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BIBLICAL RESEARCH BULLETIN the Academic Journal of Trinity Southwest University BIBLICAL RESEARCH BULLETIN The Academic Journal of Trinity Southwest University ISSN 1938-694X Volume XII Number 1 Tall el-Hammam Is Sodom: Billington’s Heshbon Identification Suffers from Numerous Fatal Flaws Steven Collins Abstract: In this article, S. Collins responds to an article by C.E. Billington published in the Spring 2012 issue of Artifax magazine titled “Tall el-Hammam is Not Sodom.” Billington rejects Collins’ identification of Tall el-Hammam as Sodom because the date of its destruction is too late (between 1750 and 1650 BCE) to conform to Billington’s early placement of Abr(ah)am, ca. 2166-1991 BCE. He also attempts to support a more southern location for Sodom via textual geography. Finally, Billington suggests that Tall el- Hammam is perhaps a ‘western’ Heshbon. Collins refutes these ideas as categorically untenable. © Copyright 2012, Trinity Southwest University Special copyright, publication, and/or citation information: Biblical Research Bulletin is copyrighted by Trinity Southwest University. All rights reserved. Article content remains the intellectual property of the author. This article may be reproduced, copied, and distributed, as long as the following conditions are met: 1. If transmitted electronically, this article must be in its original, complete PDF file form. The PDF file may not be edited in any way, including the file name. 2. If printed copies of all or a portion of this article are made for distribution, the copies must in- clude complete and unmodified copies of the article’s cover page (i.e., this page). 3. Copies of this article may not be charged for, except for nominal reproduction costs. 4. Copies of this article may not be combined or consolidated into a larger work in any format on any media, without the written permission of Trinity Southwest University. Brief quotations appearing in reviews and other works may be made, so long as appropriate credit is given and/or source citation is made. © Copyright 2012 by Trinity Southwest University Press, 5600 Eubank NE, Suite 130, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111, USA; (505) 332-4253. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of Ameri- ca by Trinity Southwest University Press, a division of CEM, Inc. No part of this work may be repro- duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from Trinity Southwest University Press. Tall el-Hammam Is Sodom: Billington’s Heshbon Identification Suffers from Numerous Fatal Flaws by Steven Collins A shorter version of this article appeared in the Summer 2012 edition of Artifax magazine. This is the unedited version of the original article. Billington’s original Artifax article is included at the end of the Collins article. 0 TALL EL-HAMMAM IS SODOM: First, I will deal with his criticisms concerning a northern Sodom and, in particular, identifying Tall el- Billington’s Heshbon Identification Hammam as Sodom. Second, I will turn to the im- Suffers from Numerous Fatal Flaws mense difficulties of identifying Tall el-Hammam as Heshbon. By Steven Collins, Ph.D. ANSWERING BILLINGTON ON SODOM’S IDENTITY INTRODUCTION When Clyde quotes Genesis 13:10 to say that Abra- Discussion surrounding the identification of Tall el- ham and Lot saw “all the valley of the Jordan,” he has Hammam as biblical Sodom has been a hot topic for a answered his own question about the location of Sod- decade now, due in large part to my ongoing research om without seeming to realize it. The Hebrew says and writing on the subject in addition to our excava- “all the kikkar hayarden.” The Kikkar, in what I call tion there, which just completed its seventh season. the “Bronze Age Scriptures,” always refers to the ex- But from time to time I still run into scholars who at- act same piece of real estate. But where is it? The key tempt to martial resistance against my identification of is hayarden. “The Jordan” means “the descent.” Of the site as Sodom. By this time there is literally “noth- what?