“Did seismic activity lead to the rise of religions?”—supplementary data by E. R. Force
This supplementary information is for the research paper and book-chapter “Did seismic activity lead to the rise of religion?” (Jeanet Sinding Bentzen and Eric R. Force, 2023, Discussion Paper DP 17878, Centre for Economic Policy Research. Reprinted 2023 in The Economics of Religion, R. H. Sauer, ed.: World Scientific Publishing p. 63-95.
This supplement appeared originally as a post with Berkeley Electronic Press: https://works.bepress.com/eric_force/19/
To Elsevier’s shame, this series will no longer be available after Dec. 31, 2024. This weblog post and a similar posting with University of Arizona Digital Commons series will then be the only public records of it.
This supplement consists of three parts, I. Documented cultural responses to historic earthquakes, II. Religious responses to earthquakes in the Biblical literature, and III. Treatment of earthquakes in the ancient Hellenic literature. Each part has its own reference list.
Part I. Documented cultural responses to historic earthquakes
Data added here is for section 5.2 of Bentzen and Force, and their headings are labeled here accordingly.
5.2.1. Types of cultural responses to earthquakes
This section is intended to show that religious and other cultural responses are separable based on people’s elemental responses to tectonic activity. Composite religious/other cultural responses, generally sequential, are compiled separately; references are listed together at the end of section 5.2.1.
5.2.1.A. List of religious responses to historic earthquakes
Below I compile cases where religious responses are sufficiently well described to link them definitively to tectonic events. In a few cases archaeological evidence links religious responses to active fault planes.
I have listed only responses to earthquakes rather than including volcanic eruptions, as these can be quite different. Earthquakes generally seem totally other-worldly and unexpected, so that religious response begins at the event, whereas people living near a volcano are generally aware of that, and religious practice consequently focuses on pre- and syn-eruption protection (and in some cases volcano veneration). These are numerous and persuasive; volcanic ties with culture and religion have a literature of their own (e.g. Balmuth et al. 2005, Grattan and Torrence 2007). These ties have been catalogued by Chester and Duncan (2007, 2009) consisting of at least 41 examples, 25 after 1850 and 16 before. To their comprehensive volcanic compilation I can add only a few (Oviedo 1529, Hamilton 1776, Elson 2007, Barnes in press).
The list below documents the religious responses to earthquakes, ranging from antiquity to the modern world. These are compiled from historical descriptions of earthquake impact such as de Boer and Sanders (2005), Chester and Duncan (2009), Robinson (2016) and my survey of newspaper accounts, ancient texts, etc. The list is intended to be complete for descriptions adequate for this purpose, but I’m eager to learn of other examples. Most pre-modern (and some modern) earthquakes have insufficiently recorded and preserved cultural responses, whether secular or religious, to be categorized. Not included in my list are those pre-modern religious events--such as death of a prophet—accompanied by earthquakes, as these were easily manufactured after the fact to maximize impact. However, one such link is included in which a religion’s appeal was changed. Also omitted are creation myths that involve earthquakes. Tsunamis are included if they are likely to be earthquake-generated. In a few remarkable items the link is directly to ancient fault activity rather than to earthquakes per se.
Pre-1300 BC: Mycenae, religious (Taylour 1970) focus on recently formed fault scarp (Force and Rutter, 2018)
Ca. 750 BC: an earthquake predicted by Amos (1:1) and known archaeologically (e.g. Dever 1992) began the entire earthquake theophany of zealous prophets (Freedman and Welch 1994), described in some detail in the following section 5.2.2.
8th to 4th cent. BC: Delphi, along active faults with episodic destruction; release of toxic gases as basis of predictions and veneration (Stewart and Piccardi 2017)
Ca. 485 BC: Delos (Greek island), earthquake sent as divine warning (Herodotus VI, 98)
5th cent. BC: Ephesus (Turkey), Hellenic temple sited on active fault scarp, apparently deliberately as votive niches are cut into scarp (Stewart and Piccardi 2017)
4th cent. BC: Cnidus (Turkey) as at Ephesus (Stewart and Piccardi 2017)
3rd cent. BC: Heiropolis (Turkey) priestly manipulation of fault-motion consequences (Piccardi 2007, Stewart and Piccardi 2017)
Ca. AD 32: “Holy Land”, death and resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 27:51-54, 28:2-4), earthquakes (not attested outside Bible) suggest divinity as first to be recognized outside Judaism (see 5.2.2)
AD 60; Denizli/Colossai (Turkey), archangel appears in earthquake (Piccardi 2007)
AD 77 then 365-400: Kenchraea (Greece), earthquake-submerged port becomes Christian basilica, then that is abandoned due to recurrent tectonic submergences (Scranton 1978)
Ca. AD 100: Philippi (Turkey), earthquake (not attested outside Bible) releases Paul and Silas from prison, converts jailer (Acts 16: 26-31), thought to be a miracle (5.2.2).
AD 115: Antioch, earthquake blamed on divine retribution (Sbeinati 2005)
AD 363: Jerusalem, divine causation of earthquake to punish Jews and Roman emperor (Nur 2008)
AD 365: Cyprus, “pagan” temples rebuilt after earthquake as Christian churches (Soren and James 1988)
AD 410: Corinth, earthquake destruction of “pagan” temples divert populace toward Christianity, now “official” (Rothaus 1996)
AD 1257: Kamakura (Japan), rise of lotus sect spurred by earthquake (deBoer and Sanders 2005)
AD 1382: Dover/Calais, earthquake attributed to divine retribution (Aberth 2001)
15th cent. AD: New Zealand, Maori belief systems shift with occupation patterns due to earthquakes and tsunami (McFadgen 2007)
AD 1580: London/Calais, provoked denial of natural cause of earthquake in favor of divine cause (de Boer and Sanders 2005)
AD 1638, 1727, and 1755: New England, the famous Mathers both father and son use each of these three earthquakes, preaching religious purification to avoid future earthquakes (Rozario 2007 reviews a large literature e.g. van de Wetering 1982,).
