I love stories in which the Old Testament (or the New Testament for that matter) is proven historically accurate in some amazing way that is so befuddling that it must be ignored by the mainstream media.
In the case of Sodom, it’s been discovered and it looks like it’s been nuked. This story came out last year or maybe two years ago but it’s fleshed out nicely here on Pints with Aquinas.
The evidence is out there, folks. God wants you to believe. Miracles abound. Truth exists. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to explain away the Bible.
August 18, 2023 at 8:21 am
Unfortunately Dr. Collins’ identification of Tall al-Hamamm was Sodom and his suggestion that Tall al-Hamamm was destroyed by a meteor exploding in the atmosphere do not hold up to close scrutiny. Earlier archaeological work had already identified the sites of Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira as much more likely to have been Sodom and Gomorrah than Tall al-Hamamm. For one thing, Tall al-Hamamm is in the wrong place, northeast of the Dead Sea rather than southeast as biblical references indicate. For another, Tall al-Hamamm’s destruction by fire took place circa 1650 B.C., about three or four centuries after the time of Abraham. It’s destruction is also more consistent with being put to the torch by a conquering army than something astronomical. The site was also later reinhabited, whereas the Bible indicates the five cities of the plain were obliterated and are referred to in later biblical passages only as historical sites of the distant past.
In contrast to Tall al-Hamamm, Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira were in the general area where one would expect, and their destructions could be dated to a period more consistent with Abraham’s lifetime (circa 2000 B.C.). They were both buried in a thick layer of ash from some kind of geological disaster, and there were even found some carbonised grapes at Bab edh-Dhra that had been harvested the final spring of its existence (the Bible speaks of Sodom’s grapes).
I recommend this article as a thorough examination of the finds at Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira that support their identification as Sodom and Gomorrah.
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/patriarchal-era/2364-the-discovery-of-the-sin-cities-of-sodom-and-gomorrah
August 18, 2023 at 11:34 am
See also:
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/patriarchal-era/3217-locating-sodom-a-critique-of-the-northern-proposal
August 18, 2023 at 11:42 am
And this as well:
“Archaeologist Steven Ortiz, director of Lipscomb University’s Lanier Center for Archaeology and co-director of the recent Tel Gezer excavations, rejected the meteor hypothesis, noting that similar destruction layers—attributed to Egyptian and Assyrian armies—have been found at Bronze and Iron Age Gezer. Similarly, Aren Maier, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University and long-time excavator of Tell es-Safi (biblical Gath), said that evidence for King Hazael’s ninth-century B.C.E. destruction of Gath looks much like what was found at Tall el-Hammam. Such destructions, Ortiz and Maeir argue, should be attributed to warfare, not cosmic events.
“Tall el-Hammam excavator Steven Collins has long contended the site is the infamous biblical city of Sodom, based especially on geographical clues in the biblical text. The new study draws similar conclusions, suggesting that “oral traditions about the destruction of this urban city by a cosmic object might be the source of the written version of Sodom in Genesis.”
“Other scholars contest the site’s identification with Sodom. Robert Mullins, Chair of the Department of Biblical Studies at Azusa Pacific University, told Christianity Today that the biblical timeline does not support the identification. While the destruction of Tall el-Hammam dates to around 1650 B.C.E., the Bible places the destruction of Sodom during the days of Abraham, a figure most scholars would date hundreds of years earlier. “This is an example of evidence being marshaled to support the identification of the site as Sodom, as opposed to letting the site speak for itself,” Mullins said.”
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/was-biblical-sodom-destroyed-by-a-cosmic-blast/
August 18, 2023 at 6:40 pm
And finally, everyone should be aware that the peer reviewed article published by “Nature” suggesting that Tall al-Hamamm was Sodom, and proposing that Tall al-Hammam was destroyed by an airbust of an asteroid breaking up in the atmosphere, has undergone serious critique from various scientists who have found grave flaws in this paper. The flaws are so serious that it undermines the entire airbust thesis, and there are calls now for “Nature” to retract the paper.
There is, in fact, no solid and confirmed archaeological evidence that Tall al-Hamamm was destroyed by an airbust of an asteroid.
In an asteroid airbust, one would expect to find certain mineralogic and geochemical “signatures” — and no such features have been found at Tall al-Hamamm, but only the kinds evidence consistent with destruction in war.
Personally I think it’s far more likely that Tall al-Hamamm was Heshbon, the citadel of the Amorite king Sihon, who was killed in battle against Moses and Joshua in 1406 B.C.
https://pubpeer.com/public…/37B87CAC48DE4BC98AD40E00330143
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08216-x
August 19, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Of course, all the intellectual “might” of academia, media, the Alphabet perverts, and various internet blog commenters will be brought to bear upon any possible suggestion that the tales of Sodom and Gomorrah are actual history.
This is necessary simply because any hint that the Bible contains historical fact or that its moral lessons are divinely sourced and eternal will undermine the world order we labor under today.
Also, there were five cities that were destroyed at that time.
But perhaps our blog commenter can add a link that demonstrates how common it was for ancient cities in the middle east to be destroyed by what can easily be described as “fire and brimstone.”
August 21, 2023 at 2:35 pm
The actual archaeology, etc. brought to bear on the site pretty much disprove the Sodom airburst theory. It was a cool theory. I would have loved it to be true, but, alas. I do not need the site to be Sodom in order to bolster my belief. Suppressing a truth for religious or political reasons, and supporting a falsehood for the same reasons are two sides of the same false coin. We can do better.