Lost Biblical Cities: Which Ones Might We Find?

[@TheKalaxis]

Bethesaida glitching out of the map would be very in keeping with Bethesda games tradition 😂

[@toytacambery9427]

I also have have a vocabulary of less than 200 words and get triggered by any word that resembles the name of the company that I talk about like a dad who left and never came back 😂

[@MaxieTheMax]

@@toytacambery9427 You must be fun at parties. Everything good in your life?

[@StrongDreamsWaitHere]

If I’m wandering around the Middle East in 1000 BC, and I see the city of Sodom getting destroyed by fire from the sky, and then I meet a dude who says “I used to live there, but my uncle‘s God spoke to him and warned me to leave,“ I’m followingthat dude’s religion.

[@BaronVonQuiply]

That's how you end up following an evil volcano god

[@kiriuxeosa8716]

Butt stuff?

[@BaronVonQuiply]

@@kiriuxeosa8716 No, that city's "sin" was an allegory for being hostile to foreigners

[@huntergann938]

@@BaronVonQuiplyno.. it was about sexual immorality.. are you serious rn?

[@BaronVonQuiply]

@@huntergann938 Yes, of course. The "hero" of the story tries to assist the R*** of his daughers and then pretends to be so drunk that he didn't know who he was impregnating but still able to do so, it is clearly not about condemning immorality.

[@TimmyB1867]

"2000 degrees Celsius, which is a lot of Fahrenheit" is just too perfect.

[@IAmAlgolei]

I double checked, and yeah, he's right. It is.

[@Zenas521]

True statement.

[@wstavis3135]

My favorite factoid of the episode!

[@Blafaselblubb]

Best way to convert to imperial

[@ruckussful]

"i'm not googling it again..."

[@bmyers7078]

A professor I had in Uni said that “City” was an Old Testament term for a settlement that had a wall, or otherwise protected. It didn’t have a minimum population. Any of these “Cities” could have been a few dozen families, in 4-room homes, surrounded by an earthen burm. Anything like that could also have been weathered away over the centuries. Then again, he was speculating.

[@StoccTube]

In the UK a city is granted that status by the monarch and usually has a cathedral, university or both, and usually a large population. I imagine what each culture terms a “city” will be different.

[@joeyhoubiers9514]

In the Netherlands too, a ruler could grant a settlement city rights and this is the only qualification needed to become a city. No minimum population number, nothing.

[@ChrisVillagomez]

Jericho is called a city in the Bible when the Israelites use the Ark of the Covenant to destroy it for example, despite it being essentially just a town/village with a wall and a tower. Also, slightly off topic, but the Israelite Kingdom needing to use a literal Biblical superweapon to bring down the walls of Jericho is incredibly funny. We've excavated Jericho, it's walls weren't very strong, thick, or tall by any stretch of the imagination. It's like the Romans claiming there were multiple kings of Rome prior to the Republic forming, when in reality, they were chieftains at most who gradually annexed and conquered each other

[@paulbarnett227]

@@ChrisVillagomez But that actual wall was indeed located.

[@ChrisVillagomez]

@@paulbarnett227 And we discovered that it wouldn't have even been 20 feet tall. Like I said, anyone needing to use a Biblical superweapon to get past a single wall around a town is incredibly funny. What most likely happened is that the Israelites conquered the town but did it so long before the Babylonian Exile that they mythologized it to the extreme, claiming the Ark destroyed the wall when they realistically just climbed over it with ladders or busted the gate open

[@Livlifetaistdeth]

Lidar is rewriting history on the daily. It's a fantastic time to be an archeologist.

[@SaraNeal-k9z]

This can’t be emphasized enough! Enormous amounts of information are obtained at a relatively low cost and allowing for targeted excavations to answer specific questions while leaving other places intact for future archeologists with better technology.

[@pkt1213]

I regret daily the decision not to go to graduate school and enter the workforce instead. I love remote sensing and all the courses I had, had just come back from Guatemala, and was thinking about collecting and processing LiDAR through jungle canopy. How to look for cities and ruins. Now I watch shows about it with my kids on TV.

[@Yakomoe]

​@pkt1213 don't regret. Go do it. It's never too late to start something you are passionate about. 😊

[@theawesomeman9821]

My grandfather was a devout Christian who dreamed of visiting Biblical sites in the Middle East. Before he died, one of his daughters (my aunt) made his dream a reality when the Christian college she was attending offered students and their families tours to Israel. He got to see the wailing wall, the Jordan river, Nazareth, and Bethleham. According to my aunt, he geeked out the entire time.

[@Ummmmple]

Awwww I love that ❤😊 That's amazing!

