Summary: During a recent podcast, Dr. Titus Kennedy talked about the location of Sodom and Gomorrah, which he believes to be southeast of the Dead Sea. This article is part 1 of an edited summary of that podcast.
Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” – Genesis 18:20-21 (ESV)
The Locations of Sodom and Gomorrah
Timothy Mahoney:
I’m excited to have archeologist and professor Dr. Titus Kennedy with us today, along with my writing partner and researcher, Steve Law. Titus has been a big help to Patterns of Evidence. Because he travels a lot, he has helped obtain certain images for our films. Today, we are talking about important archeological sites on the southeastern side of the Dead Sea which Titus has been working on. There are five cities that the Bible mentions in relation to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. What are they?
Titus Kennedy:
Sodom and Gomorrah are the most famous, then Admah and Zeboiim which no one remembers, and finally Zoar. This city is quite important in understanding the geography, archaeology and history of the entire issue. The account is laid out for us in Genesis. Of course, Sodom and Gomorrah are referenced in other books and even Jesus mentions them in the New Testament.
Genesis 13 – Lot Goes East
Timothy Mahoney:
Genesis 13:2-4 says: “Abram journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar first. There Abram called upon the name of the Lord.” Do we know where Bethel and Ai are?
Titus Kennedy:
We know the exact location of Bethel and Ai, west and up the hills from Jericho and north of Jerusalem.
Timothy Mahoney:
Abram had a nephew named Lot. The next verses explain what happened. “And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them both dwelling together; for their possessions were so great… Then Abram said to Lot, ‘Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen… Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.’ And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah). So, Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus, they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom” (Gen.13:5-12).
Titus Kennedy:
This passage says that Lot settled among the “cities of the valley [plain]” meaning a round or oval-shaped geographic area. He had to move his tents east of Bethel and Ai. Some people dispute and look more south of Bethel and Ai, but the Bible says Lot went east and then far from that area. So, he crossed over the Jordan River to the east, but then we don’t know exactly where he went to arrive at Sodom. One clue we have here is that he looked and saw that this area was well watered, and he looked in the direction of Zoar, which is important in understanding where Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities are. Even though this passage doesn’t specify a direction, we know from other references in the Bible which direction he had to travel based on different geographic information related to both Sodom and Zoar.
North or South of the Dead Sea?
Timothy Mahoney:
Dr. Collins says Sodom is north of the Dead Sea?
Titus Kennedy:
Other passages in Scripture give us more geographic information, as well as ancient documents and maps, plus archeological findings. If we look at only Genesis 13:10, then we are neglecting other passages about the locations of Sodom, Gomorrah and Zoar which conflict with the interpretation of Sodom being located north of the Dead Sea. We can’t reinterpret those other clear passages based on a particular interpretation of the Hebrew word כִּכַּ֣ר kik-kar, “the plain” in Gen. 13:10. We must look at everything together and see what meshes.
Timothy Mahoney:
What are the other passages?
Titus Kennedy:
Genesis 10:19 is extremely clear and should not be neglected. It can’t be reinterpreted because it is talking about the border of the region of Canaan, or the area where the Canaanites live. The text draws a map by saying: “the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza.” If we look at those cities, Sidon is on the north coast. Then it says “in the direction of Gerar” which is south of Sidon and near the coast. And then “as far as Gaza” which is even farther south and on the coast. So that is the north/south boundary and also the west boundary because of the Mediterranean Sea.
After Gaza, it says then “in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.” So Sodom is east of Gaza. No one will dispute that. What this tells us is that Sodom should be on an east/west line with Gaza. If we look at where Gaza is and we draw a line to the east, to the direction of Sodom, we get an area that is the southern half of the Dead Sea, not north of the Dead Sea. If we go directly east of Gaza, that does encompass what we know as Canaan, the southern part of Canaan, and all the different cities and regions in there that we know from other passages in the Bible as well as Canaanite texts. But if we were to go from Gaza to Tall al-Hammam, if that was Sodom (as Dr. Collins proposes), then we would be cutting out a huge area that is known as the territory of Canaan and the Promised Land. So that creates a bit of a problem. That is one helpful passage but there are others, of course.
Genesis 14 – The Battle of the Kings
Timothy Mahoney:
What about Genesis 14:1-8, the battle of the kings in the Valley Siddim?
