The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr im Jordantal
- Chapter 235 -
The origin of the Death Sea.
While we were strengthening our body, the innkeeper asked Me again if I could not tell him more about the special nature of the Death Sea, and if it is true that on that place in ancient times several cities existed that by a special decree sunk deeply into the ground, forming the Death Sea on that place.
2
I said: "You chose a good subject. This rather big sea received from that time on the name 'Dead Sea', because 2 big cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and 7 other smaller cities are buried in its ground with all their inhabitants and animals.
3
The Jordan had a very different course and flowed into the real sea, actually in the bosom of the sea near Arabia, which is also called 'Red Sea'. But at the time of Abraham and Lot the catastrophe took place by the will of the one, only true and almighty God, and the region of the streams of the Jordan itself collapsed and went lower than before. And so the river of the Jordan does not flow into the bosom of the Arabian Sea anymore but in the Dead Sea.
4
If you or someone else would go with a suitable boat along the shore of that sea at a time when the sea does not emit vapors, you still would see a few remnants of the small cities under the surface of the water, but, as said, one should only go with a boat to the shores of that sea when no vapors above the surface of the water can be seen."
5
The innkeeper said: "So it is true what the prophet Moses says in his books about the existence of that sea. Several travelers who traveled to different places over that sea related to me that they saw certain walls when they looked down from the high, steep shores that surround the sea. But I myself was never concerned about the environment of the Dead Sea. Because what can you do there? As far as your eye can see, you can only see high rocks that go down steeply towards the sea and are as dead - meaning without any vegetation - as the sea itself in which you can find no fish, not even where the Jordan flows into it.
6
They say that there are only few places where with great difficulty you can come below the surface of the water that continuously emits strong vapors of sulfur, and so I never liked very much to observe more closely the nature of the Dead Sea. I am not a hunter and I also would not know why I as an old man would expose myself to danger by climbing on the steep, rocky shores of that Dead Sea and which are quite high now and then. The flat shores, where one can come more easily closer to the sea are a few days of traveling away from here and belong already to the rocky Arabia. So I prefer to very peacefully believe what You say, for I am no friend of death, and therefore also not of the Death Sea. I had the opportunity to go with a boat on the real, big sea and to know what it is like, and this gave me already trouble enough. So that Dead Sea will not see me.
7
What was actually the cause by which the only, true, great God let those cities sink down in the depth of the Earth?"
8
I said: "Nothing else but disobedience against the only, true, great God who often seriously warned that people to give up their big sins and to leave their sinful place where they lived because it was completely located on a layer of sulfur that lay deep into the ground, and the deity knew very well when it would ignite.
9
But the people remained in their big sins, harlotry and orgies of all kinds and did not pay attention to the divine warning, except Lot and his little family. And see, in the whole wide environment of the Death Sea it resulted in tremendous outbursts - as you saw near Italy and Sicily - and the whole sky was full of fire, so much so that a dense rain of burning lumps of sulfur and pitch fell down on all the cities.
10
That fire lasted more than 14 days. Through that, a hollow space was formed under the thin earth's crust of that piece of land, and the land fell down into the burning depth with everything that was on it, and it was filled only gradually with the water of the Jordan and a few smaller brooks. If this would not have happened, also the whole Jordan Valley would have been internally ignited and would have crashed down, for also that whole valley lies on sulfur and pitch. And so I briefly revealed to you now in a natural manner everything you read in Moses in a more detailed manner.