In this lesson, David Capoccia examines the strengths and weaknesses of the two proposed sites for the ruins of Sodom. David Capoccia also briefly examines two pieces of archaeological evidence from the time of Israel’s judges: the Amarna Letters and the Merneptah Stele.
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there’s an excellent documentary on the archaeological evidence related to The Exodus and Conquest as a documentary called patterns of evidence The Exodus this award-winning film debuted no evidence for the Exodus from Egypt that’s the thing you’ll hear archaeologists say all the time there’s no evidence actually there’s a lot of evidence but I want this documentary to present that to you we’re not quite ready to show that DVD yet so we will be doing that later this month therefore right now we’re going to be skipping that section of biblical archeology and move on to the next period the time of the judges let’s review a little bit of what we talked about last week last week we talked about Abraham and the time of the Patriarchs well we don’t have direct evidence of Abraham Isaac or Jacob who do have plenty of information related to their period how does the story of sinuhi from Egypt it’s one of the ones we talked about last week how does it shed light on the patriarchal period I don’t remember yeah Danielle not one about the laws he he was an Egyptian official who sojourned in Canaan for a little while it wasn’t about the laws or customs remember he sent back a little report about what daily life was like and what he ate he had this Rich diet he was talking about how great and abundant the land was figs grapes and there’s milk there’s honey it’s just a great place to live in Canaan even with a tent dwelling tribe he had he had a very Sumptuous life there which is probably very much like what Abraham was experiencing we also talked about a painting from the tomb of canumotep II what does that painting show us about the patriarchal period yeah it shows us some of the fashion and various aspects of their daily lives even their hairstyles I forgot to mention that last time but you may have noticed in the painting the men had a distinctive kind of mushroom cut and the women they all wore their hair long and sometimes on their shoulders or behind their shoulders we see the just different aspects of daily life travel and uh Weaponry things like that and those were that was a group of semites so also probably similar to what the Patriarchs were doing then we did look at as you mentioned Danielle some Mesopotamian law codes and marriage contracts how did they shed light on Abraham and Sarah’s behavior in Genesis yeah Danielle yeah they were doing just like all the other peoples did whether they were looking to those peoples or whether they just ended up doing what other people did I’m more inclined to think that they were looking to those Customs they were being conformed to the they say oh I don’t have any kids I’ll just do what people normally do in this instance which is another wife or I’ll go get you a handmade I’ll give you to I’ll give her to you Abraham and then there’s the whole thing with inheritance as well we see that that’s very consistent with the customs of the time at the end of the class we talked about Sodom there are two sites today that have been proposed as the biblical site tell alham which is northeast of the Dead Sea and Bob edra on the Southeast edge of the Dead Sea and before we can assess which of these two sites is most likely to be Sodom let’s review again some of the information we looked at last week some Clues given to us in the Bible about sodom’s location and the time of its destruction by the way uh Andrew do you have a laser pointer because I might need that during this lesson but these are some of the notes that we mentioned last week just to go through them again from Genesis 10 19 Sodom is described as being on the Eastern edge of Canaanite land it has a couple of associated cities with it about four or five or three or four cities Genesis 13 10 to 12 that’s when lot and Abraham separated they could see the area thank you that Sodom was at the Jordan Valley it was East from where they were between Bethel and I they noticed or a lot notice it was very well watered and it was part of the valley or the plane of the Jordan Genesis 14 1-3 and 10 to 12 we saw that Santa was sauna was Allied with those Associated cities mentioned in Genesis 10. they had a battle with some other kings near some bitumen pits solemn and its Coalition lost and Sodom was immediately plundered not captured then in Genesis 19 we hear about Sodom again with this destruction specifically we noted that leave Sodom at dawn he pleaded with the angels to go to Zoar on the basis that it was small and it was nearby the Angels waited to do anything before La arrived there so they didn’t start the Judgment until Allah arrived in Zoar and we’re told that the sun had risen over the Earth at that time so sometime probably in the middle of the day or near the middle of the day Genesis 19 27-28 Abraham also looks again at the area of Sodom this time he’s at Hebron and he sees the smoke of Sodom you can see that he gets up in the morning and he sees that Sodom is already destroyed so we want to keep those things in mind as we examine the details about those two sites in our class today questions about last week’s lesson okay by the way if you’re having trouble lining up these time periods with dates in your mind I think the following chronological outline might be helpful in this chronology these details they come from James Usher who 17th century biblical scholar and scientist his work is actually what Answers in Genesis uses their timeline so these are just some details to help you put together a chronology in your mind creation