“The words of Amos, who was
among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw
concerning Israel in the
days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam
the son of Joash, king of
Israel, two years before the earthquake”.
Amos 1:1
According to Steven A. Austin (Ph.D.) in his article “The Scientific and Scriptural Impact of Amos' Earthquake”: https://www.icr.org/article/scientific-scriptural-impact-amos-earthquake/
The Bible is often regarded as
a book of stories based on a primitive people's understanding of the world
around them. As such, many people--and even some Christians--believe that it is
not a reliable source of history. But science continues to prove them wrong.
An Ancient Earthquake
The Kings of Israel and Judah
ruled during the period of time designated as the Iron Age by archaeologists.
Widely separated archaeological excavations in the countries of Israel and
Jordan contain late Iron Age (Iron IIb) architecture bearing damage from a
great earthquake.1 Masonry walls best display the earthquake's
effects, especially those with broken ashlars or displaced rows of stones,
walls that are still standing but are leaning or bowed, and collapsed walls
with large sections still lying course-on-course.
Earthquake evidence is seen
prominently at Hazor, Israel's largest ancient city. In excavations beginning
in 1955 by archaeologist Yigael Yadin, twenty-two successive cities were
discovered to have been built on top of each other.2 Excavations in
Hazor's Stratum VI revealed tilted walls, inclined pillars, and collapsed
houses. In the Iron Age building called "Ya'el's House" within
Stratum VI, objects of daily use were found beneath the fallen ceiling. General
southward collapse within Stratum VI argues that the earthquake waves were
propagated from the north. After more than 50 years of excavations at Hazor,
earthquake damage continues to be revealed in even some of the strongest
architecture.
The city of Gezer was also
severely shaken. The outer wall of the city shows hewn stones weighing tons
that have been cracked and displaced several inches off their foundation. The
lower part of the wall was displaced outward (away from the city), whereas the
upper part of the wall fell inward (toward the city) still lying
course-on-course.3 This indicates that the wall collapsed suddenly.
A Magnitude 8 Event
Earthquake debris at six sites
(Hazor, Deir 'Alla, Gezer, Lachish, Tell Judeideh, and 'En Haseva) is tightly
confined stratigraphically to the middle of the eighth century B.C., with
dating errors of ~30 years.4 So, the evidence points to a single
large regional earthquake that occurred about 750 B.C. The accompanying map
displays the site intensity (Modified Mercalli Intensity from archaeology or
literature) and lines of equal intensity of shaking (isoseismals).
The
epicenter was clearly north of present-day Israel, as indicated by the
southward decrease in degree of damage at archaeological sites in Israel and
Jordan. The epicenter was likely in Lebanon on the plate boundary called the
Dead Sea transform fault. A large area of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah
was shaken to inflict "general damage" to well-built structures (what
is called Modified Mercalli Intensity 9 or higher). The distance from the
epicenter (north of Israel) to the region of "significant damage" to
well-built structures (what is called Modified Mercalli Intensity 8 that is
south of Israel) was at least 175 kilometers, but could have been as much as
300 kilometers.
Using the pattern and the
intensity of damage through the region of the earthquake, the earthquake's
magnitude can be estimated. Through a process known as scaling, the damage
areas of smaller historic earthquakes of known magnitude are used to scale
upward to estimate the area of damage and magnitude of the regional earthquake.
Based on this method, the earthquake in question was at least magnitude 7.8,
but more likely was 8.2.5 This magnitude 8 event of 750 B.C. appears
to be the largest yet documented on the Dead Sea transform fault zone during
the last four millennia. The Dead Sea transform fault likely ruptured along
more than 400 kilometers as the ground shook violently for over 90 seconds! The
urban panic created by this earthquake would have been legendary.
Scriptural References
In the mid-eighth century
B.C., a shepherd-farmer named Amos of Tekoa delivered an extraordinary speech
at the Temple of the Golden Calf in the city of Bethel in the northern kingdom
of Israel just "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Uzziah was king of
Judah and Jeroboam II was king of Israel. Amos spoke of the land being shaken (8:8), houses being smashed (6:11), altars being cracked (3:14), and even the Temple at
Bethel being struck and collapsing (9:1).
The prophet's repeated contemporary references to the earthquake's effects is
why it bears his name.
Amos' Earthquake impacted
Hebrew literature immensely.6 After the gigantic earthquake, no
Hebrew prophet could predict a divine visitation in judgment without alluding
to an earthquake. Just a few years after the earthquake, Isaiah wrote about the
"Day of the Lord" when everything lofty and exalted will be abased at
the time when the Lord "ariseth to shake terribly the earth" (Isaiah 2:19, 21). Then, Isaiah
saw the Lord in a temple shaken by an earthquake (Isaiah 6:4).
Joel
repeats the motto of Amos: "The Lord also will roar out of Zion, and utter
his voice from Jerusalem," and adds the seismic theophany imagery
"the heavens and the earth shall shake" (Joel 3:16; compare Amos 1:2). After describing a
future earthquake and panic during the "Day of the Lord" at Messiah's
coming to the Mount of Olives, Zechariah says, "Yea, ye shall flee, like as
ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah" (Zechariah 14:5). The panic
caused by Amos' Earthquake must have been the topic of legend in Jerusalem,
because Zechariah asked his readers to recall that terrifying event 230 years
later.
The author of Hebrews asks us
to keep in mind the coming cosmic shakedown that will finally usher in the
future "kingdom which cannot be moved" (Hebrews 12:28). In light of
God's marvelous promises to those who believe, "let us have grace, whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
References
1. Austin,
S.A., G. W. Franz, and E. G. Frost. 2000. Amos's Earthquake: An extraordinary
Middle East seismic event of 750 B.C. International Geology Review.
42 (7): 657-671.
2. Yadin,
Y. 1975. Hazor, the rediscovery of a great citadel of
the Bible. New York: Random House, 280 pp.
3. Younker,
R. 1991. A preliminary report of the 1990 season at Tel Gezer, excavations of
the "Outer Wall" and the "Solomonic" Gateway (July 2 to
August 10, 1990). Andrews University Seminary Studies.
29: 19-60.
4. Austin
et al, Amos's Earthquake.
5. Austin
et al, Amos's Earthquake.
6. Ogden,
K. 1992. The earthquake motif in the book of Amos. In Schunck, K., and M.
Augustin, eds., Goldene apfel in silbernen schalen.
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 69-80; Freedman, D.N., and A. Welch. 1994.
Amos's earthquake and Israelite prophecy. In Coogan, M.D., J. C. Exum, and L.
E. Stager, eds., Scripture and other artifacts: essays on the
Bible, and archaeology in honor of Philip J. King. Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox, 188-198.
* Dr. Austin is Senior
Research Scientist and Chair of the Geology Department.
Cite this article: Austin, S.
2010. The Scientific and Scriptural Impact of Amos' Earthquake. Acts and
Facts. 39 (2): 8-9.
Mackey’s comment: The era of king
Uzziah of Judah, chronologically and stratigraphically, may have to undergo
some modifications if I am right in my new revision of the kings of Judah
as set out in e.g.
my article:
'Taking
aim on' king Amon - such a wicked king of Judah
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