New Evidence Suggests Sodom and Gomorrah Could Have Been Caused By a Rare Natural Phenomenon
Connecting modern science to old stories
The Book of Genesis recounts the destruction of two sinful cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. In the tale, God destroys the towns and their inhabitants with fire from the sky. Pillars of sulfur and flame shoot down and annihilate the cities for their wickedness.
Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities — and also the vegetation in the land. — Genesis 19:24–25
This story has been passed down for thousands of years, but new evidence suggests that the cities were probably real and probably destroyed by fire from the sky. Researchers in the Jordan valley recently published a new paper in which they point to a rare but natural phenomenon that could have destroyed the cities in the way that the Bible describes.
New insights from Tall el-Hammam
Modern scientists and historians have long wondered whether an asteroid strike could have wiped out the cities in the Bible. The only problem with that theory was that there were no craters found at the site or nearby. The…