around in the fall around 4000 BC the flood around 23. Babel around 2240 BC the call of Abraham around the end of them or around 1922 BC the burning bush and the beginning of the Exodus around 1490 BC soulmate King around 1100 BC Israel splitting into two kingdoms around 975 BC Daniel taken into captivity there were several times where Israelites were taken into captivity but Daniel probably goes around 607 BC the Cyrus decrees that the Jews can go back into their land around 537 BC and then Christ born around 5 BC I would say 3 BC but that’s what Usher says so this gives us a little bit of an idea as we as we move into the judges period what we’re talking about and the Judgment of Sodom probably around 1900 BC and the time of the judges beginning around 1400 BC and going into the next couple centuries here’s the oh I guess they don’t have an outline slide but just what we’ll be talking about today we’ll assess the two locations bottom that’s when we’re going to be spending the majority of our time in class today then we’ll talk about some letters that were written to Pharaoh from various rulers of Canaan during the judges period and Conquest period and then we’ll discuss a famous Steel that was found in Egypt that has a lot to do with Israel let’s pray before we continue Lord God I pray that you give glory to yourself now you are sovereign over history you are a great and holy God your ways are far there’s no one like you God I pray Lord that you would help me to be able to explain and help us understand in Jesus name amen all right we start back with Sodom two sites which one is the real Sodom now if you have the handout you notice I have two little boxers on there because I imagine this little debate like a boxing Throwdown Got Two fighter Two fighters vying for the title of real Sodom who’s the real Sodom who’s gonna win first little bit of background on each of our two contestants hopefully I can use this laser pointer correctly for a long time we had no clues regarding sodom’s location we knew it had to be on the Northern or Southern section of the Dead Sea because the mountains move or the mountains are very close on the eastern and western edges of the Dead Sea it’s not possible to have settlements on the Western or Eastern sides of the Dead Sea because the mountains are there so if Sodom was around the Dead Sea which it seems to be it has to be either north or south some thought for a long time that perhaps son was or perhaps the Dead Sea had covered up the ruins of Sodom so I’ll be down here they were thinking that it was lower in Antiquity the Dead Sea was lower in Antiquity and maybe it covered up where Sodom was but eventually there were some digs that investigated the bed of the the Dead Sea in that area and they didn’t find anything no evidence of settlements then Bob Bob edraw was discovered in 1965 so Baba draw would be right here and these are just some of the associated cities Bobby draw right there 1965 Paul Lapp execute excavated the ruins of the site and later Walter rast and Thomas Schaub in 1973 further excavated the site and also excavated the nearby ruins of four other towns Bobby draw has now been thoroughly studied the tell the tall El hamam site which is right here and these are its Associated cities over here the tall El hamam site was discovered much more recently Stephen Collins started leading digs there in 2006 and the digs actually continue today in fact if you’d like to be part of the archaeological dig at tall elham you can just go to tall elhammam.com and then you can you can sign up it’s not free though so just know that uh just uh some other Geographic details for what we talk about later here’s Bethel and I so between Bethel and I would be about right there here’s Jerusalem uh here’s Hebron and I think that’s about all I need to tell you remember here’s tell al-ha Mom and here’s bade drama okay now let’s examine the strengths of each of these sites we’ll start with Bob at draw what has it got going for it why should we think it’s the real sauna well Bob edraw is the largest pre-hellenistic site that is largest ancient city before Alexander’s Conquest in the area on the Southeast section of the Dead Sea and in that area south of Dead Sea it’s the largest town it’s Fortified Area and closed about nine to ten acres and it’s inhabit but inhabitants also occupied the area outside of the walls move over the city fortifications were quite impressive the walls were seven meters wide they were made of stone and mud bricks City also had two flanking towers with massive Stone and Timber foundations next to the City Gate Sodom was obviously prominent according to the Bible so it makes sense that it would be the largest city in its area was also definitely well watered though it’s very close to the Dead Sea today as I mentioned the Dead Sea was lower in antiquity so the southern section of the Dead Sea would have actually been a fertile plane good for farming and water didn’t just come from the sea but it was also there were also various streams that flowed from the mountains in the East the mountains on the side of the valley they flowed towards the Dead Sea so that’s more water the inhabitants of Babette draw likely diverted these streams for their own irrigation purposes and this is supported by the rich vegetation evidence Rich diversity of crops at Bob edraw the city is also near plentiful amounts of bitumen which Accords well with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fighting near bitumen pits and falling into bitumen pits when they flee also because sodoms knew that Battlefield it makes sense that the city would be immediately plundered after sodom’s defeat city is also near four other sites just like oh yeah well as I mentioned it’s near four of the smaller cities and these other cities