[@MeanBeanComedy]

That's amazing!! I'm so happy for him! 😁👍🏻 I hope to go someday soon. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻✝️☦️✝️

[@donaldwert7137]

"It's a bit wild in there." Talk about the British knack for understatement!

[@MeanBeanComedy]

I love Anglos and our propensity for litotes... 😁

[@donaldwert7137]

@@MeanBeanComedy You taught me a new word today. Thank you!

[@ignitionfrn2223]

SP - CITIES 0:45 - Chapter 1 - Akkad 7:00 - Chapter 2 - Bethsaida 12:50 - Chapter 3 - Ziklag 20:40 - Chapter 4 - Sodom

[@robd9413]

Ziglag: "If you perform a quick Google search on our next entry chances are you'll find...." Ziglag found, Ziglag discovered, etc. Sodom: "If you perform a quick Google search on our next entry...." Erm... probably best to stick to Ziglag.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

Well Sodem!

[@MaesterTori]

Loved the cheeky name drop for Decoding the Unknown there, well done Factboi

[@Nathan-vt1jz]

The site of Tel Hammam on the Dead Sea has a strong case as the city of Sodom. The other primary site for consideration is on the south end of the Dead Sea, where there are chunks of sulfur in the area. I don’t know who did the research on this, but no one is seriously considering sites in Syria. The biblical description of the location makes it easy to find the general area and the tels in the area narrow it down further. Tel El Hammam has a really strong case for the site; pottery dating, destruction layer, city size, surface sulfur deposits in the region, biblical description, etc.

[@Zenas521]

Don't forget about the city of Gomorrah which suffered the same fate. It would have to be in the same area. The possibility that one site is Sodom and the other Gomorrah is good, but not yet definite. As for the Air burst, insurance companies would call it an act of God, so why not "Propeller Heads"

[@franciscasilva8406]

Watch Expedition Bible's video where he refutes quite well the Tel El Hammam's case. Mostly, it's because the Bible says that Sodom was on the southern part of the Dead Sea and south of Jerusalem while Hammam is north. Then near the southern coast you have five archeological cities from the bronze age (the time of the Genesis), four of which were destroyed with a fire caused by ignited sulfur balls (there's a layer of ash and sulfur balls still litter the ground there), like what happened in the Bible, and left uninhabited since then. However, the fifth city wasn't destroyed and was still inhabited millennia later. This last city appears on a Byzantine map in a church in Jordan, as named Zoora (as well as in other earlier and later references), which is believed to be the city of Zoar, to where Lot and his daughters escaped before the destruction of Sodom. Also, on a hills close to these plain cities, there's the archeological site of a church built to enclosure and honour a cave that has pottery from several eras, but most importantly, bronze age pottery. So, tradition clearly thought this was the cave that Lot and his daughters lived in after leaving Zoar.

[@Nathan-vt1jz]

@@Zenas521 Agreed. This is a point I’ve thought an about as well. There were five significant cities near the Dead Sea, which all collapsed around that time. Sodom and Gomorrah were two of them. An air burst of that size would likely wipe out multiple if not all of them (the Tunguska event is our only recent example). Tel El Hammam is very likely one of those cities, so far it’s the largest site and a good case for Sodom.

[@Nathan-vt1jz]

⁠@@franciscasilva8406 I’ve watched his videos on it and appreciate his work, but think it really comes down to figuring out the chronology/date of the event (late date, early date, or misdating either Tel’s destruction layer). The evidence for the air burst event is solid and would have hit the general area of the five cities. I don’t really want to debate all the specifics in the comments section 😁. Overall I think it’s a bad argument to posit that an earlier destruction was the biblical Genesis event, but it didn’t end continuous habitation and a later more destructive air burst event occurred which did end continuous habitation for a couple hundred years. I think it’s likely that the southern site’s destruction layer (with the surface sulfur) deposits is the same event as the air burst, but just not at the direct impact. The air burst could easily cause local landslides and ignite gas or sulfur deposits. My guess is it’s a discrepancy between the two site’s relative chronologies. The southern site definitely needs a more extensive excavation and dating analysis (pottery and such). The best resolution to the issue is to also excavate the other eastern Dead Sea sites to establish a better regional/relative chronology. The five cities were prominent early cities and worth the effort to excavate apart from resolving this issue. Then we can debate the early/ late date. I’m still somewhat on the fence with the early/late date chronology, though I lean towards the early date. That being said I still don’t think the southern site has as good of a case overall.

[@dragoscoco2173]

Also considering more ancient acounts of Sodom and Gomorah, mainly the greeks via their story of Baucis and Philemon it was caused by lightning from Zeus and resulted in a salty lake.

[@BobB-w4q]

There are many comments disparaging subjects and places discussed in this clip, but archaeological research has verified several items within the Bible. As is the case with many ancient writing purporting to be historical, certain things are likely to be true while others are exagerated or wrong.....Not too long ago inscriptions were found referring to a person as belonging to the House of David. This archeological find was the first known reference to David outside of the Bible. In addition, whether he was a divine personage or not, historians and archeologists express the consensus of opinion Jesus did exist.

[@GreedybeatsGGP]

Maybe a historical person named Jesus existed but not the Jesus of the Bible. Not the one who performed miracles. No he didn't exist and most biblical scholars agree on that point and have stopped trying to prove it.

[@BobB-w4q]

@@GreedybeatsGGP Simon has an interesting clip discussing this. The consensus is he did exist, that he was crucified and that he did found the movement that eventually lead to the many variations of Christianity.

[@christianadam2907]

@@BobB-w4q So what... Still did not walk on water, multiplied food and healed people by rubbing mud in their face ... Just because a crazy street preacher was maybe real, your magical BS is not also automatically true 🤣 That is not how anything works

[@valleyshrew]

The consensus of historians is that they dont want to damage the credibility of their entire profession by admitting the truth. The evidence for a historical Jesus can be researched in a few minutes, it doesnt require abrogating your judgment to "experts". Bart Ehrman says the best evidence for a historical Jesus is the fact he was crucified, and the Jews wouldnt have invented a messiah that was weak and pathetic like this. But if they invented a warrior king messiah, everyone could see such a figure had not existed. Jesus was invented by the Romans to pacify the Jews and it eventually swallowed their empire as well.

[@LemurDreamer87]

@@GreedybeatsGGP `Rather, a historical person named Yeshua ben Yosef

[@Opus313]

It would be fascinating to find Sodom & Gomorrah... though it may be a bit salty...

[@JackSparrow-uh7zv]

They've already found Sodom & Gomorrah, brother. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5uzlIaHir5ljZIsi=txSXDXuxBYjPQRh0

[@D.A.B-w7n]

😂 You’re a bit salty…🤪

[@bennymoreira1443]

Sodom and Gomorrah have been found near the 5 city of the plains sandwiched between Jordan and Israel.

[@mmerkley402]

Take it with a pinch of Lot's wife.

[@D.A.B-w7n]

@@mmerkley402 😂😂

[@0xF15h]

Not a good example of a man who has withstood hard trial and remained firm in faith, but I can say I am a good example of showing how forgiving God is, and how He is faithful to pull you out of your struggle regardless, as long as you just believe that His Word is true.

[@MeanBeanComedy]

Very true!

[@xessenceofinsanityx]

A meteor would certainly seem like divine retribution to people who don't understand it

[@xLoLRaven]

I was thinking the same thing. Hell, even today people would think of it as divine retribution. Because seriously? That's some bad luck on a cosmic scale.

[@Leyrann]

@@xLoLRaven Yeah. No one (or at least, hardly anyone) would claim that divine retribution necessarily has to be something impossible. A meteor strike wiping out a city would do just fine even if the scientists can point to the exact part of the sky it originated from.

[@ellnor7]

@@xLoLRaven lol i just wrote something similar in my comments im a life long theology student (hobby not career at this point due to disability). "im not personally opposed to miracle as an explanation, however a natural phenomenon with miraculous timing is still a miracle in my book, so i can appreciate when miracles have natural explanations."

[@carlp.6196]

@@ellnor7Adding to this, the whole thing about Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt may have been a rough interpretation of what happened to things in the city, where the intense heat created rare types of quartz and the aforementioned nanodiamonds. “Looking back” may also have been a metaphorical way of saying that she went back into the city, and thus was killed by the disaster.

[@ellnor7]

@@carlp.6196 based on my understanding it would not have been as drastic as going back but yes it is heavily implied that she was hesitant and longed to returning, it is possible that by lagging behind she was caught on the edge of some fallout from the city or a spare shrapnel hit close enough to her to cause some chemical reaction. but as i said i have no issue believing in miracle as an answer. i see alot that can be explained by natural if incredibly rare phenomenon, but others like the resurrection is not possible to explain. usually the larger scale and more fantastical (the flood, the parting of the red sea, the wall of Jericho and yes Sodom and Gamora) seem to have scientific explanations on how. the wall was build on a natural rock embankment that the marching vibrated loose, a strong wind could uncover a natural land bridge meteors took out 4 towns. but more localized tend to be harder to explain the resurrection, the curing of many including lepers, walking on water.

[@beckyowens2586]

I don't know what Bible Mr. Summerfield was reading but he jacked up the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham did not live in either city. Lot did. Somehow after his separation from Abraham, he lost all of his flocks and servants.