AD 1692: Port Royal (Jamaica), seismic destruction of town attributed by John Wesley to sinful behavior (de Boer and Sanders, 2005.
AD 1786: Lituya Bay AK, some Tlingit clans form tectonically related religions, largely in response to tsunami (Emmons 1911, Howell and Grant 2016)
AD 1812: New Madrid MO, earthquake increases local religiousity and is blamed by Tecumseh on Great Spirit (Penick 1981, Rozario 2007, Hough and Bilham 2006).
AD 1855: Edo (Japan), earthquake initiates religious imagery of earthquakes (Robinson 2016).
AD 1883: Krakatoa tsunami sparked Islamic fundamentalist reform (Winchester 2003).
AD 1906: San Francisco earthquake, much Protestant preaching about divine retribution (Hartley 2000), Christian Science popularity sparked by earthquake (Winchester 2006).
AD 1908: Sicily earthquake, attributed to divine retribution (Bosworth 1981).
AD 1915, Avezzano (Italy), earthquake attributed to divine retribution (Anon. 1915).
AD 1923: Kanto (Japan), earthquake begins changes in Shinto religion which afterward included militarism and exacerbated intolerance (Robinson 2016).
AD 1940: Romania, earthquake attributed to divine retribution by Adolph Hitler (Anon. 1940).
AD 1976: Guatemala, earthquake popularly admitted to be due to divine retribution (Levenson 2002).
AD 2001: Gujarat, earthquake gives rise to Hindu nationalism (Robinson 2016).
AD 2011: Christchurch (New Zealand), increase in religiosity after earthquake (Sibley and Bulbulia 2012)
So dozens of examples show direct linkages between earthquake and religious responses of various types, representing a wide range of time periods in different parts of the world. Indirect links between religion and earthquakes seem unnecessary when direct links are so numerous. That is not to say, however, that non-religious responses to earthquakes don’t exist; those are described next.
Earthquakes evoke religious responses in part because of their other-worldly nature. Personal coping with earthquakes (discussed in section 4 of Bentzen and Force) can take several forms; in the past examples recorded here God’s retribution is frequently mentioned. Note that several of the described earthquakes were apparently thought to be CAUSED by God even after natural causes were generally accepted. In several of these cases priests used earthquakes to manipulate the laity. In several others the religion is reformed in some way, making tectonically-related origination of new religions in the ancient world quite plausible. This result is in accord with dozens of additional links between religious responses and volcanic eruptions (Balmuth et al. 2005, Chester and Duncan 2007).
5.2.1.B. List of civic and other non-religious responses to historic earthquakes
This list is required to compare religious and non-religious responses to earthquakes. The huge majority of historic earthquakes, even large ones, have no recorded cultural response of any kind, so that both this list and that for religious responses must be just a sampling of real-world responses from the past. Nevertheless, this compilation is the best available, so comparing the lists may be instructive.
463 BC: Sparta, earthquake prompts serfs to revolt as so many Spartan soldiers killed (de Boer and Sanders 2005)
31 BC: Dead Sea, after earthquake Herod convinces Jews to rally against Arabs (Nur 2008).
AD 62/3: Pompeii, land restoration after moderate earthquake (Robinson 2016)
AD 1855: Wellington area, New Zealand, focus on rebuilding after earthquake (Grapes and Downes 1997)
AD 1877: Iquique (Chile), damage claims resulted in war between Chile and Bolivia (Farcau 2000)
AD 1960: Valdivia (Chile), world’s largest known earthquake, improved organization of region (Rytkönen 2000). Inspired international seismic network
AD 1964: Alaska (Good Friday) earthquake leads mostly to civic responses (Fountain 2017).
AD 1970: Huascaran (Peru), earthquake and landslide led to (failed) experiment in social reform (de Boer and Sanders 2005)
AD 1976, Tangshan, little immediate cultural response to earthquake but end of Great Cultural Revolution (Robinson 2016)
AD 1985: Mexico City, self-serving government fails to aid victims, citizen group organizes recovery and becomes a political group (Davis 2005)
AD 2004: Aceh (Indonesia), earthquake prompts end of provincial rebellion (Robinson 2016).
It is worth noting that many of these non-religious responses post-date the Enlightenment period, after which believing that God causes earthquakes is less common.
5.2.1.C. List of composite religious/non-religious responses to earthquakes. Note prevalence of sequential development of responses.
I consider it revealing that the few examples in which both religious and civic responses are recorded show that the religious response occurs first—as one might expect from examples in our own era. Probably this sequence is more common than reported.
