The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Genesis 19 : 24–26 The description of the destruction of the Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities on the Plain, contains signifi-cant elements that corres
Trang 1agricultural practices and preserved the story of the
destruction of their world in the great flood
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis
19 : 24–26)
The description of the destruction of the Sodom and
Gomorrah, two cities on the Plain, contains
signifi-cant elements that correspond to massive earthquakes
and the opening of sulphurous springs Traditionally,
Sodom and Gomorrah have been thought to have
been located in the valley of the Dead Sea, perhaps
even where the Dead Sea is now located In spite of
clear suggestions of a catastrophic geological event,
no particular event has been satisfactorily identified
with this story, nor have any identifiable ruins of early
second-millennium-bce towns or cities been found
Thus the description stands, but a particular event or
location remains a matter of conjecture
The Exodus
The Crossing of the Red Sea—Two Stories in
Exodus 14 There are two accounts of the crossing
of the Red Sea (the Hebrew name of which can also
be translated as ‘Sea of Reeds’ or ‘Distant Sea’) in
Chapter 14 of the Book of Exodus The accounts
are intricately intertwined but refer to two readily
identifiable and distinguishable phenomena It is
generally agreed that the route of the Exodus from
Egypt into the Sinai was close to the northern end of
the Red Sea
The first of these phenomena concerned the action
of steady, strong winds on shallow expanses of water
Water can be removed a long way from the normal
shoreline of one side of a lake or inlet, for the
dur-ation of the wind, and can then return to normal
levels when the wind subsides (This is a commonly
observed phenomenon at Lake George, Australia,
near Canberra.) At the beginning of the first account
of the crossing (Exodus 14:21), we are told ‘‘the Lord
drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and
made the sea dry land’’ This account then tells of the
attempt of the Egyptians to follow through after the
Hebrews and that their chariot wheels became
clogged and they fled When it is recognized that the
Hebrews had herds and were mostly on foot and
would have further softened ground that was usually
under water, then the clogging of the wheels of
char-iots would be expected The dropping of the wind and
the return of the water could have been a perfectly
natural phenomenon
The second account is much more dramatic, with
references to great walls of water (Exodus 14:22)
The destruction of the Egyptians was said to have
been accomplished by the catastrophic return of the
water (Exodus 14:28) This second account is of a far more destructive phenomenon, compared to the first, and probably more familiar one In the second account, the sea pulls back and then surges over those who have ventured onto the ground from which the sea receded This is a classic description of the destruction wrought by a tsunami
The dating of the events of the Exodus has never been exactly agreed by scholars The generally agreed range of dates is from the fifteenth century bce to the middle of the thirteenth century bce Near the begin-ning of this period, there was, in fact, an event that could have produced a catastrophic tsunami of the type described in Exodus In 1470 bce, the volcano Santorini erupted with about the same force as that of Krakatau in 1883 These eruptions are the largest in historical times The tsunami resulting from the San-torini eruption wrought havoc in northern Crete and
on Milos and in the Peloponnese This same tsunami would have swept south, causing immense damage along the Egyptian coast and especially in the low-lying agricultural areas of the Nile Delta The sea would have withdrawn, possibly for 15 or 20 min, and then would have come the first return wave The wave that hit Milos had a height of about
100 m and travelled at about 300 km h 1 Even at half this speed and height, the destruction in Egypt would have been immense Such an event would have been associated with the gods, and, for the Hebrews, with their own God Thus, in Exodus 14, the ac-counts are of a real catastrophic event and of another event, of more common experience, combined into a single story of the power of the Hebrew God to save the Hebrew people
The Plagues (Exodus 7–11) Evidence from the Greenland ice sheets implies that the Santorini erup-tion generated high levels of sulphuric acid There would have been sustained acid rain in the eastern Mediterranean and cooling for many years as result
of the dust blasted into the atmosphere There would have been initial crop failures as a result of the acid rain and continued low yields as a result of lower temperatures The dust blasted into the high atmos-phere would have darkened the sky, making the sun and moon appear red, perhaps for several years Acid rain would also have contaminated water, causing destruction of aquatic plants and fishes If this were combined with significant ash-falls, the waterways could have been rendered anoxic for a considerable length of time Moreover, contaminated water and acid rain, with sudden loss of pasture, would be associated with a rise in stock disease and invasion of settled areas by insects and other vermin
in search of food sources
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