Bodies of water, part 2

So I hope that you were able to check out yesterday's post.  However, no one has answered my question as of yet - so I guess I'll just eat the candy bar!


I see that we are having a decent amount of traffic, so I am grateful for that!!!


Yesterday we looked at the Mediterranean Sea, The "Sea" of Galilee, and the Jordan river.  Today we will look at the Dead Sea and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is another large lake!  As we mentioned yesterday, it is the lowest part of the Earth (on land) at 1,300 feet below Sea level.  Water flows into this body of water, but it doesn't go anywhere!  Well, it evaporates due to the high temperatures year round.  When the water evaporates, it leaves the minerals behind (like on this fallen tree above).  The salt content in the Dead Sea is even more concentrated than that of the Oceans!  Thus eliminating almost all plant and animal life (hence the name "Dead").

The main role of this Sea in the Old Testament, is that of a boundary.  Not a whole lot is made of it. 

By far, the most important thing about the Dead Sea is what happened on it's banks.  In 1947 a young Shepard boy discovered what is now known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls".  These are translations of Old Testament Scriptures that were saved from the Roman invasion by a group of Jews called the Essenes.  The scrolls were contained in jars of clay that were sealed and protected by the warm, dry climate around the Dead Sea.

The reason these scrolls are so important is that they verify the authenticity of the Old Testament!  They are word for word matches of the translations that we have!  The Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic by different authors and centuries apart - YET ARE IDENTICAL!!!  Thus proving that the Old Testament that we have today is in fact the very Word of God!

Google did an awesome thing and put the Dead Sea Scrolls online!  You can check it out here:

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah#1:3

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

I am going to skip most of the natural side of these rivers and focus more on the Biblical side.  Both of these rivers begin in modern day Turkey and flow all the way down into the Persian Gulf.

The Biblical importance of these is much greater than most of the bodies of water that we have been looking at so far.  SO much of the Old Testament is wrapped up around these two rivers!

To start with, the Garden of Eden was somewhere along the banks of these two rivers.  They were two of the four rivers that flowed out of Eden.  You can read about that in Genesis 2:10-14.

Both Nineveh and Babylon were on the banks of these rivers.

We learn that the Tower of Babel is constructed in this region in Genesis 11:1-9.

Abraham lived most of his life in this area (Ur of the Chaldees in Genesis 11:28).

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and located on the Tigris river.  If you remember, that was the nation that came down and defeated the Northern Kingdom.  They also carried off many of the Jews and scattered them "to the four winds".  You can read about that in 2 Kings 17.

Babylon was located on the Euphrates River.   In 2 Chronicles 36 we see the Southern kingdom overtaken by the Babylonians.

So as you can see, many things happened around these two rivers early on in Bible history!

Please take the time to look up the Dead Sea Scrolls by following that link.  It is pretty awesome!  The fact that we don't have to go to Israel to view them is pretty amazing!!!

We will finish up the bodies of water tomorrow!

God bless,

Chris