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The narrative of the Scripture shows Lot and his daughters dwelling in Zoar, which
would have been impossible had the cities of the plain been engulfed, and moreover,
archaeological research and Scriptural reference are at one as to the fate of these evil
cities. Let us acquaint ourselves with the testimony of research both of that which is
conducted within the sacred page, and that which is conducted in the land itself.
Here is a comment taken from Kitto's Encyclopaedia, which perpetuates an error
concerning the site of these cities.
"In the first place, we learn that the vale of Siddim, in which Sodom lay, was very
fertile . . . . . next it appears that the vale was full of `slime-pits'."
The error in this description is in the clause "in which Sodom lay". What Gen. 14: 3
says is:
"All those were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea."
This plainly reveals that the battlefield was subsequently submerged, but the
battlefield is not the site of the cites, but was chosen to prevent Chedorlaoma's attack
reaching those cities. We find upon examining the testimony of antiquity that there is no
basis for the tradition that has been largely accepted regarding the submergence of the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah beneath the waters of the Dead Sea.
Here is the testimony of Strabo, a geographer, who visited the East, about a quarter of
a century before Christ.
"It is said that this country is burnt up by fire; evidences of this fire are traceable in
certain baked and calcined mountains, in the direction of Masada; in deep rents and
cliffs; in a soil like ashes; in rocks distilling pitch, and in rivers of boiling water,
emitting from afar off a loathsome odour. Here and there, places formerly inhabited by
man, are now confused masses of ruins. It is thus easy to put faith in the tradition
universally believed throughout the country, that thirteen cities formerly existed there.
We are even told that ruins still exist of the metropolis, Sodom, the circumference of
which extends to about sixty stadia. Earthquakes, eruptions of subterraneous fires, warm,
bituminous, and sulphurous waters are said to have caused this lake to overflow its
original borders; rocks have been set on fire; and at the same time these cities were
either swallowed up or deserted by as many of the inhabitants as were able to escape."
This testimony is confirmed by Tacitus, a Roman historian, and by Josephus, the
Jewish historian who was a contemporary with the apostle Paul. Josephus says:
"I think if the Romans had delayed punishing this wicked people, the town would
have been either swallowed up in the abyss, or overwhelmed under the waters, or else
that it would have been destroyed by the fire of heaven like the land of Sodom" (Wars of
the Jews").
Here Josephus . . . . . "either . . . . . or . . . . . else" shows clearly that in his view
Sodom was not "overwhelmed under the waters" The language of Deut. 29: 21-23
also supposes that the blasted cities of the plain were open to Israel's inspection, even as
Isaiah's statement: