• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Biblical Battle Tales Confirmed Using Variations In Earth’s Magnetic Field

October 25, 2022 by Deborah Bloomfield

The Earth’s magnetic field is not constant. The flips where it suddenly reverses direction are a crucial tool in dating geological events. Now, some researchers claim they can use even brief changes in the field’s strength to precisely date the destruction of cities, and then use these dates to test Biblical accounts.

The second book of Kings is not one of the more widely read or famous parts of the Bible, but the battles it describes are of interest to historians. They are, after all, considerably more plausible than tales from earlier books such as Noah’s Ark, even if victories are attributed to divine intervention.

Advertisement

Archaeological digs have managed to match a number of sites to cities (villages by modern standards) referred to in the Bible as being destroyed by various hostile neighbors. In a new study, University of Tel Aviv doctoral student Yoav Vaknin and co-authors show that the destruction of these cities fits with Biblical accounts.

When magnetic substances get hot enough, they retain the local magnetic field as they cool. Today, that magnetic field is often supplied by electric powerlines or other artificial sources, but three millennia ago the Earth’s magnetic field was pretty much the only game in town. So, when pillaging armies burned towns, the layer of ash that marks their “destruction zone” carries a record of the intensity, as well as the direction, of the Earth’s magnetic field at the time.

“Based on the similarity or difference in intensity and direction of the magnetic field, we can either corroborate or disprove hypotheses claiming that specific sites were burned during the same military campaign,” said Vaknin in a statement emailed to IFLScience. The fact that the geomagnetic field was changing unusually rapidly in this region 3,000-2,600 years ago, sometimes spiking by more than double the current intensity, makes the process easier.

Advertisement

The Bible refers to the Philistine city of Gath, just beyond the borders of Judea, as being destroyed by Hazael, King of Aram-Damascus. Archaeologists believe the Tell es-Safi site in what is now central Israel is the remains of Gath, and was burned around 830 BCE.

Yoav Vaknin measuring at the site of one of the destroyed cities, whose date of destruction has been provided by the magnetization encoded there. Image Credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority

Yoav Vaknin measuring at the site of one of the destroyed cities, whose date of destruction has been revealed by the magnetization encoded there. Image Credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority

The Bible also blames Hazael for the fall of three other cities, thought to be the places now known as Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit, and Horvat Tevet.

Vaknin and co-authors can’t pin the blame on an individual, but they do claim to have shown that the magnetic field was the same when Gath and the other cities burned, indicating it was probably in the same year. By Occam’s razor, it would seem likely the same hand was at play. 

Advertisement

On the other hand, the destruction of Tel Beth-Shean (now northern Israel) has also been attributed by some modern scholars to Hazael. However, Vaknin’s data suggests its demise came 70-100 years after that of Gath, by which time Hazael was certainly dead. Tel Beth-Shean’s fall coincides with the campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq into the lands east of the Mediterranean.



The work also supports the theory that parts of the kingdom of Judah survived after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. “Towns in the Negev, the southern Judean Mountains and the southern Judean foothills remained almost unaffected, said co-author Professor Erez Ben Yosef. “Now, the magnetic results support this hypothesis.”

These cities fell decades later, and the authors attribute their destruction to the Edomites rather than the Babylonians. Ben Yosef suggested this might be why the Bible, seldom complimentary of any neighbors of the Kingdom of Judah, reserves particular hatred for the Edomites.

Advertisement

However, the fact the Bible could present an accurate account of events that occurred not long before it was written does not necessarily say much about how well it covers the thousands of years before that.

Cities of ancient Judah and surrounds and the approximate lines of invasion, indicating which cities were destroyed together

Cities of ancient Judah and its surroundings with the approximate lines of invasion, indicating which cities were destroyed together. Image Credit: Itamar Ben-Ezra

The paper is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. India’s Jet Airways to resume domestic operations in first quarter of 2022
  2. U.S. top security adviser, Yemen envoy head to Saudi, UAE
  3. OPEC+ sticks to plan for gradual oil output hike, price roars higher
  4. Taiwan Sept exports set to rise for 15th straight month: Reuters poll

Source Link: Biblical Battle Tales Confirmed Using Variations In Earth's Magnetic Field

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • IFLScience We Have Questions: Why Does Snow Sometimes Look Blue?
  • New Nimbus COVID Variant Present In The UK, Infections Could Spread This Summer
  • Scientists Have Finally Measured How Fast Quantum Entanglement Happens
  • Why Earth’s Magnetic Pole Reversals Are So Fascinating
  • World First Artificial Solar Eclipse Created, The “Closest Thing” To HIV Vaccine Gets FDA Approval, And Much More This Week
  • “Remarkable” Pattern Discovered Behind Prime Numbers, Math’s Most Unpredictable Objects
  • People Are Only Just Learning What The World’s Most Expensive Cheese Is Made Of
  • The Physics Behind Iron: Why It’s The Most Stable Element
  • What Is The Reason Some People Keep Waking Up At 3am Every Night?
  • Michigan Bear Finally Free After 2 Years With Plastic Lid Stuck Around Its Neck
  • Pangolins, The World’s Most Trafficked Mammal, May Soon Get Federal Protection In The US
  • Sharks Have No Bones, So How Do They Get So Big?
  • 2025 Is Shaping Up To Be A Whirlwind Year For Tornadoes In The US
  • Unexpected Nova Just Appeared In The Night Sky – And You Can See It With The Naked Eye
  • Watch As Maori Octopus Decides Eating A Ray Is A Good Idea
  • There Is Life Hiding In The Earth’s Deep Biosphere, But Not As You Know It
  • Two Sandhill Cranes Have Adopted A Canada Gosling, And It’s Ridiculously Adorable
  • Hybrid Pythons Are Taking Over The Florida Everglades With “Hybrid Vigor”
  • Mysterious, Powerful Radio Pulse Traced Back To NASA Satellite That’s Been Dead Since 1967
  • This Is The Best (And Worst) Sleep Position
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version