are on the plane the closest city to Baba draw is numeria or one of the I think it’s one of the closest or one of the two closest and numeria was probably Gamora according to those who support this site for Sanam and the names actually are very similar if you take away the vowels which the Hebrew writing does it’s just three letters so Gamora using an English equivalent be gmr and numeria would be NMR so it’s very similar letters it’s possible that the G or the Hebrew letter that corresponded to G morphed over time or was lost or replaced because the rest of the name is the same numeria could be Gamora just with a little bit different pronunciation so there’s that Babette draw is also located near the traditional location of Zoar remember Zoar that’s the city that lot flees to so it’s judgment and the City occupied in biblical times and even into the Middle Ages we actually have a map from the Middle Ages that depicts the city of Zoar I’ll actually show you that map this is the madaba map found in the from the three A.D map is actually a floor mosaic in an early Byzantine church the church of Saint George in madaba Jordan it’s the oldest map we have the land of Palestine it’s from the 6th Century A.D the map so far has proven surprisingly accurate and helpful for uncovering biblical sites and I’ll just show you a couple things on the map I know it’s a little bit harder the glare but here’s the Dead Sea this oval right here here’s the Jordan River here’s Jerusalem it also as I said to pick Zohar and Zoar is right here we see the Greek name for Zoar and right next to it in the mountains is the monastery of Saint lot depicted on the map it was really near the southeast tip of the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea was smaller than in Antiquity then Zoar would have been close to Bobby draw Bobby draw probably be around here somewhere so pretty close that fits well with what the Bible says it’s important that it be closed because it’s described as nearby and not much time would have gone by from Lots departure at dawn from Sodom and his arrival in Zohar especially if he and his daughters were hurrying like the Angels had commanded so that’s another important piece of evidence Bob edraw also has indicators of two destructions which lines up well with the Bible not only saying that it was destroyed supernaturally by fire but also plundered the first instruction evident in the archaeological layers or there was one destruction earlier evident the main City Gate of Bob edraw was on the West Side facing the plain but during the city’s last 100 years that gate was destroyed it appears the people of the city had actually blocked up the gate which makes sense but they’re trying to defend the city and prevent people from getting inside a new gate was built in the Northeast section of the city and that gate was found on top of a meter of Destruction debris so after the city was plundered and they tried to build another gate there they did so on a layer of Destruction debris a second destruction of Baba draw though appears to have taken place within 20 years 20 years or so after the first and it shows great evidence of fire ah this is important right we’re talking about son we need evidence of Fire uh I’ll show you a couple more pictures in a moment but the site has deteriorated quite a bit so it’s a little bit difficult to assess the information but that new gate the archaeologist can see was destroyed by fire in this second destruction as indicated by charcoal broken and Fallen bricks and areas of Ash there are also massive piles of mud bricks in the West End of the city suggesting a heavy destruction there City wall and its City sanctuary building were collapsed had collapsed Apparently after burning and even the city cemetery where there were some above ground tombs had been burned they excavated the archaeologists excavated five Charnel houses so it’s like a house for burying the Dead and these houses were burned from the inside out which is significant because that means that the roof had caught on fire collapsed and then caused the interior to burn it spread from the inside now it’s very unlikely for people to burn cemeteries to burn tombs there’s little to no evidence of ancient peoples doing that because there’s no reason to you don’t get anything out of destroying a cemetery there’s no Goods to plunder there’s there’s just bodies there so they almost never did it we also see that nearby numeria which is better preserved it also has a thick layer of burn debris in every area of the Town excavated one final note though it’s on the Southeast section of the Dead Sea you may remember from the map I showed you a little bit ago certainly the smoke of Sodom would have been visible from Hebron Abraham would have seen that so some strong evidences for Bob adri pretty impressive well what about tal El hamam by the way also pronounced tall tell just means a mound of berry debris a hill of berry debris so you’ll see a lot of archaeological sites start with the word tell or tall anyways oh here’s some other pictures of babedron the excavation it’s done a little bit a while ago so these pictures are in black and white but is there some buildings this is these are some skeletons these people apparently been crushed by a tower when it fell these are some some pits for storing grain they were found empty when the city was excavated and here’s a diagram of the burial houses the grave houses and the layer of the various debris found in them it’s very important to make those types of drawings make sure you have the an accurate record of what you found what about Mom well like Bob and draw tall elham is the largest city in its area this is the north of the northern part of the Dead Sea however it’s more than that is the largest tell in the