Titus Kennedy:
Yes, this has some helpful information about the region where Sodom, Gomorrah and the other cities are. Genesis 14:3 says: “all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim, that is the Salt Sea.” So right there we have some geographic information. The Valley of Siddim refers to the area of the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. Verse 8 says: “the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar, went out and joined battle in the Valley of Siddim.” All these cities are located in this Valley of Siddim, associated with the Dead Sea.
This helps with the pros and cons between different proposed sites. For example, if you look at the location of Tall Hammam, it’s not down in the Valley of the Salt Sea or Dead Sea. The elevation of the mound of that site is about 70 feet above sea level, and it’s at the edge of the Jordan Valley. In comparison, the elevation of Zoar and other ruins in the valley near the Dead Sea is about 1,100 feet below sea level. That is about a 1,200-foot difference. Tall Hammam is also substantially north of the Dead Sea.
An elevation map of this region is helpful for historical geography because it shows what the old Dead Sea looked like before the waters receded, which they have significantly over the past century. This is one of the reasons why the hypothesis of the cities being under the water of the Dead Sea doesn’t work. The Dead Sea has receded about 150 feet in the last 100 years and lost about 40% of its surface area, so those ruins would be exposed by now.
Five Bronze Age Cities
Timothy Mahoney:
You’ve got Biblical geographical references that say the cities must be further south of the Dead Sea, so from a scientific standpoint, what pattern do you look for?
Titus Kennedy:
We’re looking for five Bronze Age cities, four of which were destroyed and never again inhabited (at least through the time of Jesus, because Jesus talks about them that way). There is a fifth city though that is not destroyed and continues to be occupied. All these cities should be roughly east of Gaza, in the Valley of the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. Then we have more information concerning geography and archeology. Zoar is one of the keys here. It is the only city of those five that is not destroyed. It continues to be occupied, which means it’s probably existing much later in history. If we know where Zoar is located, that can help us to locate the other four cities in relation to it.
Steve Law:
The Genesis 13 passage mentions the Valley of the Jordan. Most people would think that’s the area around the Jordan River. Dr. Collins uses that argument strongly. But is there any evidence that shows that there might be a broader understanding of what’s known as the Valley of Jordan in the Bible (or even the Valley of Jericho or other words for it) that could actually include far to the south, even south of the Dead Sea?
Titus Kennedy:
We looked at Genesis 14:3 & 8 which tells us that the kings were coming out of their cities to fight in the Valley Siddim, or the Valley of the Salt Sea, the Dead Sea. That seems to be part of the Jordan Valley which extends much farther north and south than the Jordan River itself. Deuteronomy 34:2 tells us: “The land of Judah as far as the western sea (Mediterranean Sea), the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar…” Here Moses is looking from Mount Nebo, and then he looks south from there, and he looks as far south as Zoar. The impression we get is that Zoar is located south of Mount Nebo and we know exactly where Mount Nebo is located, so that gives us a clue.
Then we have another passage that mentions Jerusalem. Ezekiel 16:46 is referring to Jerusalem and says: “your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you. And your younger sister, who lived to the south of you is Sodom with her daughters.” Ezekiel is making comparisons with Jerusalem and says Samaria is north of Jerusalem. Nobody’s going to argue that. We know where Jerusalem and Samaria are. Then it says, “your younger sister who lived to the south of you is Sodom with her daughters.” So, Sodom and these other cities are south of Jerusalem. Now, if we look at Tall Hammam, it is not south of Jerusalem and that’s a problem.
Genesis talks about Lot fleeing from Sodom to Zoar meaning Zoar is near Sodom, close enough to walk to. It shouldn’t be 50 or 100 miles away. We see in Gen.19:28 that Abraham is looking out. It says: “he looked down [or south] to Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.” From Mamre, Abraham could see the smoke rising. The southern hypothesis is not disqualified based on that. You can see very far across the Dead Sea, both north and south of it without a problem.
Other Theories
Timothy Mahoney:
In certain places you can see a long way. So that gives you some markers for where to start to look. So why have some people come up with these other theories? Dr. Collins has the northern theory. Deb Hurn has one underneath the Dead Sea, and then people point back to other explorers. In the 18th-19th centuries people were questioning the Bible because evolution was growing. Edward Robinson went against the grain of other scholars in his time who located Sodom northeast of the Dead Sea. Dr. Collins said that Robinson’s ideas had a ripple effect down to later scholars like W. F. Albright who adopted a southern location theory.