[@Leyrann]

I feel like it's a bit of a weird simplification in order to not have to explain that Abraham did the bargaining while Lot was the one living in the city. It got the point of the story across, but it did fall a bit weird. Also, and to be honest they could've bothered mentioning this, Lot's wife looking back is very easily interpreted (I don't remember if this is outright said or not in the text) as longing back to the city, hence the punishment.

[@godlygamer911]

Like it matters... It's a terribly written fictional book😂

[@treydezellem27]

@@godlygamer911which book is fictional? And for you to think it is terribly written shows your ignorance. Many “experts” and “scholars” find it all beautifully written.

[@godlygamer911]

@treydezellem27 They find the mythology in it fascinating. Nobody finds it beautifully written. And literally all religious texts is fictional. I can't believe you had to ask that question.

[@treydezellem27]

@@godlygamer911 so the historic accounts are all fictional, even the ones that historians use? Interesting. You really haven’t studied history have you?

[@TriCountyMotorsEastman]

The Bible doesn't say Abraham was in Sodom with Lot. They had split and went separate ways before Lot went to Sodom.

[@midoribushi5331]

Lidar is pretty awesome.

[@willh1970]

Someone mention Mesopotamia and the cradle of civilisation? I'm your huckleberry! Good evening from Erbil, Kurdistan Iraq folks.

[@Khyranleander]

9:00 Furlongs weren't in the Bible; they're just the units English Bibles replaced scriptural Gk stadion with... which varied fr~0.75-1.04 furlongs long.

[@jackseney571]

Attention factsboi writers: decimate means reduce by a tenth! Obliterate or devastate might be a better choice...

[@knightsnight5929]

In the same way that describing someone as gay means something entirely different to what it did 60 years ago. The meaning of words can and do change over time.

[@godlygamer911]

Wait until you find out that language changes and evolves. Your mind will be blown

[@godlygamer911]

@@jackseney571 never mind. I get the feeling your mind was blown a long time ago...

[@jackseney571]

@@godlygamer911 deci in this case means ten. Why change the meaning of a word through incorrect usage when perfectly adequate words exist?

[@godlygamer911]

@jackseney571 This was explained to you hours ago... Because that's how language works 🤦‍♂️

[@abbysweat9202]

11:20 that is 100% Sylvester Stallone.

[@PNX034]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@ShepherdsCreek]

Absolutely

[@WeAreZilla]

"... is a LOT of Fahrenheit." floored me - lmao.

[@bmom3191]

I’ve been watching a bunch of archaeology specifically focusing on biblical archaeology. It’s interesting that atheist archaeologists even use the Bible as a map. One example of how archaeology proved the existence of King David. Everyone thought he was like King Arthur, a myth. Until they found a stone while doing archaeological digs that mention king David. What everyone doesn’t realize or think of is that these things are coming out of the ground 2000 to 3000 years old. There are so many examples of how there were no records of anything except from the Bible. I’m not pushing faith but look into biblical archaeology and it is absolutely fascinating. Oh and It wasn’t just Sodom and Gomorra-There were five cities that were cursed by God. They just aren’t always mentioned.

[@Hellemokers]

The bible is an historical source. With all and more of the caveats which are appplicable to other ancient sources. They would be stupid not to use them. The problem with biblical archeology is that it has been used to "prove" biblical accounts, instead of using it as just a source as other sources.

[@hiddentruth1982]

A lot of modern day cities sit on the sites of old cities. They even have a word for it in the middle east. It's called a Tel as in Tel Aviv. The tel is the mound of older cities and the current city is the last part. So Tel Aviv is actually a mount of old cities under Aviv.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

Thus Tel Alie is usually a current or former city of political headquarters. 🤔😱😈

[@Space_science2]

Very detailed explanation thank you for sharing

[@memyself3510]

I recommend the History with Cy channel for more details on early Sumeria and the Akkadian empire

[@competitionglen]

If only the DeLorian wasn't destroyed 😢 The flex capacitor was Gods gift.

[@t84t748748t6]

if we could go back in time and see the old stuf i think we wil be massivly disapointed because i think writher always try to make things grander than the are

[@bradlevantis913]

The history of the region is fascinating

[@floutsch]

Whoa, never been so early to a Whistler vid! :D

[@benzomanic2972]

Fact Boi is looking strong in his new shirt.

[@dz4204]

To convert furlongs to metres, multiply by 200. Furlong is a still used as an everyday measurement within the horse racing industries in Ireland, Great Britain, USA, and other countries. It's 1/8 of a mile, so equivalent to 220 yards or, if you prefer, approximately 200 metres. Five furlongs equals 1km (give or take a few yards/metres). A horse race in France over 1400 metres is considered to be a seven-furlong race (we don't worry about the few yards difference), a 2400-metre race is over 12 furlongs (mile and a half), and so on.

