Catholic theologian acknowledges archaeologists found Biblical Sodom

Catholic theologian acknowledges archaeologists found Biblical Sodom

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

In a video interview, Dr. John Bergsma, a professor of theology at Ohio’s Franciscan University, acknowledged that after meeting with researchers, he now acknowledges that the ruins of Tall el-Hammam in the southern Jordan Valley are most likely the site of Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. For the Catholic theologian, this marked a powerful turning point in his belief.

Dr. Bergsma described how he had always been skeptical of Biblical accounts that seemed too fantastic to be true.

“So Sodom and Gomorrah looks like one of those mythological stories out of the Bible, right?”  Bergsma said. “Sure, fire comes from heaven. Tell me another one. And I’ll be honest with you, when I was growing up and reading Genesis 19 and stuff like that, it was a challenge in my faith. This really happened, and are we supposed to understand this?”

His skepticism remained firmly in place until about 15 years ago when he was attending a  Society of Biblical Literature conference in San Francisco and unintentionally wandered into a presentation by  Stephen Collins,  Dean of the College of Archaeology and Biblical History at Trinity Southwest University, about his research into the  Tall el-Hammam site. 

“I started listening, and as I’m listening to this presentation, for about 45 minutes, near the end of it, I began to realize, ‘Oh my gosh, these people presenting think that they have found the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah’. That’s what they’re saying in a really roundabout, really understated way.”

Bergsma asked the researchers if they had found evidence of a  battle that would explain the destruction they found. They replied that they had not found any evidence of a man-made catastrophe.

“So I’m curious, like, what destroyed these two cities that you guys think are Sodom and Gomorrah?” Begsma said. “And so the researcher starts getting very bashful when I ask this question, he says, Well, I don’t really want to go there. But all I want to say while we’re recording this session is that it was a heat event.”

“Well, long story short, they found massive evidence that a huge heat blast from the sky at about 25 degrees above the horizon incinerated these twin cities on the Jordanian side of the river just north of the Dead Sea. And they have the artifacts to prove it.”

“From a natural material explanation, this looks like a meteorite blast.”

From a theological perspective, Bergsma notes that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah play a key role throughout the Bible.

This realization that science had objectively confirmed through data analysis a fantastic Biblical event was a pivotal moment for the Catholic theologian.

“That really changed my perspective on the Old Testament map because what it pointed out to me was that  things that sounded so outlandish to be history, that even I as a believer was tested and tempted to discount, were  suddenly shown to be a historical event.”

According to researchers, an enormous explosion over the city, such as that caused by a massive meteor, would account for all the evidence. The evidence suggests an airburst. Researchers were faced with a  5-foot-thick layer of charcoal, ash, and melted bricks and pottery at the site which researchers called the destruction layer. The evidence of intense heat precluded a war or earthquake. They determined that the bricks melted at a temperature of 2,700 Fahrenheit, hotter than a volcano.  The evidence of intense heat precluded a war or earthquake as the cause of destruction. 

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