The Destruction of Pompeii—God’s Revenge?

Biblical Archeological Review ^ | Jul/Aug 2010 | Hershel Shanks

[Pharmboy]

...so, how does France figure? (;-)

[Lakeshark]

Well, it had to have been some kind of cosmic justice.......that Richelieu guy was a pretty mean striker......

[Dr. Ursus]

More like how the betting went in Sicily!

[Doomonyou]

Heres the reason:

[Pharmboy]

Was that the cover of the first issue of Men's Health?

[dangerdoc]

Read your Old Testament.

God frequently used foreign nations to punish Israel, then at a time of his choosing punished the foreign nations.

[Bob J]

“God frequently used foreign nations to punish Israel, then at a time of his choosing punished the foreign nations.”

Yes, that’s what makes the Old testament so enlightening and inspirational.

[P8riot]

You’ve missed my point entirely. With God, it is not an afterthought. It is all part of His plan.

[dangerdoc]

That’s funny because I found the OLD Testament both enlightening and inspirational.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Pharmboy! Nine years, almost to the day, after Roman legionaries destroyed God's house in Jerusalem, God destroyed the luxurious watering holes of the Roman elite. Was this God's revenge? ...Rather, did anyone at the time see it that way? Did anyone connect the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70? According to Michael Grant, writing in "Jews in the Roman World", the Jews did. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · Mirabilis.ca · LiveScience · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · Archaeology · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Pharmboy.

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·

[colorado tanker]

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see the connection with Jerusalem. It think it was punishment for the Romans building so close to a very active volcano. And they’re doing it again.

[Cheburashka]

post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

http://www.skepdic.com/posthoc.html

[NYer]

When Mount Vesuvius erupted cataclysmically in the summer of A.D. 79, the nearby Roman town of Pompeii was buried under several feet of ash and rock. The ruined city remained frozen in time until it was discovered by a surveying engineer in 1748. As archaeologists excavated the site, they found it was strewn with air pockets where victims' bodies had decomposed within the hardened volcanic debris. By filling these hollows with plaster, they were able to create casts, such as the one shown here, that reveal with remarkable detail the suffering of Pompeii's citizens in their last moments.
Photograph by Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

I have been to Pompeii on different occasions. A visitor cannot help but be captivated by being immersed into such a long lost decadent city. The more graphic sexual images are covered with a locked box. For a few lira, the tour guide willingly opens the box to reveal the image.

Personally, I do not believe there is a link between the fall of Jerusalem and the collapse of the Pompeiian society.

The sadest thing at the Pompeii exhibition were the casts of the people and animals that died after the explosion of Vesuvius. Especially the cast of the dog (at right) and of the slave who was still in his shackles.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for your link, Cheb; I am well-aware. And, just because I posted this, does not mean I am promoting this belief. As I said in my post #1, I thought many here on FR would be interested in this.

In biomedical statistics, we have a similar rule (as I'm sure you're aware) regarding associations of two or more variables over time: they do not mean causation.

[NY Attitude]

I believe that there the volcano that erupted was named Zumo . I blew out the wall that separated Zumo and Vesuvius and that action created one volcano. This is according to the things that I have read and living there in Naples for 5 years.

[NY Attitude]

There was one of a mother and child as well.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NYer. And it was even more gruesome in Herculaneum.

• Lethal Thermal Impact at Periphery of Pyroclastic Surges: Evidences at Pompeii

Boiling brains
1900 GMT, 11 April 2001

Alberto Incoronato of the University of Naples Federico II studied 80 skeletons of people who hid in chambers in the coastal cliff face at the foot of the volcano, near Herculaneum. All were found in relaxed poses. This indicates they did not die from choking on the pyroclastic flow of ash and gas that exploded from Vesuvius, says Incoronato. Instead, the intense heat of the flow killed them... Within about one second of the heat wave striking, the victims' vital organs were stopped, their hands, feet and spines contracted and their soft tissues were vaporised, he says.

[SunkenCiv]

I see the connection with Jerusalem -- but not with the Vesuvius eruption. :')

Nola: A Prehistoric "Pompeii"
by Judith Harris

To date, five Bronze Age villages have been found near Vesuvius. "Obviously there were more," said Stefano de Caro, director of the Naples Archaeological Museum. "This shows how densely settled the area was even in prehistoric times." But de Caro also noted that the Nola site is by far the most complete Bronze Age village yet found: "This is the first time [in Italy] we have found everything together: the dead, dwellings, crafts, customs, food."

Bronze-Age Venice
by Jarrett A. Lobell
July/August 2002

There is evidence of stilt houses and drainage systems, and the settlements' small islets are separated by artificial canals whose edges were strengthened with vertical logs later replaced by squared timbers... The islets, joined by bridges, may have eventually been home to as many as 2,000 people and were enlarged several times over the centuries to accommodate the community's growing population. The remains of wooden huts, stands for dugout canoes, furnishings, as well as evidence of bronze and perhaps amber working, have also been found. The site was abandoned during sixth-century floods and mudslides, and scholars say it is possible that the deserters of Poggiomarino were, in fact, the founders of Pompeii.

Move Over, Pompeii
by Jarrett A. Lobell
Archaeology
March/April 2002
Volume 55 Number 2

"Since Nola is only 7.5 miles from the volcano, people probably did not have time to pack before the eruption, and left behind cooking utensils, drinking cups, hunting tools, a hat decorated with wild boars' teeth, and a pot waiting to be fired in the kiln... So far no human remains have been found at Nola -- only several footprints preserved in the mud -- but scholars believe the skeletons of a Bronze Age man and woman discovered nearby about five years ago may be associated with the prehistoric eruption as well."

Bronze Age Village
Thursday 29 November 2001

A prehistoric village has been uncovered near Pompeii, more than 3,500 years after it was buried by Mount Vesuvius as the Roman city was centuries later. Experts called the find at Nola, near Naples, "sensational" and said the site could be the world's best preserved early Bronze Age village. The site is north of both Pompeii and Vesuvius, and suggests that the community was thriving when it was surprised by the eruption. Wooden structures in the village were destroyed by the heat but the mud that filled the buildings created a natural mould of everything they contained. Archaeologists believe that a man and a woman whose skeletons were dug up five years ago had been trying to escape from the village during the eruption.

[Centurion2000]

Did anyone connect the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

I would expect a BIBLICAL publication to use the correct sufffix for the year

79 A.D. (ANNO DOMINI)