[@d_j_duane]

Hello, It's not easy to determine the past events and places just by going off old documents and stone tablets... But we still look for the thrill of finding a new clue and change the way we understand the past... Great summary of a few places that we either didn't know or to get more knowledge about the ones we do know... I saying this when you google for the Largest asteroid impact to earth was, it will give you the Verdefort Impact Structure... I have a Hypothesis that is different... I think that there was a even larger Impact Asteroid that hit the earth... Unfortunately I can't prove it cause I cannot travel there to examine or the see if it happened.... This was an Ice Meteorite or asteroid that hit the earth and caused a world wide catastrophe with an extreme tsunami that flooded the earth possible twice or more and caused a tectonic plate to move and change it's direction (or) the Ice asteroid melted and flooded the earth with water and increasing the earths water level by 1 to 4Km (or) both... I only have circumstantial evidence that suggest this... This was truly epic and scary... I believe that this happened and there's is proof of this, if you can find it or go and research it more... Unfortunately I cannot cause I have a disability (Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 3) and traveling with be difficult.. If you are interested in this hypothesis I would share what I know and quite possible use your research department to research this in more detail... If the hypothesis is correct then there will be another change in the history of our fragile planet we call "Home or "Earth"... Cheers...

[@knifekitty_ls]

damn thats a lot of freedom units right there

[@BigZebraCom]

@07:25 No only did jesus feed the 5000 with the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, he also invented the filet-o-fish sandwich!

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

And even got the (second) most powerful man in the universe to feed it through the golden rainbowed serving hatch! 😇😈😱

[@kiriuxeosa8716]

I heard the wine was watered down

[@0xF15h]

If I haven't thanked you yet Simon. Thank you for at least keeping, from what I can recall, a very clean and classy show, and keep it that way. I hate cussing and the days of PBS are but a shadow of their distant self. I think you did cuss a few times though. I appreciate what seems like a genuine opinion of your own beliefs, even though, I still think the Bible has so much more truth to offer than us crawling out of mud puddles, and I say that with love. God bless :]

[@0xF15h]

It all started with a soft whisper. But you can what follows from in much more epic terms than what "the big bang." has to offer. I like listening to bass music, I feel like God directed me to make, since I couldn't recreate myself if I tried, and then I think of Him, you hear that bass drop at the dawn of creation right after he speaks into existence. It's so awesome!

[@1oomkje]

Abraham was the one that bargained with the third man, God, who stayed behind for a bit. Lot was the one that lived there and was at the gates when the two messengers arrived. The two parted ways prior to Sodom's destruction.

[@lexzbuddy]

The bronze age collapse occurred around the 12th century BC. So, dating anything between then and the 9th century is messy.

[@theinconsistentgamers7682]

Abraham never lived in the city but on the opposite side of the Jordan River.

[@trishapellis]

I do believe it makes sense to generally assume that the cities in the Bible have once existed. After all, these stories were told and written down for people who also lived in the area, who could go visit these areas and might want to do so, and using existing cities would ground even the most fantastical stories about Jesus in a recognizable bedrock. For the people hearing the apostles tell these stories, there would have been a ring of falsehood to the whole thing if they mentioned a city which nobody has ever heard of because the apostle just made it up. Like, you can just pick a real existing city and then spin a yarn. The story doesn't need to be true. But if you want people to believe it, setting your story in the city of Lulu which nobody has ever heard of is just not smart.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Super wonderful introduction of historical stories from Biblica

[@SafetySpooon]

Just a note: Lot et al were *specifically told not to look*, & Talmud tells us further that Lot's wife looked back *in regret*. And yes, I'm pretty sure it's all an allegory.

[@scrabbit6487]

Now Kai needs a green shirt with question marks on it! 😊

[@frankreads8618]

Don't forget David's greatest achievement: he played a secret chord that pleased the Lord.

[@albertchurchill4845]

Instantly becoming a diamond is kinda magical.

[@peterbrown6392]

As you say, it is often impossible to find conclusive evidence linking a pile of rubble to a specific place named in ancient accounts. What is notable is that digs such as the ones that hint at Ziglag, Bethsaida or Sodom enhance the plausibility of the Biblical accounts. We find in these digs environments and time lines that bring the ancient accounts out of the mists of myth and fabrication into believable historical settings.

[@kdoubleg]

Have yiu done a decoding the unknown on the hanging gardens of Babylon. There is alot of interesting stuff going on around that. And for some reason im fascinated by it.

[@jdc4483]

@1:40 “The Bible can be a bit loose with the truth sometimes,…” Question #1: Where has archaeology proved the Bible wrong? Also, as far as what has not been discovered yet, remember that “absence of evidence, isn’t evidence of absence.”

