Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

James and Levin:

My interest is linguistic and archaeological.

Not all miracles are without a natural cause, the miraculous part being the
timing. For example, the escape across the Red Sea was because a strong east
wind blew the water off a naturally shallow area (long since dredged away
for shipping), but the wind came just when Israel needed it, and stopped
just when it would drown the Egyptian army. Exodus 14:21, 27

Similarly, it has been suggested that a large earthquake could have caused a
massive fountain of liquified, high sulfer content bitumen that was ignited
to fall on and around Sodom, Gomorrah, Adnah and Ziboim. That would explain
the thick layer of ash found in and around the ruins of those cities.

The reason for my question is the description that the smoke was like that
from a smelting furnace (literally a furnace with foot operated bellows),
connected to the question, was there in Bronze Age times enough wood from
trees in areas like Timnah where there were copper mines, to smelt the ores?
If there were insufficient trees, was collected bitumen (or asphalt) used
for smelting? My understanding is that when heavy crude (such as bitumen) is
burned, it is quite smoky. Or did the ancients use a combination of wood
charcoal and bitumen? What evidence is there either way?

It may be that not enough evidence, from either archaeology or linguistics,
survives from the Bronze Age to answer that question.

It’s not a big thing, but I was just curious.

Karl W. Randolph.