Despite the unknown location of the two cities written of in the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah, the general consensus is that they are located in the southern plain of the Dead Sea. The debate has been fierce about the exact location between the Northern theory and Southern theory. Some scholars do believe that these cities of sin are in the Northern location. However, there is very little data that suggests this position. It is also plausible that neither location is the site of these two cities. It will only be through continued excavation that the exact sites of Sodom and Gomorrah could be revealed.
It is written in the Bible, “the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. (Gen. 13:13). Because of their grievous sins, God destroyed four of the five cities on the plain. Sodom and Gomorrah and two neighboring cities, Admah, and Zeboiim were destroyed by way of fire and brimstone, only Bela also known as Zoar was spared. But, before the destruction Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family where allowed to leave the city for safe harbor and fled to Zoar.
There are many who disbelieve that this event even happened. Christians and non-Christians have a hard time understanding God’s supernatural workings and power. Furthermore, it embodies God’s judgment of man’s sinful nature. People have a hard time comprehending this, particularly in today’s society, due to it being that homosexual behavior is the sin that God is judging. There is archaeological evidence to support that this event happened.
This event is a definite fact in the history of man. “The Genesis account is written in narrative form and alluded to by several other Old Testament writers.” Jesus, who was also an eyewitness as the pre-incarnate Lo...
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...nships that are linked politically. Also, the cities appear to be fortified with a wall around them. The wadi’s demonstrate that they had an irrigation system in place if water was needed. Furthermore, there is strong evidence of from the Biblical description of the cities and the dates of the destruction of the archaeological finds in the five cities. There is even some evidence of a massive earthquake in this region dating back to the times in question. Additionally, there is the evidence of a massive fire that appears to start from above. The Bible is very clear that the cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone, in Gen 19:24 “Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.” I believe with continued archeological excavation in the South more evidence will be found that Sodom and Gomorrah lies within this region.
Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley are the authors of The Sacred Land Bridge, which is an Atlas of the biblical world and includes maps, pictures, and historical cementation as to the significance of this region. The biblical world that this atlas focuses on is defined as the eastern Mediterranean littoral, or more commonly called the Levant in modern archeological discussions. In my critique of this book I will be focusing on pages 30-34 which will define the boundaries and explain the importance of the Levant.
Whatever the men of Sodom were up to, there is no question that it drew God’s wrath. According to pro-homosexual theologians, their sin had little or nothing to do with homosexuality, but with their inhospitality; their “callous indifference toward the weak and vulnerable – the poor, orphans, widows, and strangers in their midst” (Jeff Miner and John Tyler Conoley, The Children are Free, p. 6). There is some validity to this. For it is written, "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49). Without dispute, the sin of Sodom included pride, materialism, and injustice, but there are other verses revealing that they were notorious for a sin not mentioned in this list.
When someone thinks of the word “flooded,” they tend to think of something being completely covered with water and it is more of a devastation than relief. In One Foot in Eden, there is a company called Carolina Power and they are coming into Jocassee to flood the land. Rash presented the fact of Carolina Power coming into the land to flood it when he states “I’d farm this land until Carolina Power ran us all out and drowned these fields and creeks and the river itself (40). For more factual evidence, the flooding in the Ron Rash’s book was based on true events. “In 1963, Duke Power Company (a Duke Energy Company, or DEC) formed Carolina Land and Timber Company, which purchased an 83,400-acre tract of land in the Horsepasture area from Singer Corporation and private landowners. Duke Power Company (DPC) announced [the] construction of the Keowee Toxaway Project on January 2, 1965, and began development in 1967. The construction resulted in the formation of 18,400-acre Lake Keowee and 7,500-acre Lake Jocassee” (History of Lake Jocassee). Along with the flooding in the book, there was a Great Flood in the Bible that God did happen. In Genesis 7:4 NKJV, God said: “For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made (biblegateway.com).” As a comparison of the two events that took place, the
