John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: February 24

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: February 24


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Dead Sea Difficulties

Genesis 19

It is probably the general impression among the readers of Scripture, that the vale, or enclosed plain, now covered by the waters of the Dead Sea, was formerly dry land, and formed, as a whole, the fertile vale, “well watered everywhere,” which Lot sought for its exuberant pastures. On looking more closely, however, a difficulty is seen in this which may at the first view elude our notice. It is clear that the Jordan must always have come into this vale as it does at present; and the general impression doubtless is that it was then traversed by that stream, which contributed greatly to its beauty and productiveness; besides which there are other lesser streams—lesser, but still considerable, particularly in winter—which must then, as now, have entered the same basin, .adding their waters to the Jordan.

This, altogether, forms a very large body of water, continually passing into the vale; and the question was, What became of it after having passed through this enclosed plain, before there was a lake to receive it? There appeared no satisfactory solution. It was seen that it could not have gone off westward, or south-westward, to the Mediterranean, on account of the height of the intervening district; and the same objection appeared to apply to its progress to the Red Sea. Some thought it might have been absorbed in irrigation; but the water would have been far more than sufficient to irrigate a greatly larger area than that of the vale, had every inch of it been under cultivation; and that it was far from being wholly under cultivation is shown by the fact, that Lot repaired to this vale with his abundant flocks and herds for pasturage. It was then thought by some, that the river must have had a subterraneous outlet to the Mediterranean; and although this was objectionable as a purely gratuitous hypothesis, there appeared no other mode of surmounting this very serious difficulty.

So the question rested, until the researches of Burckhardt in this region, in the year 1816, brought to light the very important and interesting fact, that a broad valley, like the bed of a river, extends along the foot of the mountains of Seir, all the way from the Dead Sea to the eastern arm of the Red Sea, anciently known as the Aelauitic Gulf, and now as the Gulf of Akaba. We had thus at once provided for us a most satisfactory solution of the difficulty. What could seem more plain and evident than that, previously to the formation—in that day when the Lord overthrew Sodom—of the lake now called the Dead Sea, the river Jordan, enhanced by tributary streams, made its way down this valley to the Red Sea?

Having ourselves personally felt a deep interest in this question, and having so long rested in this as a most satisfactory and beautifully simple elucidation of a great geographical problem, it was with real disappointment, and with something not unlike grief, that at a later period we felt that this explanation must be given up, in the face of the serious difficulty which a more recent explorer brought against it. This was Dr. Robinson, of New York, who, in his “Biblical Researches,” urged that the Jordan could never have flowed down the valley in question, seeing there is not a descent in that valley towards the Dead Sea, but an ascent from the lake to it; and that in fact the waters of this vale (called the Arabah), do, in the northern part, direct their course towards the Dead Sea, and not from it. This discovery, while it throws a great and apparently insurmountable obstacle in the way of the previous hypothesis, enabled Dr. Robinson to dispose of the waters of the Jordan, by leading him to conclude that a lake, receiving the waters of the south as well as of the north, did always exist in the plain; but it was supposed that the waters were, before the destruction of Sodom, sweet and wholesome, and that the lake was of less extent than it afterwards became. In fact, it seems to be assumed, that the increase was formed by the submersion of that comparatively small portion (about one fifth of the whole), which now forms the southern extremity or bay of the lake, separated therefrom partly even now by a peninsula.