southern Levant is the largest ancient city site in the southern half of the Middle East it well not only was the biggest in its area it’s one of the biggest ancient cities the Fortified section contained 85 Acres that’s eight times bigger than Babel draw and there are another 240 acres that were occupied outside the city walls so this was a major city the reason for this City’s great size has to do with its favorable location it was situated in close proximity to a major East-West trade route it had access to Abundant fresh water and rich soil and had an excellent view of the Jordan Valley which is a tactical consideration so advantage if tal El hamam is Sodom again we can see why it would be so prominent in Abraham’s time what’s striking though is that after tall elham’s destruction it was left unoccupied for centuries why would this be that’s very strange because the city’s location was so desirable why doesn’t anyone want to resettle there well if this is indeed Sodom and fire and brimstone had rained down there that would not make it so desirable it would become a ruined land at least for a while nearby cities those other ones that I showed you from the map they were also left unoccupied after a sudden Destruction for centuries so we have those supports another big support for tal El hamam has to do with some of the terms used in the Bible for sodom’s location we’re told that Sodom was in the valley of the Jordan or the plane of the Jordan but the word for plain or Valley there the word translated planar Valley there is a unique one Hebrew has several words to describe planes but the word for playing there is Kikar which means Circle we actually see this word used many other times in the Bible but not usually of geography kickr is used to denote a circular loaf of bread it’ll use the word kick r or also a circular weight a talent whenever we see the word talent many times the Old Testament maybe each time in the Old Testament it’s actually the word Kikar because it’s a circular weight these times when used to describe red or a talent the word kick our does not include a definite article there’s no the but when speaking of the kick r or D Circle the Bible always is speaking of a geographic area specifically this area the area related to the Jordan River in the kick R then must have been a disc shaped air near the Jordan River and from the map I showed you at the beginning there is a area that can be outlined as a circle on the Northern side of the Dead Sea and so this is those who who support and they say well this is another reason why it has to be up here son was on that disc appreciated cities the edge of that disc along the same lines talking about area and Bible supporters of tall element assert that the term Jordan always refers to the area around the Jordan River the specific Valley through which the Jordan flows that term is never used to include the greater area of the Dead Sea or the southern area of the Dead Sea they point out that area is given a different name in the Bible the valley of sidom that’s where the battle takes place they say the Jordan Valley is only that Northern section not the bottom section and not the Dead Sea this Northern Area like the southern area Wells well watered it was well watered because well the Jordan is right there not to mention also the sea various Springs and streams flowing from the East in fact the Jordan apparently function in many ways like the Nile in Egypt the Jordan would overflow its banks and deposit layers of silt that were excellent for farming this would make Genesis 13 10’s description of this area particularly appropriate it was described as a well well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt and if YouTube is where the Nile is and the Nile is known for overflowing its banks and depositing silt so the Jordan apparently did the same thing as I said the eastern part of the disc or these cities were on the eastern part of the disk and that area was particularly well watered the western part had adequate water that’s where Jericho would be but most of the settlements were on the eastern half this northeast location for Sodom also fits well with lot being able to see it you may remember from the map I just showed you but when Abraham and lot split they are Northwest of the Dead Sea between Bethel and I and so the area Northeast of the Dead Sea would have been easily visible so lock could see wow that’s a well-watered area that’s water like the garden of the Lord it also makes sense that Lot journeyed East because that area would have been directly east from where he was standing you wouldn’t have had to go south and east just east so a number of evidences but was there evidence of fire in Brimstone the supernatural destruction excavations have revealed a massive destruction and Ash layer that is a meter thick in some areas of the city all sorts of items have been found in this ruined layer roofs walls dwellings fortification barriers jewelry tools pottery and human remains yes human bones many of these bones are charred distorted situated in such a way that suggests a violent high heat flash event that through many of the inhabitants to the western side of their dwellings this could not have been a natural event or very unlikely unnatural event because the city is not near anything that would cause such a disaster there are no natural gas or vitamin deposits or volcanoes neither and also the buildings at the site do not show signs of collapse or lurching due to an earthquake besides if it were something like an earthquake the town wouldn’t have been left unoccupied for so long the heat featured in this destruction was particularly intense one sample of pottery this is as an example one sample of pottery had its surface transformed into glass which is impossible