E=MC^2, or M=E/C^2, this means Energy and Matter are interchangeable. Our Spirit is Energy and it can be transferred by the Conduit of “Our Father”, as a Transformer works and as Jesus showed. The Energy of Our Spirit can also be converted into Mass by “Our Father” as did Lot’s Wife into a pillar of Salt(Matter). Her Spirit neither went to Heaven or Hell and went No Where like a Bug. The Catholic Church teaches Purgatory, but that’s not in the Bible anywhere or is it?
Thinking about this, I immediately focused on Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt. What could do that??? Well looking this up, it appears to be possible for someone to be rapidly encased in salt, with the most likely scenario being a high salinity geothermal vent and that would point to a volcanic eruption for the destruction of Sodom.
Looking this up suggests, however, it is more likely a story inspired by a geologic feature – a pillar of salt near a place with the name Sodom.
2 Maccabees 12:45. “But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.”
Where do you think they’re at, if they can “be delivered from their sin”?
Given the pillar that is assumed to be Lot’s wife is about 65 feet tall it certainly looks like a geologic feature, or she was greatly enlarged when converted to salt.
I vote for an earthquake. That part of the world is located along an extension the Rift Valley and is an earthquake zone. Earthquakes tend to be localized. There are lots of data for the scope of earthquakes in California. Localized. So, there is this story of these two towns destroyed by something. And, preachers take liberty with that story….has that ever happened…to moralize it and blame it on something they are preaching about. As of Lot and his daughters, my guess is that his grandchildren were such local menaces, the preachers concluded he must have fathered them. No other man wanted to take credit/responsibility those urchins. Alas, there is no mechanism in chemistry for producing that pillar of salt. She could overeat and become lard, but salt is much harder to make.
I lean toward the earthquake as well, though see it more as part of the origin story of Israel, with historical roots, and the pillar of salt being an explanation of the natural outcroppings.
An interesting discussion:
We need more data. I like it as a hypothesis, but we really need to date the seismites properly. S&G and the Decapolis could have been Bronze Age settlements, only 4,000 years ago or less. There must be evidence. Tall el-Hammam is a good candidate, two centuries later than Ussher’s date. Raining ignited bitumen is a good hypothesis. Easy to prove.
[If 10 cities - fortified settlements - in an area of at least 500 km^2 (50 x 10 km), were annihilated by a rain of burning bitumen, ejected and ignited from a fault by a Mw (Moment Magnitude) 7.8–8.5 (around 7 on the old Richter) earthquake, the equivalent of an at least 100kton nuclear explosion, only 4 thousand years ago, I’d expect a layer. Order of magnitude we’re talking 1-10 million cubic metres of bitumen. Call it 1, moving at 100 m/s. From a reservoir 1 km sq 1 m deep. It wouldn’t not leave evidence. A comet airburst is vastly less possible, at least 100 times.]
I’ll add that the article I referenced at Naturalis Historia is just a small slice of what is a great series on the geology of the Dead Sea. One of the most interesting statements is that the earthquake indicators in the geologic record relating to S&G are in the top 20 feet of sediments, and the sediments go down thousands of more feet.
Egyptian Execration Texts (Middle Bronze Age, ~19th–18th century BCE): These curse lists include names of Canaanite cities, and some scholars argue that Sodom and Gomorrah (or variants of their names) may be present.
GPT5
‘what are the names in the texts?’ I asked, 5 replied,
Scholarly Debate on Sodom & Gomorrah
* Direct names missing: “Sodom” and “Gomorrah” do not appear in the surviving hieratic inscriptions.
Indirect evidence: Because Admah and Zeboiim are listed, some scholars argue that the whole cluster of “Cities of the Plain” (Genesis 14:2) was known to Egypt, and that Sodom and Gomorrah may have been included under variant names now lost or fragmentary.
Interpretive caution: The identification is not universally accepted; the texts are fragmentary, and many names are difficult to match with biblical geography.
Key Takeaway
Names in the Execration Texts include Admah and Zeboiim, which are biblically associated with Sodom and Gomorrah.
* Sodom and Gomorrah themselves are not directly attested, but the presence of their sister cities suggests the Egyptian scribes were aware of that Dead Sea region’s settlements.
Key Takeaway