AD 1157 and 1170: Syria, “holy land” sieges and battles between Crusaders and Moslems postponed by earthquakes, then politically influenced by damage (Raphael 2010)
ca. AD 1500: Italy, political manipulation of religious response to earthquakes (Belloc et al. 2016)
AD 1755: Lisbon, earthquake first blamed by clerics on impious populace, then reversed by Marquis de Pombal, meanwhile used by Voltaire to address question of God’s permitting evil in Candide and other works (many authors e.g. de Boer and Sanders 2005; Hough and Bilham 2006, Robinson 2016)
AD 1812: Caracas, earthquake in midst of uprising, Bolivar converts priestly manipulation to revolution, and recovery becomes a national symbol (Altez 2010, Robinson 2016)
AD 1886: Charleston SC, earthquake leads to pride in rebuilding (Hough 2002) after invocations of divine retribution (Steinberg 2000)
AD 1972: Managua, earthquake catalyzed Sandinista revolt (de Boer and Sanders 2005) following priestly attribution to sinfulness (Dobson and O’Shaughnessy 1990)
5.2.1D Summary of religious vs. other cultural responses to earthquakes.
As we have seen, religious responses to earthquakes have far outnumbered other cultural responses all through human history. This tendency still exists as first shown by Bentzen (2019). The composite responses listed are generally sequential, i.e. a direct religious response followed by a longer-term civic or other non-religious response. This itself suggests that links between tectonic activity and cultural development as documented in the ancient world by Force (2015) occurred via religious responses.
References
Aberth, J., 2001. From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague and Death in the Later Middle Ages. Routledge, New York, USA and London, UK.
Altez, R., 2010, New interpretations of the social and material impacts of the 1812 earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, p. 47-58, in Sintubin, Stewart, Niemi, and Altunel, eds. Ancient Earthquakes: Geological Society of America Special Paper 471.
Anon.,
1915, Earthquake in Italy. The Times (London), 14 January. E8.
Anon., 1940, Rumania: quake and answer. Time Magazine, 18 November. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777519,00.html.
Balmuth, . M. S., Chester, D. K., and Johnston, P. A., 2005, Cultural responses to the volcanic landscape: Archaeological Institute of America.
Barnes, G. L., in press, Ritualized beadstone in Kofun-period society: East Asia Journal, accessed at https://soas.academia.edu/GinaBarnes
Belloc, M., Drago, F., & Galbiati, R., 2016, Earthquakes, Religion, and Transition to Self-Government in Italian Cities: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4), 1875-̃1926.
Bentzen, J. S., 2019, Acts of God? Religiousity and natural disasters across subnational world districts: The Economic Journal v. 129(622), p. 2295-2321.
Bosworth, R. J. B., 1981, The Messina earthquake of 28 December 1908. European Studies Review, 11. 189 – 206.
Chester, D. K. and Duncan, A. M., 2007. Geomythology, theodicy, and the continuing relevance of religious worldviews in response to volcanic eruptions. In Living Under the Shadow, edited by J. Grattan and R. Torrence, p. 203-224: Walnut Creek, Left Coast Press.
-----, 2009, The Bible, theodicy, and Christian responses to historic and contemporary earthquakes and volcanic eruptions: Environmental Hazards v. 8, p. 304-332.
Davis, D. E., 2005, Reverberations: Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake and transformation of the capitol, p. 255-280 in The Resilient City, L. J., Vale and T. J. Campanella, eds: Oxford.
deBoer, J. Z. and Sanders, D. T. 2005. Earthquakes in Human History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Dever , W. G., 1992, A case-study in Biblical archaeology—the earthquake of ca. 760 BCE: Eretz-Israel v. 23, p. 27-35.
Dobson, M. and O’ Shaughnessy, L. N., 1990. Nicaragua’s Other Revolution. Religious Faith and Political Struggle. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel
Hill, NC, USA and London, UK.
Elson, M. D. et al. 2007, Living with the volcano—the 11th century AD eruption of Sunset Crater, in Living Under the Shadow, edited by J. Grattan and R. Torrence, 107-132: Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press
Emmons, G. T., 1911, Native Account of the Meeting between La Perouse and the Tlingit. American Anthropologist, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun 1911), pp. 294-298.
Farcau, B. W., (2000). The Ten Cents War: Chile, Peru, and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific, 1879–1884. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 39, 40.
Force, E. R., 2015, Impact of tectonic activity on ancient civilizations—recurrent shakeups, tenacity, resilience, and change: Lexington
Force, E. R. and Rutter, J. B., 2018, Holocene fault scarps at Mycenae (Greece) and possible cultural ties: Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici, nuovo serie #4,p. 63-74.
Fountain, H., 2017, The Great Quake: Crown
Freedman, D. N., and Welch, A., 1994, Amos’s earthquake and Israelite prophesy, in Scripture and other Artifacts, edited by M. D. Coogan, J. C. Exum, and L. E. Stager: Louisville, Westminster John Knox
Grapes, R., and G. Downes, 1997, The 1855 Wairarapa, New
Zealand earthquake—Analysis of historical data: Bulletin New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering, v. 30, p. 271–369.
Grattan, J., and Torrence R., 2007, Living under the shadow—the cultural impacts of volcanic eruptions: Walnut Creek, Left Coast Press
Hamilton, W. 1776. Campi Phlegraei: London:Royal Society/Fabris.
Hough, S. E., 2002, Earthshaking Science: Princeton
Hough, S. E. and Bilham, R. G., 2006, After the Earth Quakes—elastic rebound on an urban planet: Oxford
Howell, W. K. and Grant, K., 2016, The sixth wave: cultural responses to the giant tsunamis of Lituya Bay, Alaska: Society of Applied Anthropology meeting abstracts, Vancouver, p. 167.
Levenson, D., 2002, Reactions to trauma: The 1976 earthquake in Guatemala. International Labor and Working-Class History, 62(Fall). 60–68.