for any Kiln at that time to produce other soil and sand samples at tal El hamam feature desert glass which is something that you usually only find due to lightning strikes and atomic explosions to put this in perspective a typical campfire Burns at a temperature of about a thousand to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit but to make glass you must heat sand to More Than 3 200 degrees Fahrenheit 3200 degrees whatever happened to tal El hamam to produce a glaze on pottery glassy glaze and desert glass must have involved incredible Heat finally when talking of support for tall elham the archaeological dates fit with the Biblical timeline occupation evidences has been dated to the middle Bronze Age which means sometime between 2100 and 1550 BC so that that would be right where Abraham was he would be in that period then there’s a gap in the occupation and the cities occupied again in the Iron Age 2 period so that’d be sometime between 1000 BC and 539 BC so perhaps seven centuries of being left abandoned show you some more pictures so this is a a recreation of what how the town was probably laid out so there’s like an upper area and a lower area it’s a temple in the lower area the whole thing is surrounded by walls some houses have been excavated there in the upper area here’s a one of the houses that has been uncovered you can see that two different ages here there’s an occupation Gap and a gap in the chronology goes from middle bronze that earlier time period and then jumps a couple centuries to Iron Age too so a big gap sorry these pictures are a little bit nicer because it’s more recent so not trying to discriminate against Bobby odrad so here’s the pottery Shard that’s been turned or been given a glaze middle bronze Pottery Shard and then trinidite which is a type of desert glass there’s a picture of that there it’s a little bit greenish and then some human remains um broken and charred femur there’s bone scatter not just in this picture but several other pictures there bones everywhere and hyperflex toes so we’ve seen this we’ve seen some of the strengths of our two fighters and perhaps you’re ready to Crown a winner but let’s briefly review some of the problems with each site the weaknesses of each site I won’t go through all of them but just a couple of them that are notable we’ll start with tall El Hama though tall elham is indeed east of the place between Bethel and I Ezekiel also says something about Sodom and its location we didn’t review this verse before but I’ll bring it up to you now in context Ezekiel 16 46 is speaking of God’s judgment on Jerusalem you’re talking about how Wicked the city of Jerusalem is and how God is going to judge it and then Ezekiel 16 46 says this now your older sister is Samaria who lives north of you with her daughters and your younger sister who lives south of you is Sodom with her daughters well that verse says that Sodom is south of Jerusalem is not south of Jerusalem in any sense it is east or even Northeast of Jerusalem would be southeast of Jerusalem now it’s possible that Sodom is being spoken of in a figurative sense in Ezekiel but on the face of this verse Sodom is south of Jerusalem and is not South another issue with tallah is its distance from Zoar or at least traditional Zohar if you saw the madaba map I showed you earlier Zoar traditionally was located at the southern tip of the Dead Sea if that was where Zohar was that is a very long way to walk or jog or run I looked on Google Maps for an estimate of the distance between tall elham to the bottom part of the Dead Sea it’s about 75 miles and the average human walking pace is about 3.1 miles per hour so it would have taken about 24 hours to walk from talwell Mom to Zoar now even if lot and his daughters were hurrying there’s no way they could have gotten to Zoar while it was still the morning part of the day or for Abraham to see sodom’s destruction in the morning part of the day now it’s possible maybe Zoar was a little bit closer because we said the Dead Sea was a little bit lower in Antiquity so maybe it’s not that the southern action of the modern Dead Sea but just the the lower or the the ancient Dead Sea so maybe Midway through the modern dead Sea’s Edge and still that’s about 35 to 40 miles about a 13-hour walk now I know I’m using modern roads for my estimates but with the route have been that much faster in ancient times and would that have qualified as a nearby town when lot was petitioning the angels look it’s nearby is that nearby those are some issues now you could say well maybe that’s not the Zohar of that time that’s possible but we need some evidence of that Bob Ed Roth certainly doesn’t have that problem it was very near Zohar but it does have other problems let’s look at some weaknesses from Baba draw when issue was the date Bob address dated to the early Bronze Age not the middle Bronze Age like tall al-haman but the early Bronze Age which had been which would have been from about 3300 BC to 2100 BC now remember we do take archaeological days dates with a grain of salt we certainly don’t think that anything was occupied um before the 20 the 2350 date of the flood but with archaeological estimates Bob edron does not fit the biblical chronology it’s too early another issue is lot’s view of the Jordan Valley from between Bethel and I if Sodom was on the Southeast section of the Dead Sea could lot really have seen it that well even if you could see the Dead Sea could he tell on the other edge of the Dead Sea the total opposite from where he’s standing oh that is a very well-watered place like the garden of the Lord it seems unlikely probably the biggest issue with Bob Ed draw is its mode of Destruction its proposed mode of Destruction those who support the babad draw as Sodom sight see the natural