With this we were obliged to be content, though far from satisfied, as there still remained some considerable difficulties. It had always been felt, that the whole basin of the Dead Sea was but a small area for the dominion of the five kings; that thus they are driven into a mere corner of the space previously allowed them. All the five cities must have been in this contracted area. They were at least considerable cities for that age; and, when a country is still thinly peopled, we do not find towns so near one another. Within this space, their very gardens and orchards (which commonly extend to a considerable distance around even small towns in the East) must have touched each other, without a provision for arable fields. How, then, was there so much free pasture, that Lot removed into the plain with all his herds to enjoy it? Again, it is clear, that in Gen_13:10, the plain to which Lot went is called “the plain of the Jordan,” implying that the Jordan flowed through it; whereas, if a lake had been previously there, that lake lay between him and the Jordan, seeing that he must have been in the land at the southern extremity of it. Again, it is said that the land to which Lot went, this “plain of the Jordan,” was “well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom; like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar,” or rather, “as far as unto Zoar” (the southernmost of the five cities). “Well watered,” indicates a river, not a lake; so does the comparison to Egypt and its Nile; and how could the whole district, from north to south, be like the garden of the Lord, if three-fourths of the whole surface were covered by the waters of a lake?

In view of these difficulties in the new theory, we longed to see our way back to the perfect satisfaction and comfort of the anterior hypothesis. And we rejoice to say, that this seems to have been found, or, at least, indicated by the late American Expedition to the Dead Sea. The narrator of the expedition (which explored this lake, as well as the Jordan, in all its parts) considers the inference from the Scripture account to be, that this entire chasm was a plain, sunk and “overwhelmed” by the wrath of God; and this he considers to be sustained by the extraordinary character of the soundings obtained. From these it was seen, that the bottom of the lake consisted of two submerged plains, an elevated and a depressed one. The former, which is merely the southern bay, is at an average of thirteen feet below the water. The other, or northern part, forming the great body of the lake, lies fully thirteen hundred feet below the surface. Through this largest and deepest portion, in a line corresponding with the bed of the Jordan, runs a ravine, which again seems to correspond with the Wady-el-Jeib, or ravine within a ravine, at the south end of the Dead Sea. The obvious inference from this is, that the channel of the Jordan through this plain, with the plain itself through which it flowed, sank down—leaving the ancient bed of the river through the middle still distinguishable. Thus, of course, would be formed a deep basin to receive and retain, with a sufficient expansion for their passing away by evaporation, the waters which formerly passed onward through the plain. This depression seems to have been not wholly confined to the present bed of the Dead Sea, which was thus but an expanded part of the valley of the Jordan, but to have extended its influence certainly to the higher, or northern, and probably to the lower, or southern, portion of the Jordan’s bed. The narrator says—“Between the Jabbok Note: The Jabbok enters the Jordan about twelve miles above the Deaf Sea. and this sea, we unexpectedly found a sudden break-down in the bed of the Jordan. If there be a similar break-down in the water-courses to the south of the sea, accompanied with the like volcanic characters; there can scarcely be a doubt that the whole Ghor (or valley of the Jordan, including the Dead Sea), has sunk from some extraordinary convulsion; preceded probably by an eruption of fire, and a general conflagration of the bitumen which abounded in the plain.”

Apart from all other considerations, it is, indeed, difficult to account for the most wonderful depression of the bed of the Dead Sea, to the depth now ascertained, without a convulsion thus extensive and terrible, and all the signs of which are still exhibited on the spot. As it satisfactorily answers all the objections which we have indicated, it best agrees with the Scriptural statement; and here, therefore, also, as in all other cases, the more precise and certain our discoveries become, the more they are found to be in unison with the Scriptural accounts.

Many collateral corroborations of this conclusion, are set forth by Lieut. Lynch in his book. Note: Narrative of the United States’ Expedition to the river Jordan and the Dead Sea, 1849. Of these, there is but one we can here mention, which is, that the mountains around the sea are older than the sea itself; or, in other words, that their relative levels have not always been the same that they are now. A most important fact, quite obvious where it exists to such as know how to observe the appearances of nature.

The writer concludes his account with these important words—“We entered upon the sea with conflicting opinions. One of the party was skeptical, Note: So the Americans invariably spell “sceptical”—and the alteration is an improvement in the eyes of those who regard the analogy of language. and another, I think, a professed unbeliever of the Mosaical account. After twenty-two days’ close investigation, if I am not mistaken, we were unanimous in the conviction of the truth of the Scriptural account of the destruction of the Cities of the Plain.”