19). Same-sex marriages may seem an abomination to the union of man and woman through marriage, but just because it was not written in the Bible does not mean that it goes against Christianity. Some traditions from the Bible is not valid today because it is either not relevant nowadays or it attacks the morals of humanity. An example of a tradition is forcing women to marry the man who rapes them (Deut. 22:28-29). In the Old Testament there’s a story in Genesis 19:1-11 about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is interpreted that God punished the city because of its homosexual acts. This reasoning is flawed. The story actually begins at Genesis 18, when the Lord revealed to Abraham that He would go to Sodom and judge the fatality of their sins. In the book “A Question of Truth” by Gareth Moore, he states that: “Abraham’s hospitality and the destruction of Sodom are closely linked” (Moore, 70). In Genesis 18, Abraham showed hospitality and welcomed three strangers and served them as if he was their servant. Later on, the man who remained revealed Himself as the
Coogan, Michael David., Marc Zvi. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. "Genesis." The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
people is that a similar story is also found in the Koran. The Koran states, “‘O Adam! Dwell thou
Jericho was an important city in the Old Testament. The city was overtaken and devastated several times. However, it was always reoccupied -- sometimes quickly and other times very slowly. Herod the Great, Cleopatra, and Augustus are some of the mighty rulers that once took claim of some or all of Jericho. Many Galileans would travel through the Jordan valley and go by Jericho on their route to Jerusalem. By taking this course, they could avoid passing through Samaritan territory (Metzger and Coogan, 1993).
story. The account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-3 is extremely similar to the
First, let us analyze the particulars of the Christian Genesis story as to begin formulating the basis of comparison and contrast. We shall look at the two parts of Genesis, the first discussing the formulation of earth and its inner particulars, in concert with the first few verses associated with the second part of Genesis, which touches on the creation of the first man and woman:
The story of the great flood is probably the most popular story that has survived for thousands of years and is still being retold today. It is most commonly related within the context of Judeo-Christian tradition. In the Holy Bible, the book of Genesis uses the flood as a symbol of God's wrath as well as His hope that the human race can maintain peace and achieve everlasting salvation. The tale of Noah's Ark begins with God's expression of dismay as to the degenerate state of the human race at the time. People were behaving wickedly and sinfully and God decided that a genetic cleansing was necessary. He spared only Noah and his family, along with two of every type of animal; one male and one female. The other most popular flood story is found in the Epic of Gilgamish. In this text, the gods have decided to destroy everything on earth by creating a great flood. The only survivor is a man named Utnapishtim, spared because he is the god Ea's favorite human.
The name Babylon means “Gate of God”. The location of the ancient city was along the Euphrates River and today is marked by a long stretch of ruins east of the river. Which is ninety kilometres south of Baghdad, Iraq. This was one of the main trading points of the ancient world because of its central location.
What is the Lake of Fire? According to The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, the Lake of Fire is synonymous with the Greek term Gehen’na, which carries the same meaning. The word Gehen’na in the Hebrew language is Hinnom. The Hebrew word Hinnom refers to the Valley of Hinnom, which was a place near the city of Jerusalem in the Old Testament that served as a garbage dump for refuse. The Valley of Hinnom was also a place where idolaters practiced the sacrifice of infants to the god Molech. The valley later became a place where the bodies of dead criminals were taken for incineration. Due to its hellish nature, the valley eventually be...
As the first book of the Old Testament convey, Genesis, and its Greek meaning “in the beginning,” life originated with God in the Garden of Eden. Accor...
In this paper I will discuss three similarities and four differences between Enuma Elish-The Epic of Creation (King,1902) and Genesis 1:1-3:24 as described by Michael Fishbane (Fishbane, 1979). These writings are selected to describe the story of creation of the earth and the inhabitants of the earth. However, each author has a very different view and way of explaining what they have interpreted the sacred texts to mean.
In the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, we read of the fall of man. As we study the Bible and recognize it’s importance in our lives today we must realize the role these stories play in our time. The Bible is not simply a history book or a book of stories of morality, but it is a book that speaks to us today of how we should live and interact with God. We are confronted with this fact in Genesis “through a graphic and dramatic representation it gives a