McFadgen, B., 2007, Hostile Shores: Catastrophic Events in Prehistoric New Zealand and Their Impact on Maori Coastal Communities. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
Nur, A., 2008, Apocalypse: Princeton.
Oviedo, 1528, Description of Nicaragua (currently out of print)
Penick, J. L., 1981. The New Madrid Earthquake. University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, USA.
Piccardi, L., 2007, The AD 60 Denizli earthquake and the apparition of archangel Michael at Colossai (Aegean Turkey), in L. Piccardi and B. Masse, eds, Myth and Geology: Special Publications of the Geological Society #273, p. 95-105.
Raphael, K., 2010, The impact of the 1157 and 1170 Syrian earthquakes on Crusader-Muslim politics and military affairs, in Sintubin, Stewart, Niemi, and Altunel, eds. Ancient Earthquakes: Geological Society of America Special Paper 471, p. 59-66
Robinson, A. ,2016, Earth-shattering Events—earthquakes, nations, and civilization: Thames and Hudson
Rothaus, R. M., 1996, Earthquakes and temples in Late Antique Corinth, In Archaeoseismology, edited by S. Stiros and R E. Jones, 105-112: Athens, Fitch Laboratory Occasional Paper 7 (British School at Athens).
Rozario, K., 2007, The culture of calamity: disaster and the making of modern America: Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Rytkönen, P., 2000, Fruits of Capitalism: Modernization of Chilean Agriculture, 1950–2000: Lund Studies in Economic History v. 31, p. 132ff
Sbeinati, M. R., Darawcheh, R., and Mouty, M., 2005, The historiclal earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 BC to AD 1900: Annals of Geophysics v. 48, p. 347-435.
Scranton, R., 1978, Kenchreai--eastern port of Corinth I. Topography and architecture: Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Sibley, C. G, and Bulbulia, J., 2012, Faith after an earthquake--
-longitudinal study of religion and perceived health before and after the 2011 Christchurch New Zealand earthquake: PLoS ONE v. 7#12 p. 1-10 e49648
Soren, D. and James, J., 1988, Kourion—the search for a lost Roman City: New York, Anchor.
Steinberg, T., 2000, Acts of God: the unnatural history of natural disasters in America: New York, Oxford
Stewart, I. S., and Piccardi, L., 2017, Seismic faults and sacred sanctuaries in Aegean antiquity: Proceedings of the Geologists Association v. 128, p 711-721.
Taylour, W.D., 1970, New Light on Mycenaean Religion: Antiquity v. 44,p. 270-280.
van de Wetering, M., Moralizing in Puritan natural science: mysteriousness in earthquake sermons: Journal of the History of Ideas v. 43, p. 417-438.
Winchester, S. 2003. Krakatoa: New York, HarperCollins.
Winchester, S. 2006. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906: New York, Harper.
II. Religious responses to earthquakes in the Judeo-Christian (Biblical) literature—“earthquake theophany”
The Bible is by far the most detailed narrative with which to track the influence of tectonism on the evolution of a religion. Its examples reveal detail, motivation, and dynamics.
The “Holy Land” is astride the junction between two big tectonic plates moving nearly-horizontally past each other (e.g. Yeats et al. 1997). Seismic activity has been high all through its history (Ben Menahem 1991). If tectonic activity plays a part in religious developments, it should be evident here.
From the point of view of response to earthquakes, the Bible including the New Testament shows a continuum that gathers strength through time. For chronologic order I’ll divide the discussion, first into books that cover creation through Moses and Israel’s kings to ca. 587 B.C., i.e. the Torah and “Deuteronomistic” books, then the prophetic tradition, which continues into the New Testament.
Many readers may be puzzled at my title, so: Theophany is defined as God’s appearance to humans. His appearance in conjunction with earthquakes is not my conclusion, but I explore and extend the concept; biblical scholars, archaeologists, and geophysicists have documented almost all the parts of this relationship in their technical journals.
The Torah and “Deuteronomistic” books
Earthquakes accompany several important turning points in early Jewish religious history, indeed God begins his habit of appearing in earthquakes in some of these events, the others being merely miraculous. Some of the events are described in text fragments of great antiquity, for example:
In Exodus 19:18ff, Moses encounters Jehovah on Sinai, which seems to be a volcanic eruption as noted by Cross (1997), but shaking is also recorded as sometimes happens with eruptions. This passage is part of the ancient J-document component of the Torah (R. E. Friedman 1987, p. 251). This would appear to be the first example of “earthquake theophany” as discussed below.
In Numbers 16:30ff, Moses predicts an opening of the earth in a hostile test of his connection with God, and is successful. God does not appear but causes the miracle to support Moses. That is, the text is not theophanic but it does begin a related prophetic tradition. R. E. Friedman (1987, pp. 193-196, 253) shows that this too is an ancient J document, in this case overprinted by a later priestly addition. The earth is not described as shaking, but the “clave asunder” (KJV) and its immediate closure would appear to require active tectonism and are accepted as an earthquake by Friedman.
The Torah as it currently appears is a composite of different documents derived from different regions and with different biases. Final assembly was quite late, but some of the constituent documents including the two earthquakes described above are as ancient as 800 B.C. or before. Some of these may have originated as oral traditions.
