Key Facts for the Location of Sodom

Book 5

Key Facts for the Location of Sodom Student Edition: Navigating the Maze of Arguments. Moncton, N.B.: Electronic Christian Media, 2014. 

Have you ever wondered where Sodom was located? The Bible describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 in terms of fire and brimstone falling from heaven. But what actually happened to these cities? Where are they today? Did they survive the cataclysmic destruction? Two archaeological sites have recently been identified as Sodom, but which is the best candidate for the location of Sodom: Tall el-Hammâm, at the northern end of the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley, or Bâb edh-Dhrâ, at the southern end of the Dead Sea in the Ghor? Trying to navigate the maze of arguments can be a daunting task. 

     Graves provides a useful tool for students and other researchers in their quest for the location of this illusive biblical city. This work provides sixty-two helpful facts grouped together in methodological, hermeneutical, geographical, chronological, archaeological, cataclysmal, and geological chapters, which set the stage for further research and consideration. 
     The advantage of such a book is that it provides a collective source of material for students that would otherwise take a long time to assemble or otherwise be inaccessible. Numerous detailed maps, charts, tables, and photographs are included which will help facilitate understanding of the unfamiliar terrain of the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley. A glossary defines technical terms, and extensive footnotes, a bibliography, and reference to a large index of subjects and authors provides an invaluable resource to students for future study. 

7X10 format, 210 pages. ISBN: 978-1499660241

Available at Amazon; AbeBooks; Alibris; Barnes & Nobles; Blackwell; Biblio; and Book Depository.

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Dr. David Graves PhD. Dissertation, University of Aberdeen. The Influence of Ancient Near Eastern Vassal Treaties on the Seven Prophetic Messages in Revelation.
 

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Updated Feb, 2024

Various names of Tall el-Hammam

Tall el-Hammam overlooking the Kikkar of the Jordan (Jordan Valley)

Like most ancient sites, Tall el-Hammam (Arabic translates as ‘Hill of the Hot Baths’. The word Ḥammâm in Arabic (حمّام) means ‘hot spring/well’ and most commonly refers to ‘hot baths’ similar to the Hebrew hamat which means ‘hot springs.’ There are five identified thermal springs around the site. It is the only site in the region with a name associated with thermal springs.  It had a long history represented by various names depending on the period (adapted from Leen Ritmeyer who said "Sodom is Tall el-Hammam but Tall el-Hammam was not always Sodom!"):

• Beth-Haram–( בֵּית הָרָם, הָרָן) Early Bronze period (Brussels E4: Egyptian Execration Text) [1]
• Sodom (Canaanite)–Middle Bronze period (Genesis 14)
• Beth-Haran-Late Bronze period (Numbers 32:36). The event of Abel-Shittim on the Plains of Moab (Josh 2:1; 3:1) occurred around Tall el-Hammam. Compared with other periods very little LB pottery is found at the site (small room on the acropolis and a few pieces of pottery in a nearby tomb).
• Beth-Haram–Iron Age (Solomon 1 Kgs 4:7-19)
  
• Betharamtha (Βηθαραμθα)–1st Cent. BC (Herod the Great; Josephus Antiquities 18.27).
• Livias–1st Cent AD (Herod Agrippa 4 BC; Josephus Antiquities 20.29; Jewish War 2.168; 2.252; see also Theodosius Top. 19.1; P. XHev/Se gr 65.3-4)–
• Julias–1st Cent. AD (Herod Agrippa 14 AD; Josephus Antiquities 18.27; 20.29; Jewish War 2.168; 2.252; 4.438).
• Sodom–Byzantine Period. This is the name that may have appeared on the Madaba Map not Livias because the Christian pilgrims were only interested in Holy Site.[2] Severus the Bishop of Sodom attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD representing the ecclesiastical province of Arabia [provincia Arabia] (Eusebius Onomasticon 26). Some suggest that he was from Segor in the south of the Dead Sea but there was a Byzantine church just outside of Tall el-Hammam where the Bishop of Sodom may have been stationed.
  

Footnotes

[1] Brussels E4 (Haram) is generally located at the later Beth Haram, northeast of the Dead Sea. Posener and Mazar identified Beth haram with Tell Ikanu (Adam Zertal Z"l and Shay Bar, The Manasseh Hill Country Survey Volume 4: From Nahal Bezeq to the Sartaba [Leiden: Brill, 2017], 80), however, Haram cannot be located at Tell Iktanu, as there are no Middle Bronze remains on site, but as there is extensive Middle Bronze occupation at nearby Tell Hammam (Kay Prag, “Tell Iktanu and Tell Al-Hammam. Excavations in Jordan,” Manchester Archaeological Bulletin 7 (1992): 15–19), is a better candidate. Margreet L. Steiner and Ann E. Killebrew, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: C. 8000-332 BCE, Oxford Handbooks in Archaeology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 47.
[2] Mouncy identified the Ecclesiastical province that the Bishop of Sodom represented as Provincia Arabia, while Le Quien identified the Bishop of Sodom in the section under Ecclesia Zoarorum or Segor in the Provincia Palaestinae Tertiae (III). Antoine de Mouchy, Christianae religionis institutionisque Domini Nostri Jesu-Christi et apostolicae traditionis (Paris: Macaeum, 1562), 85; Michel Le Quien, Oriens christianus in quatuor patriarchatus digestus, in quo exhibentur Ecclesiae patriarchae caeterique praesules totius Orientis, 3 vols. (Paris: Typographia Regia, 1740), 3:743; Peter Graham, A Topographical Dictionary of Palestine, or the Holy Land (London: J. Davey, 1836), 242. For a proposed solution that 
that the diocese of Sodom was later annexed by Zoar, see Graves, The Location of Sodom 2018, pp. 41-45. 

 

Graves, David E. The Location of Sodom: Color Edition. Key Facts for Navigating the Maze of Arguments for the Location of the Cities of the Plain. Toronto: Electronic Christian Media, 2018.