—of the fresh water that originates north of ing new under the sun.” For at least six or seven years Lake Kinnereth (Galilee) in the snowmelt of the Leb- I have not heard a single new objection to the Ham- anon Mountains, plus wadi drainage from Cisjordan mam-Sodom connection that I have not answered and Transjordan seasonal rains and springs, which all countless times already. However, I will admit that “descends” to the lowest point on the face of the earth, Clyde Billington’s suggestion that Tall el-Hammam the Dead Sea surface. Once the Jordan, the Descent, might be biblical Heshbon is one angle that I have reaches “the bay of the Sea at the mouth of the Jor- never heard before (and hopefully, after this response, dan” (Josh 15:5) at the north end of the Dead Sea, it will not ever again!) ends, it dies, it terminates. In Clyde’s article (Artifax, Spring 2012) he men- Thus, throughout the Old Testament, hayarden tions that we are friends, and indeed we are. I also never, ever, refers to any part of the Dead Sea Valley, deeply appreciate his kind words about the importance but refers only to the descent of the river’s living wa- of our work at Tall el-Hammam. To that I would like ter which ends at the bay of the Dead Sea below Pis- to add that I have respected, used, and quoted from his gah (Num 34:12; Deut 3:17,27; 4:47-49; Josh 15:5; research several times over the years. Certainly we see 18:19). Period. When linked with hayarden, kikkar eye-to-eye on many issues, but this is not one of them. has no article, because the “definite” designation be- Dr. Billington’s objections to the northern Sodom longs to “the Jordan.” But when kikkar stands alone, it theory and his acceptance of the southern Sodom the- is hakikkar, referring to the same formal geographical ory as noted in his article have all been answered by construct as “kikkar of the Jordan”—the Kikkar. Emi- me in detail in other venues; nonetheless, I will try to nent historical geographer, the late Anson Rainey, and answer his points succinctly in the order in which he I corresponded extensively about the identification of addresses them. the Kikkar, and we both agreed it should be formally As is typical of all such criticisms that I have en- identified with the 30km-diameter circle of the Jordan countered over the past ten years, they have three Valley immediately north of the Dead Sea. We also things in common. They 1) misrepresent and/or mis- agreed that during the Iron Age that meaning extended quote the biblical text; 2) misrepresent and/or exhibit slightly northward (to which Clyde refers), but only a lack of familiarity with the actual geography; and 3) northward, and never did the Kikkar include the Dead misrepresent and/or demonstrate unfamiliarity with Sea area. the relevant archaeological data. Unfortunately for Anyone who stands in the middle of the Kikkar, Clyde’s analysis of the issue of Sodom’s location, he between Jericho and Tall el-Hammam, knows that gives abundant evidence of all of these failures. (I also kikkar (= circle, disk, ring) is exactly the right word get the distinct impression that he has never personal- for that distinctive, circular expanse that’s still as ly explored the physical geography of all the places he well-watered as in antiquity. From that spot, if you describes in his article.) 0 look northward, you see the hills closing at the “top” experience in the Ghor know that the (true!) Kikkar of of the Kikkar. Those hills widen out in dramatic fash- the Jordan has its own microclimate, and that ample ion to their widest circumference with Jericho and natural vegetation grows there year-round due to its Tall el-Hammam at the extreme west and east edges, numerous springs and several perennial rivers—not to respectively. From that point, the circle of the sur- mention the Jordan itself which, during spring inunda- rounding hills closes once again at the “bottom” of the tions (“like Egypt” Gen. 13:10), was maximized by Kikkar at the north end of the Dead Sea. Phenomeno- the use of hand-dug canals. It is also the best-watered logically, it is no wonder that it took on the formal agriscape in the southern Levant. By contrast, the Jer- designation hakikkar, the Disk, the Disk of the Jordan. icho side of the Kikkar was rather impoverished and The Cities of the Kikkar were on the Kikkar of the meager (witness Jericho at about 12 acres versus Tall Jordan. That is the clear meaning of the text at every el-Hammam at about 100 acres!). turn (Gen 13:10,11,12; 19:17,25,28,29). In confirma- Indeed, through the Chalcolithic Period and much tion, “the entire Kikkar of the Jordan” (Gen 13:10) is, of the Bronze Age—certainly during any timeframe in fact, visible from the area of Bethel/Ai where Lot that can be associated with Abram and Lot—the east- and Abram were standing when they parted company. ern Kikkar (NE of the Dead Sea) was the largest and The text supports no other interpretation. longest-enduring civilization and population center in Clyde also states that “Lot’s movements from city the southern Levant. No wonder it is called “the Land to city along the Jordan River and the Dead Sea with of the Kikkar” in Genesis 19:28 (cf.
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