[@paulbarnett227]

The Bible contains history and allegory. The problems start when some people insist what's clearly allegory is actual factual history. For things like giants, let use Goliath as an example, he probably had gigantism which obviously went untreated. The philistines would suggest having 2 champions fight so as to avoid a big bloody battle - then when their opponent agreed they would bring Goliath out. People too one look at him and said "Nope! David said he would take him on and took him down with a well placed sling shot - almost as if Goliath had brought a knife to a gun fight. No supernatural happenings there - just a notable event in Israel's history.

[@timthompson3569]

Incorrect about Abraham living in Sodom. The Bible is very clear that Lot and Abraham separated, with Lot going to Sodom and Abraham settling elsewhere.

[@joeqmix]

As soon as he said "Nimrod" I heard Beavis and Butthead chuckling.

[@humor86]

"2000 celcius, which is ALOT of farenheit" ehe, that made me giggle!

[@jenniferbreaux7385]

Who cares if it's the biblical city or not. Its still an incredibly cool archeological discovery. Get a room full of experts and ask them if water is wet and you'll get a room full of different answers.

[@ellnor7]

i just want to point out that in the bio-science community that is a real debate, well more to the point does wet actually exist.

[@stancil83]

21:20 The heathen practices of the '60s were pretty goddamn tame.

[@tats8666]

It would kinda be a shame if any of these were under a current oil well and the result is, "Oops we drilled through a historical site."

[@clamsoup]

We're almost done over building ancient sites, bombing the bajeezus out of them, rebuilding, and repeating. That we find anything is astonishing. But, starting in the region of Ararat......and following the Tigris and Euphrates....... Something was something for sure.

[@MINKIN2]

To think of the chances of a meteorite even hitting land today, when we have built sprawling cities with dense populations across every corner of the globe and for it to have devastating effects is so infinitesimally so small... Now imagine how unlucky were they to be hit even in biblical times.

[@GarfieldRex]

Recap: maybe, we don't know.

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

To get to the bottom of this we really need to get Jones Sr and Jr on it.

[@MischaMischief]

What's interesting about Tel al-Hammam is that it is only about 10 miles north of the Dead Sea, the location where Jewish oral tradition says is where Lot's wife was turned to salt.

[@Rancid-Jane]

21:20 I was unaware that Heavy Metal headbanging began that long ago.

[@ellnor7]

theology student here @21:17 sodom is one of the "cities of the plains" 5 cities on the southeast side of the dead sea. their is debate as to which city is which however we do know the area. most scholars put sodom specifically at the site babadra. further more whether you accept the biblical account or believe in a more natural explanation 4 of the 5 cities of the plains where destroyed around the same time by fire and there are still balls of sulfur that wash up on the shore from whatever did occur, further leading credence to the cosmic air burst theory you where talking about. furthermore this area has a solid burn layer even away from the cities, and they have even uncovered bones that where warped from the heat, a lot of fahrenheit indeed. im not personally opposed to miracle as an explanation, however a natural phenomenon with miraculous timing is still a miracle in my book, so i can appreciate when miracles have natural explanations.

[@98Zai]

Also Simon. What a transformation, you handsome devil.

[@xmassan20906]

Cities became difficult to identify after shop owners were expelled for selling Jesus t-shirts, novelty figurines and Air-Messiah sandals.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

Yep, and most of the locals took off to "Follow the Shoe!"

[@bmyers7078]

My family prefers to be Followers of the Gourd.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

@@bmyers7078 Your lot are just very naughty boys!!! 😈

[@godlygamer911]

​@@theoztreecrasher2647I should probably have sky Daddy punish me.

[@MartinW-e5q]

SIMON: I have a great idea for Mega/Side/Whatever Project. Call this a test to see if you respond. There would be A LOT of math involved, astronomy, and billions of years.

[@sarameyrick7182]

Garfinkle, wonderful name 😊😅❤

[@rh661]

"I find your lack of faith ... disturbing!"

[@hiddentruth1982]

Sargon sounds a lot like Moses. Found in a river, raised by a king, and ended up overthrowing the king.

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

Ungrateful little jerk!

[@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526]

And Perseus too

[@stephengray1344]

Except that Moses wasn't raised by a king (he was raised by a king's daughter - though on the late Exodus date she was probably only a daughter or granddaughter of a general at the time). And he didn't overthrow the king.

[@jenniferbreaux7385]

Im sure 4000 yrs from now, they wont be able to find New Orleans.