The first few following books—through II Kings—called Deuteronomistic, were completed after the fall of Judah in 587 B.C. but present a chronology of events in the formation of the state of Israel relative to its religious practices, focusing on the era of King David, ca. 1000 B.C. Some traditional components of this literature are thought to have originated in that era. For example, Psalm 18 (and its repetition in II Samuel 22) is thought to be of great antiquity, and David’s pleas to God for help do produce an earthquake in verse 7. The Song of Deborah in Judges 5, also thought to be of great antiquity (e.g. Coogan 2011, p. 214), mentions earthquakes as God emerges in battle for Israel. In I Samuel 14:15, King Saul prevails over his enemies with an earthquake provided by God (verse 23). These examples range from theophany to simple miracles but certainly get the attention of his God-fearing people.
Psalms 29:8, 46:3, and 68:8 also feature earthquakes but more in the spirit of God’s wondrous power, and some of these psalms are thought to be later. We get a glimpse of the recording of oral tradition in Proverbs 25:1 where oral proverbs nominally originating with Solomon were copied down by Hezekiah (715-687 B.C.).
An interesting window into one mindset that produced these books is provided by I Kings 19:11, where an earthquake and storm occurred “as the Lord passed by.” However, “the Lord was not in the earthquake”, building up to “a still small voice” addressing Elijah (all KJV). The intentional anticlimax is puzzling.
Archaeoseismologists have discovered evidence of some earthquakes from this period that are not attributed as such in the Bible. The best case in my opinion can be made for earthquakes in conjunction with the fall of Jericho (Joshua 6:1-16). There is buried evidence of earthquake in a time frame that would include Joshua (Kenyon and Tushingham 1953, Kenyon 1979). The method of construction of Jericho’s walls made earthquake reconstruction easier but resulted in repeated damage. Jericho is of course located right on the active faults forming the boundary between Arabian and African tectonic plates.
The prophetic tradition
Religious fascination with earthquakes kicked into a higher gear with the onset of the main prophetic tradition. This tradition begins with one particular earthquake of about 760-750 B.C. (Dever 1992, Ogden 1992, D. N. Freedman and Welch 1994, Austin et al. 2010). Its apparent prediction by the prophet Amos set the pattern for subsequent prophets for almost a millennium (indeed recognizable in present-day preaching).
The book of Amos begins “ . . . two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1, KJV) with his prophesy of that earthquake—or at least taken to be of that earthquake once it occurred. An extremely severe earthquake did occur; the archaeological record of this earthquake has been documented over quite a large area of Israel, southern Lebanon, and SW Syria (Dever 1992, Austin et al. 2010). Amos basically says that God will both cause and appear in the earthquake, and subsequent prophets accepted that, making this earthquake theophanic (D. N. Freedman and Welch 1994).
Some readers will find it remarkable (as it once was to me) that the seemingly obscure book of Amos, inserted among other “minor prophets” toward the end of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), is quite ancient, from the Middle Iron Age (Iron IIb). Actually there is a huge literature on Amos; he is not obscure to Biblical scholars. Amos is the oldest of the prophetic-tradition books; indeed, Amos is probably among the older extensive works of literature in paleo-Hebrew, based on references to rulers, neighboring states, writing style, and the archaeological evidence (e.g. Anderson and D.N. Freedman 1989, D. N. Freedman and Welch 1994). We have seen that Biblical books that treat pre-Amos events include many components that were composed before Amos, but which were compiled after Amos’ time into the composite Biblical books as we read them today (e.g. R. E. Friedman 1987).
Subsequent prophets (Isaiah 5:25, Zechariah 14:5) mention the impact of “Amos’s” earthquake. But most interesting is the tradition of earthquake prediction--and threats--that followed through the entire prophetic tradition of the Old Testament, so that Amos’s earthquake became a foundation of Judaic religious patterns. Eight (out of 14) of these prophets (Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Nahum, Haggai, and Zechariah, see attribution in table 1) threatened earthquakes (the “earthquake theophany” of Austin et al. 2010) for manipulation of the laity and to underscore their predictions relative to matters of faith, politics, and future deliverance. These range in age from Amos to about 400 B.C. (Coogan 2011). So this prophetic tradition in the Old Testament spans about 350 years after Amos.
Of course this strategy would not work unless earthquakes were occurring. We have insufficient records of earthquakes in this period to link prophets with individual events, but the average interval between earthquakes in this region is on the order of 60 years (Ben Menahem 1991, Ambraseys 2009), based in part on seismically disturbed layers in Dead Sea sediments (Migowski et al. 2004). So there is reason to suppose that earthquakes were kept in people’s minds.
Earthquakes are destructive, and a theophany based largely on earthquakes would have God’s appearances dreaded. The prophets generally mentioned earthquakes in the context of retribution for the people’s failings. Earthquake prediction must have been a “trump card” in the prophet’s options, though probably few had the good fortune of Amos to see their predictions vindicated within two years (e.g. D. N. Freedman and Welch 1994). Which of the people’s transgressions were to be punished by earthquake seem to evolve through the prophetic literature. It includes polytheism in the pre-Exilic period, toward failing to rebuild the Temple after it, for example. Throughout, it is an essential ingredient in the relentless monotheism we associate with the Old Testament.
Of special interest to geologists is Zechariah 14, which seems to describe particular fault transport directions for a predicted event in this region (“ . . . and half of the mountain shall remove to the north, and half of it toward the south” in KJV), directions that fit the relative motion of the African and Arabian plates along the Jordan Valley, as noted by Yeats et al. (1997).