Titus Kennedy:
Edward Robinson was a historical geographer. He did a lot of exploration and writing in the early 1800s. He located, mapped and discussed many different Biblical sites, but he wasn’t that influential on this particular topic because he couldn’t identify anything definitively as far as Sodom goes. During his explorations, the Madaba Map hadn’t even been rediscovered yet. The Madaba Map is from the ancient Byzantine period and shows many Biblical sites. By the time Albright went to this area, the Madaba Map had been known for quite a few years so they had some extra information. Of course, there were some more surveys and a little archeology that had been done as well.
We have other ancient sources, like Eusebius and Jerome in the third to fifth centuries, and others who placed these five cities on the southeastern side of the Dead Sea. It wasn’t just Edward Robinson inventing a south Sodom theory. I wouldn’t say that Albright adopted the southern theory either because he actually went on an archeological and geographical expedition looking for Sodom and other locations. This was about a hundred years ago. He was joined by Kyle and Mallon. They went on this expedition and looked at archeological remains all over the area, dateable materials like pottery. It’s interesting that Kyle was a much stronger proponent of the Bible’s historical reliability and precision than Albright was. He tempered some of their conclusions. They did an archeological survey and based on their findings of these early Bronze Age cities in the Valley of Siddim, in this Dead Sea Valley sitting next to a huge plain, they determined the ruins were likely “the cities of the plain” such as Sodom and Zoar. Now, back in the 1800s, not everyone had the same opinion on where Sodom was located, just like today. There’s been back and forth on this, but as more information has been discovered there is less disagreement.
Timothy Mahoney:
What would you say the majority view has been in the last 50 years?
Titus Kennedy:
In the last 50 years, the southeastern side of the Dead Sea, and that’s the area where I think that the cities are located.
1 Kings 6 – Chronology
Timothy Mahoney:
In the Patterns of Evidence approach, you’re looking for these five cities. What’s the next thing that you would look for?
Titus Kennedy:
The next thing is the chronology of the sites. We can include both the time in which they were occupied and destroyed, and their abandonment as well. Our only detailed source about this is the Bible that takes us back to the time of Abraham. We have a few key passages that relate to this specific event. 1 Kings 6:1 tells us: “In the 480th year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord.” We start with that to get back to the time of Moses and the Exodus.
This passage is very specific, which is not indicative of a sort of figurative type of chronology. The Exodus was an important historical event. It’s almost universally agreed that Solomon began his reign in about 970 BC. So, we get to the fourth year of his reign and three years are finished already. It’s about 967 BC, the 480th year after the Exodus. So, 479 years have been completed; they started the 480th. We do some simple addition, and we get to about 1446 BC for the Exodus.
Now why am I confident in these numbers? Not only do we have all sorts of specifics given in this passage and other Biblical passages about chronology, but if we look at other documents from the ancient Near East, in particular those that are talking about temple dedications like this one, we see the same kind of pattern where they talk about some earlier event. Maybe it was the original building of a temple and then a reconstruction or a new construction and they talk about such and such a king and the year of his reign, and they say how many years it was from when they’re writing this dedication to the earlier event.
If we compare that to the king list of Assyria and Babylon and so forth, and archeological findings, we see that they’re always giving us a real number. In fact, they’re almost always totally accurate, maybe off by a few percent at the most. The Israelites are doing the same thing. They’re giving us a real number. They want everybody to know when this important event happens.
So, we get to the Exodus. Now what about Abraham? Both Exodus 12:40 and Genesis 15:13 give us information. Exodus 12:40 says the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of that time, they went out from the land of Egypt. We get some kind of entrance of Israelites into Egypt 430 years prior to the Exodus. It doesn’t give us a lot of specifics, but we have other passages that help us. Galatians 3:16-17 tells us that the Law at Sinai, right after the Exodus, came 430 years after the covenant with Abraham. Alright, so then we are looking at about 1876 BC for this time of Abraham, and we’re not too far away from the Sodom encounter.