[@alistairmcdonald2382]

Zig Zag, was invented when people wanted to roll their own smoke’s 😂

[@flareinc7413]

Simon is such a good KZbinr. His attitude and usage of voice in this video makes it sound like he believes this stuff. ^^

[@cjpietropinto9293]

Hearing someone with no biblical upbringing, say biblical names...is a trip. Takes me half way thru to figure out which city is being referenced. 😂

[@jasone.1261]

Hey Simon, did you ever do a documentary on king Solomons temple?

[@501Mobius]

Sodom was supposedly the border of the Promised Land. Tell El Hamman being east of the Jordan river which was the border of the Promised Land makes it not the site. Some hills called Jebel Usdum in Arabic is on the southwest shore of the Dead Sea. It is likely near where Usdum or Sodom used to be.

[@DrFiero]

So... the next time I see a "large" chick named Beth... should I tell her she was named after a house? 😁🤣

[@ShawnMichaelBeck]

@@DrFiero yes

[@StrongDreamsWaitHere]

How do you say “brick house” in Hebrew?

[@ShawnMichaelBeck]

@@StrongDreamsWaitHere why would you need to know that

[@ellnor7]

beth is actually from greek Elisabeth which is a transliteration of el-sheba or God of oath, or as a name oath of God/ God is my oath. your version IS funnier but i thought you might be interested in the etymology

[@ellnor7]

@@StrongDreamsWaitHere laben-beth

[@ArchangelXCI]

Fall of Civilizations channel has a great video on Sumeria/Akkad. If you have a few hours it is a great listen

[@albertchurchill4845]

Everyone was warned not to look at the city. They could teach or they could leave.

[@Redsauce101]

None because they have all been bulldozed.

[@2l84t]

More likely built on like Troy.

[@connkahn]

So you're telling me: the "bread of life" was born in a bakery?

[@MinniMintz]

A natural disaster is a great explanation for sodom and gamorra! I hope they figure out where they are. It would be fascinating to figure out what happened!

[@denniskrust2137]

See Fall of Civilizations for a lengthy accounting of the fall of the Sumerians.

[@alishacox3137]

I have a random thought about Lot's wife turning to salt. There are people in the world who desire an apocalypse ( because of course they will servive and everyone they don't like won't.) Could this have been an ancient warning to people to not glory in the destruction of others lest they too suffer destruction? Just a thought. I'm not a theologist or an expert on ancient poetry and stories.

[@jorgelotr3752]

With Bethsaida, chances are high that one's the one referenced by FJ and the other the one referenced in the Onomastica (i.e. the Byzantines got it wrong, seemingly).

[@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw]

His daughters were a fair Lot

[@TheFallingFlamingo]

There's actually a good deal of speculation that the priest (different religion) king Melchizedek mentioned in the bible was actually the King of Sodom, but this was changed by scribes later to be the city of Shalem, as Sodom had become known as a place of debauchery and Melchizedek ended up being portrayed more favorably. (It's also speculated that originally, Sodom was portrayed more as a place that just didn't offer hospitality to Christians and later morphed into how we know it today over time, retellings, and retranslations. The modern interpretation is probably more medieval fan fiction, than historical fact.)

[@ellnor7]

melchizedek and sodom are both old testament christians didn't enter the scene till Much later and we have BC dated manuscripts of both of these passages, and as for melchizedek well he is an interesting character to begin with and i don't feel like writing an essay here so just suffice to say you may wish to check your source on that.

[@stephengray1344]

There's lots of speculation that Biblical stories have been altered from the original. However, the people who propose such changes almost never have any actual evidence for their speculations.

[@ellnor7]

@@stephengray1344 the Jewish scribes where meticulous when copying any scrolls to replace older ones, additionally its not like there was only one copy. with as many manuscripts as we have with both new and old testament (admittedly vastly more new testament than the Torah) , it is very evident when their is a deviation. as for the new testament we can trace the earliest manuscripts to around A.D. 80 and some scholars believe we have original copies of some of the epistles. even bart erman one of the most critical scholars and author, when asked how inaccurate these texts are (note that by reputation the questioner assumed his position) he responded that there are no known meaningful and viable variants. not only do they not bring up evidence, they cant. the bible is THE best preserved ancient document by miles, with the most manuscripts and very early compared to many of the next closest preserved (which would be homers illiad with the earliest manuscript being about 500 years after the original). sorry for the paragraph but as this discussion got longer i thought it necessary.

[@stephengray1344]

@@ellnor7 Where do you get the idea that we have a New Testament manuscript as early as 80 AD? To the best of my knowledge the earliest manuscript we have is P55, a fragment of John's gospel from the mid 2nd century. And who are the scholars who think we have an original copy of some of the epistles? (And which epistles do they claim this for)? I've been reading stuff on this for a couple of decades now and I've never come across anybody who claims our evidence for the New Testament is that good. There is more textual uncertainty over the Old Testament than the new. Our earliest complete Hebrew text comes from around 1000AD (the only original language manuscripts before then being the Dead Sea Scrolls). But this isn't really relevant to the kind of claims that were originally made. Which are about the text we have being edited and redacted into its current form, rather than about later textual variants.