The prophetic tradition continues into the New Testament with sayings of Jesus quoted in three gospels—Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8, and Luke 21:11—invoking earthquakes in a pre-end-times context. Earthquakes occurred at the end of Jesus’ life (Matthew 27:51-54), convincing a centurion of Jesus’ divinity, and at his resurrection (Matthew 28:2-4) with the appearance of an angel, a sort of semi-theophany. Being only three days later in the same place, the Easter quake would appear to be an aftershock. However, neither is attested historically or archaeologically.
In Acts 16:26ff, Paul and Silas were liberated from prison by an earthquake that converted their jailer, and which is quoted by some Christians as a miracle to this day. And of course the book of Revelations (6:12-17, 8:5, 11:13-19, 16:17-21) is “over the top” with earthquake predictions having a threatening edge. Its use of Armageddon, by the way, may hark back to an earthquake of the 10th century BC at Megiddo (Cline 2011). The prophetic drumbeat for over 800 years gave Judeo-Christian culture much of its character, and that character was molded by threat of earthquakes.
Table 1.—Books of the Old Testament listed as in King James Version, with era being described, and type of mention of earthquakes. Causation: T theophanic, S semi-theophanic, M miraculous, N not theophanic
|
Books |
Era described (century B.C. |
Earthquakes mentioned |
Earthquake causation |
|
Genesis |
? |
|
|
|
Exodus |
11? |
19:18 (incl volc), 20:18, (only volc) |
T |
|
Leviticus |
11? |
|
|
|
Numbers |
11? |
16:30-34 |
M |
|
Deuteronomy 1 |
10? |
5:23 (volc only) |
|
|
Deuteronomy 2 |
10? |
4:11 (volc only) |
|
|
Deuteronomy 3 |
7? |
|
|
|
Joshua |
10? |
|
|
|
Judges |
10? |
5:4 (incl. volc, similar to Ex19:18) |
S-T |
|
Ruth |
? |
|
|
|
1 Samuel |
10? |
14:15 |
M |
|
2 Samuel |
10? |
22:8 (same as Psalm 18) |
|
|
1 Kings |
9? |
19:11 |
N |
|
2 Kings |
9? |
|
|
|
1 Chronicles |
0 |
|
|
|
2 Chronicles |
0 |
|
|
|
Ezra |
? |
|
|
|
Nehemiah |
? |
|
|
|
Esther |
? |
|
|
|
Job |
? |
|
|
|
Psalms 1 |
1-10 |
18:7, 68:8 |
M |
|
Psalms 2 |
? |
104:32, 144:5 |
|
|
Proverbs |
10? |
|
|
|
Ecclesiastes |
? |
|
|
|
Song of Solomon |
? |
|
|
|
Isaiah 1 |
8 |
13:13, 24:18-20, 29:6 |
|
|
Isaiah 2 |
6 |
|
|
|
Isaiah 3 |
5 |
|
|
|
Jeremiah |
7 |
4:24 |
|
|
Lamentations |
? |
|
|
|
Ezekiel |
6 |
38:19-20 |
|
|
Daniel |
? |
|
|
|
Hosea |
7? |
|
|
|
Joel |
? |
2:10 |
|
|
Amos |
8 |
1:1, 9:1-5 |
T |
|
Obadiah |
6 |
|
|
|
Jonah |
? |
|
|
|
Micah 1 |
7? |
|
|
|
Micah 2 |
7? |
|
|
|
Nahum |
7? |
1:5 |
|
|
Habakkuk |
7? |
|
|
|
Zephaniah |
7? |
|
|
|
Haggai |
6 |
2:21 |
|
|
Zechariah 1 |
6 |
|
|
|
Zechariah 2 |
5 |
14:4-5 |
|
|
Malachi |
5 |
|
|
Biblical conclusion
Earthquakes accompany God’s appearance to men quite a few times in the Bible, and God causes earthquakes in merely miraculous contexts in a great many more. The theophanic link with earthquakes begins with Moses and extends into the New Testament. The link is particularly heavy-handed in the prophetic tradition beginning with the book of Amos, known to correspond with an earthquake of ca. 760-750 B.C. The prophetic literature after Amos used the threat of earthquake for at least 350 years with no abatement. The New Testament continues this tradition for several hundred more years, thus giving all Judeo-Christian thought patterns one of God-fearing. Earthquakes were a significant tool in the creation of this pattern.
For the purpose of this paper, it seems safe to say that tectonic activity did indeed channel the course of religion in this example, which supplies desired detail, motivation, and dynamics. A key takeaway in my opinion is that tectonic activity can be traced as it became an essential part of the fabric of Judaic religion, and we can still see prominent traces of tectonism in its descendant Christianity, making the entire Bible a legitimate example of direct relation between tectonism and religion. There are parallels in some respects, though inevitably less well-documented, in other ancient cultures, and similar manipulations can be discerned in some of them (Stewart and Piccardi 2018), especially where volcanism is a factor (Balmuth et al. 2005, Grattan and Torrance 2007).
References
Ambraseys, N., 2009, Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900: Cambridge Press
Austin, S. A., Franz, G W. and Frost, E. G., 2000, Amos’s earthquake: an extraordinary Middle East seismic event of 750 B.C.: International Geology Review v. 42(7), p. 657-671.
Ben Menahem, A., 1991, Four thousand years of seismicity along the Dead Sea Rift: Journal of Geophysical Research v. 96, p. 195-216.
Bentor, Y. K., 1989. Geological events in the bible. Terra Nova, 1(4). 326–338.