surroundings as the mechanism for its destruction because babad draw lies on a fault line near various petroleum and gas deposits in the ground therefore they believe an earthquake triggered the ignition of these flammable deposits which rained down on the city as if from the sky moreover the excavators noticed that the people of Babel draw because it was an earthquake they apparently had some warning of the destruction and you can even see this in the archaeological information many of the buildings have filled doorways the doorways were deliberately blocked why would they do that well probably people were trying to prop up the buildings to strengthen them from collapsing during the earthquake also many of the city’s inhabitants appear to have fled the city but not before grabbing food and valuables things like jewelry and food were not discovered in the Bob edraw excavation this doesn’t really sound like the biblical description of a complete and sudden destruction of all the wicked people of the valley saved the city of Zoar so those are some of the issues with each site so who wins this fight if I had to choose I would go with tall alhaman the destruction there is unique and it is what we would expect based off the biblical account there are some issues that remain but going forward we may see some of the answers to those issues actually if you saw on the map I showed you a little bit earlier one of the nearby cities was proposed as the the actual Zoar of that time so maybe there is a way to resolve that issue it’s possible that neither of these are sonom I still think that probably because of the the unique nature of the evidence of talent it probably is Sanam but you can make your own judgment regardless one thing that I haven’t thought of I hadn’t thought of before when it comes to the site of Sodom is that the people of Israel maybe this is not something that you’ve thought of either the people of Israel on their way into the promised land they would have passed through or by the destroyed Jordan Valley they would have walked pot walked by the ruins of Sodom in fact we even see a mention of this in numbers 20 verses 18 to 20.
this is what it says describing the people of Israel Moving to the eastern part of the Jordan of the Jordan River and from the Wilderness they continued to matsuna and from matsana to nahalil and from nahalil to bamoth and from bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab at the top of pisca which overlooks the Wasteland that’d be a couple centuries later than Sanam but it was still a wasteland at that point it must have been very sobering right can you imagine being there people of Israel walking into land and you just passed through this ruined landscape maybe some of the city was still visible you marched past Sodom and Gomorrah Sodom was indeed a real place and it was really destroyed and we see that in the Bible and very likely from the evidence that I’ve just shared with you and these remind us that our God is a holy God questions or comments about the archeology archeology of Sonam yes Steve well that’s a that’s an interesting comment Steve you say that the evidence of burning seems to indicate that whatever happened happened more than once we do have to be a little bit careful when we talk about burning because there are multiple reasons why City might be burned it’s possible with Bobby draw that there indeed was an earthquake that caused petroleum deposits to ignite and things like that and that would have resulted in burning but it wasn’t the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah it wasn’t a raining down a fire from the sky supernaturally and also when cities were plundered they were often burned that’s actually exactly what we read Israel doing during the conquest it says they took over the city they killed all the people inside and they burned it so there are just because we find burn indicators does not necessarily mean it was a supernatural destruction even like thick layers of Ash but if we don’t find that there’s no way it could be sauna other questions or comments yeah Roy between so I don’t know exactly but probably between 60 70 miles right so tall elham is not exactly on the edge of the Dead Sea a little bit Northeast of it while babidra is right next to the Dead Sea on the Southeast section yep right that’s pretty much that’s a really good question Steve the Dead Sea also known as The Salty very salty it’s not good for growing crops or can you use salt water like that to help irrigate or grow crops it’s possible that if it was indeed salty at that time then no yeah you wouldn’t be able to use that you’d have to rely on those Springs coming in from the East and other forms of water the only reason I mentioned the the sea as a possible irrigation source is that maybe it wasn’t salty at that time maybe one of the reasons why it is salty today has to do with the destruction or maybe other reasons yeah Eric right that’s a story right right that’s a great comment Eric just naturally a lake like that which doesn’t have any way of getting to the Sea it’s going to keep accumulating salt and and soil deposits to that if it was salty back then it’s certainly much saltier today yeah thanks for sharing that other questions or comments so pretty big pretty big archaeological deal these two sites and pretty amazing indeed um one of the guys who supports tallah mom he said that when it comes to identifying biblical cities we have a number of pieces of evidence but we have more pieces to identify as Sodom than any of those other cities and so he says if we can’t say that that’s Sodom then how can we say that any of these other cities are what they are anyways so pretty remarkable evidence that took a while to explain though let’s move on I did want you to give you a good sense