[@ellnor7]

@@stephengray1344 i believe its p52, i could be wrong though on the exact fragment, was in the past couple of years dated to be much earlier than previously thought according to a biblical archeology newsletter i read (i know not the most vetted source) referencing DR. Daniel B. Wallace's work, as for the epistle we have fragments of Galatians and 1 Thessalonians, manuscripts might be misleading but i didn't think referring to them as autographs as the article referred to it would be any less confusing one of those fragments is no more that a line or two of text. as for the torah my information is much more legitimately sourced, though i would have to dig out an old college book bibliography, there are four main variations you have the dead sea scrolls hidden by the Essenes sect of Judaism in the 4th to first century BC the earliest Masoretic text is from 7th century BC and was upkept by the Levitical tribe (mainly the Pharisees sect) there is the LXX or Septuagint which we have fragments (also translated into Greek by the early Christians) from around the 1st century BC and a few 10th century text of the Pentateuch. but those are the variations not variants meaning we have many fragments and scrolls of each (aside from the dead sea scrolls) but the all match one of those versions which do have some differences that are valid and matter. as to the pertinence the early date doesn't mater so much as that we have Hebrew text from BC meaning Christians didn't alter them and we have many fragments that we can compare to see that over time the text has not changed.

[@Snagprophet]

Sargon is also known for being a radical centrist

[@orikarru7877]

With the airburst thing, with so much heat, perhaps lot's wife wasn't turned to salt for looking back, but instantaneously charred because she'd fallen behind and was caught in the open when the initial heat flash hit?

[@godlygamer911]

It's a lot more likely yeah😂

[@Tommy-g7v8g]

the use of Furlong isnt out of fashion and we can still measure it... its used in horse racing..

[@peterroach3377]

"I find your lack of faith disturbing"

[@keithwalmsley1830]

Is he related to Art Garfinkel??? 🤣🤣

[@sbsstorytelling]

Yes, He did 😁

[@johnreydelatorre3450]

If that’s not Ziklag, what other settlement was it? Any other old lost settlement that was nearby?

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

Sadly we don't really know if we discovered biblical cities, because there are little or no evidence if they are the real deal.

[@Mark2024Hola]

Great video! I had the opportunity to go to Bethlehem some years ago during happier times. We crossed the border on foot from Jordan and a few days later went into West Bank. I went to see where Jesus of Nazareth was allegedly born (site of the Church of the Nativity), I wonder what the evidence is to place this as the exact location?

[@stephengray1344]

The site was only identified several centuries after the fact. So it's quite unlikely that it was on the site of the actual house.

[@Boroffski]

Carl Benjamin, the Lotus eater…..

[@treydezellem27]

It’s always fun when people say the Bible is “loose with the truth” yet it continues to be the most trusted resource for finding ancient places. The writers were very detailed for a reason and they knew what they were writing about.

[@avengerkdr]

It may well indeed be a rich resource for ancient sites but it's to the more fantastical elements of the bible that people are referring.

[@pennywood5653]

Are you implying the talking donkeys, burning bushes, and the mass genocide and noahs ark are real?

[@SMDoktorPepper]

Just because a work of fiction MENTIONS a city, doesnt mean its accurate

[@treydezellem27]

@@pennywood5653 are you implying that mass genocide is not real? You do know that is occurring all the time throughout history? As to Balam, no they has not been direct evidence that God made a donkey talk. But there is plenty of evidence that Jesus did die and rise. The investigative nature of Luke and the Acts is very telling. Just study the actual material instead of scoffing because we may not see those things today. As to the ark, there’s pretty good evidence it landed on Mount Ararat in modern day Turkey, used to be Armenia. Kind of big sticking point since Armenia is the oldest Christian nation in the world and has a deep reverence for the mountain.

[@treydezellem27]

@@avengerkdr I can understand that, but the elements of particularly Jesus are pretty reliable. They were investigated and many different people saw the miracles and teachings.

[@98Zai]

I wonder why so many legendary figures were put into baskets on the river. Seems like one of those power-memes, just like a flood or the fight between good and evil. I think this one has lost quite a bit of meaning in modern times though. I just don't understand why I should care if they were abandoned by their parents or not.

[@TheWombat2012]

4:47 Looking at that map I can see the problem…most men cannot even find the location of Sippar…😊 I’ll see myself out…😂😂

[@willyword3413]

Oh shit jerusalum where they crushed the cowad Hamas

[@sybill123ful]

go figure that the genocide denier has fans like this