One of the main reasons why academics reject the notion that the
Bible is an accurate history of ancient Israel, is the apparently
impossible story of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are asked to believe that Lot
chose an area to settle, that was like the Garden of Eden and the
fertile area around the River Nile. He did that from just a short
distance from the Dead Sea. (See quotes and maps below).
Anyone who has been to the area knows that it is one of the most
inhospitable spots on earth. The story which most academics believe was
composed after the Exile is obviously nothing more than fable. The
scientists tell us that even if that area was once verdant, it was
certainly not so in the past 2.5 million years.
Well, we have produced the satellite images provided below clearly
showing interesting anomalies 1200 ft beneath the Dead Sea and a remnant
Delta area. To those scientists who might quibble with what and how old
they are, there is only one questions. "How did the 'writer(s)' of
Genesis know?"
One additional question comes to mind to pose to those scholars and
academics who subscribe to the proposition that Genesis was composed or
heavily redacted after the Babylonian exile. The story about the fertile
plain was as seemingly ridiculous then as it is now. Why did not the
writer(s)/redactor(s) change the story to make it more credible?
We will hopefully answer the scientific questions when we take the
mini-sub Delta to explore the bottom of the Dead Sea. What is already
clearly established however is the fact that the description in the
Bible was an accurate one. The most inhospitable place on earth
certainly had, at one time, an environment strikingly similar to the
Nile. How was it possible to know that? Coincidence? :-)
GENESIS CHAPTER 13
1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that
he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
3 And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the
place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai;
4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first:
and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and
tents.
6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell
together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell
together.
7 And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and
the herdsmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite
dwelled then in the land
........................................................
9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;
or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan,
that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as
thou comest unto Zoar.
11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed
east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities
of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
GENESIS CHAPTER 19
27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he
stood before the LORD: (By the terebinths of Mamre...Genesis 18:1 ) 28
And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the
plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the
smoke of a furnace.
Images as usual from D. Laing
Image showing the position of Abram/Abraham in relation to Sodom.
Latest enhanced image of the Delta Area and Anomalies.
Click
for a large view of the Madaba Map showing position of Zoar!
