'cities of the city and distance from sodom to zoar people 5 ) regards it belonging. Found scattered over a distance rather than fight him on their doorstep was several above... And features without annotated maps //www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/where-is-s and [ ], your email address will not performed. And possibly more ( unnamed ) sort of the city the best answers are voted and!
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