Bentzen, J. S., 2019, , Acts of God? Religiousity and natural disasters across subnational world districts: The Economic Journal v. 129(622), p. 2295-2321.
Cline, E. H., 2011, “Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on” -- the possible destruction by earthquake of stratum VIA at Megiddo, in the Fires Signals of Lachish, Finkelstein and Naamen, eds.: Eisenbrauns.
Coogan, M. D., 2011, The Old Testament: a historical and literary introduction to the Hebrew scriptures: Oxford
Cross, F. M., 1997, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays on the History of the Religion of Israel: Cambridge, Harvard Press
Dever , W. G., 1992, A case-study in Biblical archaeology—the earthquake of ca. 760 BCE: Eretz-Israel v. 23, p. 27-35.
Freedman, D. N., and Welch, A., 1994, Amos’s earthquake and Israelite prophesy, in Scripture and other Artifacts, edited by M. D. Coogan, J. C. Exum, and L. E. Stager: Louisville, Westminster John Knox
Friedman, R. E., 1987, Who Wrote the Bible? Prentice-Hall
Kenyon, K. M., 1979, Archaeology in the Holy Land: London, E. Benn
Kenyon, K. M., and Tushingham, A. D., 1953, Jericho gives up its secrets: National Geographic v. 104, 853-870.
Migowski, C., Agnon, A., Bookman, R., Negendank, J.F.W. and Stein, M., 2004, Recurrence pattern of Holocene earthquakes along the Dead Sea transform revealed by varve-counting and radiocarbon dating of lacustrine sediments: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 222, p. 301-314.
Neev, D., and Emery, K. O., 1995, The destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jericho—geological, climatological, and archaeological background: Oxford
Nur, A., 2008, Apocalypse—earthquakes, archaeology, and the “wrath of God”: Princeton.
Ogden, K., 1992, The earthquake motif in the book of Amos, in Goldene apfel in silbernen schalen, edited by Schunck, K., and Augustin, M.: Peter Land, Frankfurt
Stewart, I. S., and Piccardi, L., 2017, Seismic faults and sacred sanctuaries in Aegean antiquity: Proceedings of the Geologists Association v. 128, p 711-721.
Yeats, R. S., 1997, The geology of earthquakes: Oxford, New York.
III. Treatment of earthquakes in the ancient Hellenic literature—mythic and civic
Earthquakes per se appear fairly commonly in ancient Greek texts; also pervasive in these texts are treatments of the underworld. Less well known are glimpses in these texts of the structure of the earth relative to earthquakes, as in Hesiod and Aristotle at opposite ends of the classical era.
I will describe these matters in the ancient texts in the roughly separate disciplines of poetry, drama, history, and philosophy, taken in the chronological order in which first entries appear. In the former two categories, the context is mythic, i.e. religious. In the latter two categories, treatment is quasi-natural, and some recorded responses are civic.
I make no claim of exhaustive coverage, especially of Hellenistic and later authors, which can reflect non-Hellenic influences. Unlike the archaeological record (e.g. Force and Rutter 2018), I lack links between texts and earthquakes/faulting in the Mycenaean period though this may be partly because Linear B texts have not been examined with this question in mind.
Poetry.— Homer, recording an oral tradition referring to Bronze-age events, outlines a great deal of formative Greek mythology, including earth-shaking Poseidon repeatedly attempting to alter human affairs (Iliad XX lines 54-70, XIII lines39-90), in the former intending to split the earth’s surface to lay the entire underworld bare. In the Odyssey (V lines ca. 366) earth-shaker sends a giant wave that looks like a tsunami to me. Tectonism seems to function in part as a by-product of conflict among dysfunctional gods.
References to earthquakes, the underworld, and earth structure also appear early in ancient Greek history as the poetry of Hesiod, who refers to his own time. His Theogeny of the 8th century BC, another founding document for Greek mythology, uses the term earthquakes (or shaking earth) quite frequently. Poseidon as earth-shaker (including several times implied but not named) is responsible for many of them. It is interesting that Poseidon is both earth- shaker and internal earth-smith in both these early works (reviewed by Polimenakos 1996).
Most remarkable to me is that Hesiod’s earthquakes are mentioned in the context of earth structure, in which the deepest layer Tartarus is pointedly aseismic (ca. line 750) and girdled with bronze (ca. line 725). Above Tartarus in the Erebos layer are earthquake-ridden “roots of earth” (ca. lines 680 and 730), and apparently above that are the realms of Hades and of graves. Any resemblance to the core, mantle, and crust of the earth might be coincidental (unlike Hesiod’s division of history into pre-bronze, bronze, and iron ages, in his Works and Days). But zonation of the earth’s interior and some tectonic context is clear.
Pindar in Nemean 9, referring to a mythic tradition of Bronze-age Thebes and the family of Oedipus, has Zeus swallowing Amphiaraus in split-open earth.
In conclusion, mythic tectonic processes appear in contexts of earth structure and the underworld beginning with very early poetry. Two references to Zeus’ involvement (as opposed to Poseidon) in characters being swallowed by the earth in violent events suggest questions about the identification as earthquakes per se, but certainly emphasize the underworld.
