( 565 ) 



The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, occasioned by Volca- 

 nic Agency. 



A HE destruction of the five cities on the bordeis of the Lake 

 Asphaltites or Dead Sea, can be attributed, I conceive, to no- 

 thing else than a volcanic eruption, judging both from the descrip- 

 tion given by Moses of the manner in which it took place *, and 

 from the present aspect of the country itself. 



I presume it is unnecessary to urge, that the reason assigned 

 in Holy Writ for the destruction of the cities alluded to, does not 

 exclude the operation of natural causes in bringing it about, and 

 that there can be no greater impropriety in supposing a volcano 

 to have executed the will of the Deity against the cities of So- 

 dom and Gomorrah, than it would be to imagine, if such an 

 idea were on other grounds admissible, that the sea might have 

 been the instrument in the hands of the same Being for effecting 

 the general destruction of the human race in the case of the de- 

 luge. 



Whether indeed we chuse to suppose the fire which laid 

 waste these places, to have originated from ahove or from htloWy 

 the employment of secondary causes seems equally implied; and 

 if it be urged, that the words of Genesis denote that it proceeded 

 from the former quarter, it may, I think, be replied, that a volcanic 

 eruption seen from a distance might be naturally mistaken for 

 a shower of stones, and that we cannot expect from the sacred 

 historian in the case before us, any greater insight into the real 

 nature of such phenomena, than we attribute to him in the ana- 



* The following are the words of Scripture : Gen. chap. xix. 



"• 24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimsto*ie and fire 

 out of heaven. 



" 25. And he overthrew these cities, and all the plain, aiid all the inhabi- 

 tants of these cities, and that which grew upon the ground. 



" 2G. And he (Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward 

 all the land of the plain, and behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up 

 as the smoke of the furnace." 



In Deut. chap. xxix. ver. 23. the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea is described 

 as a country, " the land of which is brimstone, and salt, and burning, which is 

 not sown nor beareth, nor has any grass growing therein." 