of that the situation of that debate with our last bit of time let’s examine some evidence related to the time of the judges just two pieces of evidence but very fascinating both of them first the amarna letters the Amana letters they were a collection of clay tablets featuring mostly diplomatic correspondence these tablets were discovered in 1887 by some local Egyptians in amarna Egypt subsequent digs in 1891 1892 and 1903 fully revealed the archive these tablets from the ancient city of Akhenaten with Pharaoh amenhotep III and his son akanatan they made this city their Capital at least for a little bit a city would have functioned as a capital approximately from 1400 to 1300 BC so that would be the beginning of the conquest and the time of the judges or that would be near the conquest and the judges and there are 382 tablets in this collection and they’re unique because even though they’re in an Egyptian city they’re mostly written in cuneiform they’re written in the Acadian cuneiform which apparently was the Diplomatic language of the time the lingua Franca most of these letters are please and reports from various rulers in the land of Canaan asking the pharaoh to assist help them help the Canaanites repel the attacks of a group of people known as the apparu or the habaru that name kind of sounds like what Hebrews Hebrews the meaning of apparu is debated it could refer to the Hebrews or simply it may refer to a nomadic group any nomadic group if you’re a nomad you’re an apparu it may also been a term of contempt filthy apparent or maybe you could could have been all those things whatever it’s meaning certainly the Hebrews fit the term they would have been in the area at that time and they would have been Conquering the cities of Canaan you remember that not only did Israel conquer many of the Canaanite peoples during the initial Conquest under Moses and Joshua but they also continued to war with the indigenous peoples During the period of the judges and take over their cities so that’s what these letters are most likely referring to these letters mentioned many of the places that are also mentioned in the bible places like Ashkelon Gaza Geezer hazor Joppa lakish megiddo and Jerusalem they also mentioned many biblical people groups such as the Hittites the amorites the perites parasites the Canaanites the Egyptians and the Babylonians let’s look at one of the letters this is a tablet 287 I’ll show you four different paragraphs or this is actually the whole letter to my king my Lord hath spoken Abdi Heba thy servant at the feet of my Lord seven times and seven times do I fall I’ve heard all the words which the king my Lord has sent behold the deed which has what shall I news brought to the city guilty let the king know that all the lands have leagued in hostility against me but the king therefore care for his land behold the territory of God’s read the territory of Ashland the city of Lakers they have given them oil food and all their necessity necessaries let the king therefore care for the troops let them send troops against the people who have committed a crime against the king my Lord if in this year there are troops here then will the land and the local rulers remain to the king my Lord but if there are no troops here then there will remain no land and no local rulers to the king behold this land of Jerusalem neither my father nor my mother gave it to me the Mighty hand of the king gave it to me behold this deed is the deed of milk glue and the deed of the sons of labaya who have given the land of the king to the habiri behold King my Lord I’m innocent as regards to Kashi let the king ask the officers if the house is very Mighty indeed they’ve aspired to perpetrate a very Wicked crime they have taken their implements sent to the land servant let the king take heed to them that they support the lands with their hand let the king demand from that much food much oil and many garments until poweru the king’s officer goes up to Jerusalem okay can’t understand necessarily every aspect of this letter but a couple things are clear this letter is sent by Abdi Hebrew Abdi Heba to the Pharaoh called the king of Egypt who is Abdi Heba you got any details from this letter yeah Cheryl yeah he was a he was a governor a ruler specifically we can which city we can say which city Jerusalem I think I heard somebody say it he talks about how this land of Jerusalem neither my father nor my my mother gave it to me the king gave it to me you gave it to me I Ruled Jerusalem and you can understand why he wants things to come to Jerusalem what exactly does he want a pharaoh to send specifically troops send troops if you don’t send troops I’ll tell you what’s going to happen what’s going to happen yeah Danielle that’s right he says you don’t send any troops all the lands and all the governors that you have in the land right now you’re not going to have them anymore they’re going to be lost to you so it was a pretty pretty desperate situation and this isn’t one of the only letter or this isn’t the only letter asking for assistance we have more from Abdi Heba and others saying Pharaoh do something please help us we’ll have time to look at more of those letters but you can find them online any of these letters are online one more item I want to talk with you about also from Egypt also related to the time of the judges this is the Marinette Patel stel or Steele Marina Peta steel also known as the Israel Steel see a picture of it there this inscribed stone slab was discovered by Flinders Petri in 1896 at Thebes the steel was found in a mortuary Temple of pharaoh Marina Pata also pronounced Marin Pata who was thought to have ruled Egypt after his father from 1213 to 1203 BC so we have a little bit more specific estimate of where this one is pharaoh ruled and