It’s also pretty relevant as as an historical document. Especially when disciplines such as archaeology can offer support for events described in the Bible.
This is off topic, but in the news this week, really an incredible discovery, taking 15 years of research, and scientists from at least half a dozen disciplines. Having been involved in meteoritics, as a hobby, for decades, I can say that the type and amount of evidence presented here is overwhelmingly compelling. The evidence, taken as a whole, really only allows one explanation. An astonishing discovery, IMHO, once again affirming the bible’s value as an historical document.
This short article is written by 4 of the study’s co-authors, and the link to their study is in the article. The nearest thing to this, in modern times, was the Tunguska air burst, over Siberia in 1908, which was either an asteroid or comet, and which flattened 82 million trees, over an area 600 miles wide. And the meteoritic air burst that destroyed this biblical town, that may have been reflected in the biblical story of Sodom, was 10x larger than the Tunguska event.
Hope nobody minds me posting so off-topic. This is one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries in a very long time, I considered actually starting its own thread. Especially as we just had the flyby, very, very close flyby, of a large asteroid that nobody saw coming, since it approached the Earth in the daytime, and from the direction of the sun….
New research suggests that fire from the sky in the form of a small asteroid annihilated a city near the Dead Sea 3,600 years ago.
theconversation.com
“Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the ground. The blast was around 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The shocked city dwellers who stared at it were blinded instantly. Air temperatures rapidly rose above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). Clothing and wood immediately burst into flames. Swords, spears, mudbricks and pottery began to melt. Almost immediately, the entire city was on fire.
Some seconds later, a massive shockwave smashed into the city. Moving at about 740 mph (1,200 kph), it was more powerful than the
worst tornado ever recorded. The deadly winds ripped through the city, demolishing every building. They sheared off the top 40 feet (12 m) of the 4-story palace and blew the jumbled debris into the next valley. None of the 8,000 people or any animals within the city survived – their bodies were torn apart and their bones blasted into small fragments.
About a minute later, 14 miles (22 km) to the west of Tall el-Hammam, winds from the blast hit the biblical city of Jericho. Jericho’s walls came tumbling down and the city burned to the ground”.
