Sodom and Gomorrah

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What really happened to the damned cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Tristan Hughes and Dr. Dylan Johnson delve into the infamous biblical story to discover the context and supposed locations of these cities near the Dead Sea, and explore whether there is any historical basis to their destruction.

They discuss the theological implications and examines archaeological surveys that sought to uncover the truth behind this fascinating ancient narrative.

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited and produced by Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.1	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabatans, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.3	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe.
0:22.6	Suddenly the Lord reigned fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them
0:43.8	and the whole valley, along with all the people there and everything that grew on the land.
0:53.4	Early the next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood in the presence of the Lord.
1:00.0	He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley and saw smoke rising from the land,
1:07.0	like smoke from a huge furnace. Those were excerpts from Genesis 19 in the land like smoke from a huge furnace.
1:11.6	Those were excerpts from Genesis 19 in the Old Testament, describing one of the most famous
1:18.2	stories from the Hebrew Bible, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by God for their sinfulness.
1:26.0	Today the name Sodom and Gomorrah, particularly Sodom, are well-known and
1:30.1	infamous, and when we did a recent poll asking which biblical story we should cover next,
1:35.7	well, Sodom and Gomorrah won convincingly. We're going to explore the stories about these two
1:40.5	cities that survive in the book of Genesis, will delve into the context,
1:45.0	their supposed location near the Dead Sea, and whether there is any historical basis to the
1:50.5	biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host.
1:58.4	Our guest today is Dr. Dylan Johnson from Cardiff University. A historian of the
2:03.2	ancient Near East and biblical scholar, Dylan has been on the podcast before to talk through the
2:08.3	stories of Moses and the Exodus and that of the Ark of the Covenant. Dylan is a wonderful speaker
2:14.0	and this was a really interesting chat about Sodom and Gomorrah. Enjoy.
2:21.5	Dylan, it is a pleasure to have you back on the podcast today. It's great to be back.
2:25.7	And we did the Ark in the Covenant last time. And we did Moses as well. So you are one of our
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.