Archeologists Find An Early First-Century Earthquake In The Dead Sea (26-36 AD)

**Archeologists Find An Early First-Century Earthquake In The Dead Sea (26-36 AD)** #Unfinished Herndon In an investigation reported in the journal, they found evidence that there was earthquake activity in the Dead Sea, which is around 13 miles away from where Jesus was Crucified as recorded in The Gospel of Matthew. The following quote from the report summarizes their findings. > [!quote] [[Williams2012-ly|International Geology Review]] >However, it is possible that a non-historically reported earthquake created the 26–36 AD seismite. It has been surmised that an earthquake of magnitude (M) of 5.5 or larger is capable of deforming the ground surface in the immediate vicinity of the epicentre Avi Shapira, personal communication (2000). A slightly more energetic version of such an earthquake (e.g. ML = 5.7) could be capable of deforming lacustrine sediments in Nahal Ze’elim, Ein Gedi, and En Feshka, but might not cause sufficient structural damage in nearby populated areas to be reported in the currently extant historical record. This leaves three possibilities for the cause of the 26–36 AD earthquake observed in the Ein Gedi section: > - (1) the earthquake described in the Gospel of Matthew occurred more or less as reported; > - (2) the earthquake described in the Gospel of Mathew was in effect ‘borrowed’ from an earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion, but during the reign of Pontius Pilate; > - (3) the earthquake described in the Gospel of Matthew is allegorical fiction and the 26–36 AD seismite was caused by an earthquake that is not reported in the currently extant historical record. As stated in the report, both of the earthquakes that are found here were strong enough to cause damage to the ground but not enough to destroy a building or a town so much that we would have more reports of it.