when the slab would have been commissioned at his death so 1203 BC this is also the time the judges remember following our outline the United monarchy does not appear in Israel until about 1100 BC there’s still the time of the judges this steel is currently on display in the Egyptian Museum Cairo it mostly extols Marina patas military victories in Libya but it also says something about Kanan let’s look at an excerpt the four in Chieftains lie prostrate saying peace not one lifts his head against among the nine bows Libya is captured while Hattie is pacified Kanan is plundered Ashkelon is carried off and Geezer is captured yanom is made into non-existence Israel is wasted its seed is not and who has become a widow because of Egypt all lands United themselves in peace those went about are subdued by the king of Upper and Lower Egypt marinated okay we see the name Israel mentioned here on this deal what does that indicate to us or what does that suggest it existed right this is why this steel was such a big find Israel had never been attested before the steel was discovered never been attested before in another document outside the Bible but then the steel was found the name Israel was mentioned it existed and this is actually the only mention of Israel in any of the documents of Egypt the only specific mention of Israel what else does it indicate not only that it existed yeah Steve yes if he mentioned it if he boasts the vowel conquering it I conquered Israel and it must have been a powerful group it must have been a powerful group of people so that you could say I conquered that so Israel not only existed but it was powerful and it’s of course associated with Palestine who the Egyptian name for Palestine and that’s exactly where the Israelites were he says I laid waste all the people groups in Palestine including Israel I made Palestine a widow one other aspect to note that the specific term used for Israel does not denote a political entity but a people group The Others the other groups Nations the the term is for a political entity like a kingdom but for Israel it’s just a people group but this makes sense because Israel was not yet United under a monarch a human Monarch but it was nonetheless a powerful people now this praise given to Marina Pata this boasts may not have actually been true at least when it comes to Canaan the Book of Judges does not mention any Egyptian military campaign in Palestine this may simply be an exaggeration to make the Pharaoh look really good after his death oh yeah I beat them all Israel too may not actually have done that nevertheless this steel is very significant Israel is recognized to have existed and to have been powerful during the time around 1200.
one other aspect to note Marina Pata was the son of Ramses II Ramses the Great Ramsey II is often thought especially by mainstream archaeologists to be the Pharaoh of The Exodus account but why because of this steel is that not possible why can pata’s father not be the Pharaoh of The Exodus ruled for 10 years how long was Israel in the wilderness 40 years so if Mary Patel’s father was the the Pharaoh of The Exodus and he presumably died during Exodus because he went to stop the Israelites from going across the going through the sea and there was not enough time for Israel to get through the Wilderness and get into Canaan much less become established to drive out the peoples and become a regional power Israel is recognized as an enemy of Egypt at this time a formidable foe there’s not enough time between Ramses II and his son for that to happen since the second can’t be the Pharaoh of The Exodus anyways we’ll talk more about Exodus as I said another time but any questions on the morning letter and the Meredith steal yes there is the the issue of the Red Sea not really so much an archaeological question because it may not have actually been the red sea sea of reads as it sometimes noted in the Bible but some sort of area it may actually not even exist today a lake or sea of some kind that the Israelites did indeed pass through probably not the Red Sea itself but that cross thing yes it definitely happened I think I saw another hand yes Steve right right yeah that’s a really good comment just to repeat those uh one of the Pharaohs that the tour guide mentioned had sea water in his lungs that’s interesting and then just clearly an exaggeration because he says their seed is not implying that they have no more descendants I’ve wiped them out sounds great not true but it makes it makes the fair look good other comments questions this is common for rulers at the time to do so it’s not like he’s just particularly vain lots of pharaohs and Kings did this all right well that’s all we have for today next week we’ll talk more about the time of the judges and maybe get a little bit into the monarchy period let’s pray Lord God you you’re just amazing you are totally Sovereign you cause Nations to rise and fall you give lanternations and then you give it to another people Lord how incredible Lord just to see these records Lord of people crying out for Aid against your People Israel they knew that such a force had come upon them and they didn’t know how they were going to resist but no one can resist you oh God and Lord we see two with Sodom or how devastating is your judgment and we’re uncovering that we actually see the rubble we see the burning and we see the bones Lord you have acted in history and you continue to act Lord you are patient but Lord you will judge thank you God that we find Mercy through your son and Lord that we can be brought into your family we can be at peace with you so that no matter what happens to us in this world even if we experience destruction we are not truly destroyed but we thank you that you are hope and not our enemy in Jesus name amen