Drama.—Next in chronology are ancient Greek dramas beginning with Aeschylus in 458 B.C. Perhaps most significant seismically is his Prometheus Bound, which ends as Prometheus descends underground in a shaking earth (lines ca. 1080), This portion of the drama is sometimes listed separately as a poem “Prometheus amid hurricane and earthquake”. Similarly, Sophocles involves an apparent earthquake in the passing of Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus (line 1585)
Euripides made free use of earthquakes as pivots for his action, somewhat like our playwrights might use hurricanes. In his Hippolytus, an earthquake located near Corinth is evocatively described, followed by an equally well-described tsunami (lines 1200-1210). In scene III of his Bacchae, Dionysus is liberated by an earthquake, seemingly at his command. Otherwise for Euripides, earthquakes have no specific cause. The underground is central in his Alcestis and his Heracles but not in a tectonic context.
In Aristophanes’ Acharnians, Poseidon is asked to send an earthquake to punish Sparta (line 496), but the petitioner then changes his mind in suitably comic manner. Here, in Lysistrata, and The Assembly Women, earthquakes are mentioned almost as banter, just a commentary on real life.
In conclusion, earthquakes punctuate the action in a number of ancient dramas. Otherwise the appearance of earthquakes constitutes a few poignant passages amid a torrent of thoughts on other subjects. Mentions of the underworld are treated in evocative ways where they occur. An evolution in treatment of earthquakes from mythic toward factual occurs between Aeschylus and Aristophanes.
History.—Herodotus did not mention many earthquakes (though see History V, 85 and 86) but did feature one as pivotal. This is that in Delos (VI, 98), said to be unique in this sacred spot and divide Greek history into epochs.
Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War mentions at least nine earthquakes (Force 2015) during the Peloponnesian Wars, several of them influencing military outcomes, as does Xenophon in the sequel Hellenica (book 3, chapter 2 line 24). These authors note without comment that commanders treated earthquakes as omens. Like Herodotus, Thucydides chooses one earthquake as most pivotal in Greek history, this one near Sparta (ca. 464 B.C.) and which permitted a rebellion of slaves, thus weakening Sparta’s military hegemony.
None of these historians invoked divine causation for his earthquakes, indeed Thucydides contributed a break-through in natural earth process (Force 2015). In III (xi) 89 we have, “The cause in my opinion of this phenomenon (which today we call tsunami) must be sought in the earthquake. At the point where its shock has been most violent, the sea is driven back, and suddenly recoiling with redoubled force, causes the inundation” (Crawley-Feetham translation). Though the earthquake itself was not addressed in terms of natural process, the consequent tsunami certainly was.
In conclusion, ancient Greece’s founders of history treated earthquakes in secular manner (though reporting the participants otherwise), devoid of underworld connection. All were impressed with cultural consequences of earthquakes. Thucydides’ explanation of tsunami as a natural process was prescient.
Philosophy.—Earthquakes are a component in the work of the earliest Greek philosophers. Thales in the 6th century B.C. attempted explanations of several phenomena as natural processes, and he and several subsequent philosophers addressed earthquakes in terms of the movement of subsurface fluids. This tradition continued in the 4th century with Aristotle, who in his Meteorology gave an extensive discussion and critique of causation by subsurface winds, including evidence from distribution, fluid ejection, differing character of shocks, aftershocks, etc. Intermediate in chronology, however, are a number of philosophers who in searching for natural causes look to “spirit” in driving the dynamics (reviewed by Polimenakos 1996). Pythagoras apparently dealt with the problem by declaring Poseidon a force of nature. All these thinkers apparently felt that rapid fluid motion must be required to produce rapid earth response. But worthy of notice here is an insistence on natural or quasi-natural processes and an involvement of subsurface motion.
Plato (in his Timaeus) inspired speculation for millenia about the supposed continent of Atlantis, submerged in an earthquake. It seems likely that this was in preparation for his ideas of a hypothetical ideal society, and may have been inspired by the submergence of the coastal plain of Helike in his own time (Soter 1998), emphasized by Lucretius and Pausanius many years later.
In conclusion, some ancient Greek philosophers tried to combine mythological and natural agents for earthquakes, but others broached serious questions about entirely natural causes of earthquakes, incorporating subsurface agents.
Summary.—As befits the tectonic environment of the Hellenic world, ancient Greek authors from the beginning incorporated earthquakes as they developed their disciplines. There seems a transition, especially noticeable about 450 B.C. with historians and philosophers leading the way, from mention of earthquakes in supernatural toward factual and then natural contexts (Plato is an exception). Poseidon is accordingly given less credit for causing earthquakes.
For both poets and dramatists, earthquakes are significant gateways to the mythological underworld. In some cases identification as earthquakes per se is not clear, but it’s interesting that in these evocative Greek texts, the otherworldly nature of seismicity points toward the underworld.
Ancient Greek historians tended to treat earthquakes as pivotal events, reporting in a secular manner some quasi-cultic responses. Thucydides correctly described the natural origin of tsunami relative to earthquakes. Ancient Greek philosophers searched for natural causes for earthquakes in the earth’s subsurface.
References
Force, E. R., 2015, Impact of tectonic activity on ancient civilizations: recurrent shakeups, tenacity, resilience, and change: Lexington
Force, E. R., and Rutter, J. B., 2018, Holocene fault scarps at Mycenae (Greece) and possible cultural ties: Studi Micenei ed Egeo Anatolici NS4, p. 63-74.
Polimenakos, L. C., 1996, Thoughts on the perception of the earthquake in Greek antiquity p. 253-260, in Archaeoseismology, British School at Athens Occasional paper 7.
Soter, S., 1998, Uplift and subsidence of the Helike delta, p. 41-56 in Coastal Tectonics, I. Stewart and C. Vita-Finzi, eds.: London, Geological Society Special Publication 146.
