Evidence from Two Sources: Archaeology (Gen. 19) and Typology (Gen. 22)
- Gen. 19 - The Destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah - the biblical story shows an immense and rapid destruction of the largest settlements in the Jordan/Dead Sea valley, with fire and stone raining from the sky, as well as a strange anecdote of a person turning into a pillar of salt
- If the Bible were true, one should expect to find clear evidence of such an event.
- Though there's still some debate about the timeline, as well as the proposal of alternate sites, recent excavations at Tall el-Hamman (in modern Jordan, in the Jordan/Dead Sea valley) shows a striking similarity to the biblical story:
- A very large settlement during the age of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, etc.)--probably the largest in the region--was destroyed rapidly and with intense heat.
- The destruction layer cannot be explained by any conventional explanation--not war, fire, earthquake, etc. Pottery and mud bricks melted, and bones were blown apart. Estimates of the heat required are around 2700 degrees Fahrenheit. The only natural phenomenon that could cause this kind of devastation would be a cosmic airburst--the explosion of a very large meteorite in the atmosphere above the city, which would have caused intense heat and rained fire and stone down on the city. The destruction layer is also saturated with salt (perhaps a result of the explosion's effect on the nearby Dead Sea), which matches the Bible's account of Lot's wife hesitating and being turned into a pillar of salt.
Typology: How Gen. 22 clearly points to Jesus, despite coming from two thousand years before his birth:
(See the following posts previously written on this subject:)