Let’s just roughly say about 1900 BC, the border between the 20th and 19th century BC and that’s where we look for Abraham at Sodom. This bridge between the 20th and 19th century BC, we’re looking archeologically at a transition between the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age. So, we should be looking for places that have been occupied in the Early Bronze Age, and then maybe right at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age is where they’re destroyed or abandoned.
Just as a side note, some people do put Abraham a little bit earlier due to a textual variant in Exodus 12:40. I brought up Galatians 3, which helps to explain that, but some would put him a little bit earlier, more solidly in the end of the Early Bronze Age but that doesn’t end up being a huge problem for us here.
Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira
Timothy Mahoney:
Is there a place where there’s a cluster of cities? Like if you saw seven cities, would that be a problem because you’re looking for five?
Titus Kennedy:
Absolutely. We are looking for five cities. Now, if there’s a few other villages, that’s not a problem but if there are only two cities, that is a big problem. If there are ten that are the same size and the same date, that would be a problem as well. We’re looking for five cities that exist in the Early Bronze Age and just to the very beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. Four of those should be abandoned, never again occupied and one of those should continue to survive, if that is Zoar.
When archeologists and historical geographers were looking in this area (going back to antiquity, the late Roman period, the early Byzantine period, people were studying this as well) they were coming up with the same ideas, basically. We have five cities in this sort of central to southern part of the eastern side of the Dead Sea that are all occupied at the same time, and then four of them are abandoned. Two clearly have destructions. It’s harder to say about two of the others because they haven’t really been excavated. But then one of them continues on. These are the sites of Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira, Feifa, Khanazir, and Zoar or Zoara today. Es-Safi is the area in which that site is located.
Timothy Mahoney:
Is it unusual for a city not to be rebuilt? Cities were built at a particular location because the location geographically was good or it was a trade route or there was a natural resource? Does it seem odd to find cities that were abandoned?
Titus Kennedy:
Yes, it is odd. Of course it happens, but so many of the major cities continue through multiple periods. There are certain historical or archeological periods where you see more of a break in occupation and others where you see more cities occupied. But usually when we’re looking at Early Bronze Age cities, most of those do continue in later periods for quite a while.
Timeline of Abraham
Steven Law:
Dr. Collins was saying that Abraham doesn’t belong in the period where you place him because he thought a lot of the cities in Canaan (such as Hebron, Jerusalem and others) were not even occupied at that time. What is your view of the occupation of those Canaanite sites where you’re placing Abraham?
Titus Kennedy:
Looking at Jerusalem, Hebron, Dan, Damascus, Shechem and places like that, I think Dr. Collins said that they were abandoned from about 2500 to 1800 BC and that would essentially disqualify Abraham in either of these earlier chronologies that we were talking about. But these cities existed for quite some time before Abraham showed up in just the straight chronology. There is substantial evidence of the cities existing in the Early Bronze Age. They weren’t abandoned from 2500 to 1800 BC. I don’t know where that comes from because some of these cities are specifically mentioned by the Egyptians during that supposedly abandoned time period.
Shechem is mentioned on the Sebek-khu Stele that dates to the 19th century BC. Jerusalem and Dan, which are called Salem and Laish, are mentioned in the Execration texts from this period. And archeological remains have been found at these sites from this supposedly abandoned period. So that’s just not correct. We could also look at all sorts of things like the social customs and some of the other cities that Abraham visited. All of these types of things put him in this earlier part of the Middle Bronze Age, not in the end of the Middle Bronze Age as Collins is trying to argue.
Steven Law:
So, from your perspective, Abraham seems to fit well at the bridge between Early Bronze and Middle Bronze?
Titus Kennedy:
Yes, absolutely, not just from the chronological standpoint, but also from other information that we have in the Bible about the patriarchs and the patriarchal period and how that matches up with archeological and ancient textual evidence about those periods, like the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age.
Conclusion
To listen to the podcast this article was based on, check out this link. Part two on the conversation with Dr. Titus Kennedy concerning the location of Sodom and Gomorrah will be coming soon in another article. Until then, Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: Sodom and Gomorrah. (credit: Hult, Adolf, 1869-1943; Augustana synod. [from old catalog], no restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing to podcast content necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on Biblical matters so that our audience can become familiar with the different arguments involved.
