Locating Zoar

Steven Collins responds to a letter by Bill Schlegel

 Biblical Archaeology Society Sta  September 28, 2020  2 Comments  8634 views  Share

In the article “Where Is Sodom?” in the March/April 2013 issue of BAR, archaeologist Steven Collins
combines clues from Biblical geography with archaeological evidence from the site of Tall el-
Hammam in Jordan to suggest that the author of Genesis 13 located Sodom in a fertile area
northeast of the Dead Sea. However, not all agree with Collins’s assessment. In the July/August
2013 issue, Collins responded to reader Shirley S. Reed’s question on the location of Zoar. Below,
read Bill Schlegel’s commentary on the location of Zoar along with Steven Collins’s response.

Bill Schlegel on the Location of Zoar

Steve Collins’s interpretation of the location of Zoar* on the
Madaba Map is faulty. The Zered River, which drains into the
southeastern part of the Dead Sea is depicted and clearly
labeled on the Madaba Map. Zoar is located south of the mouth
of the Zered River. The Madaba Map is not depicting only the
“northern half” of the Dead Sea, as Collins asserts. Nor is the
Lisan (Tongue) missing from the map because of “low water
levels.” Perhaps exactly the opposite is true—the Madaba Map
The sixth-century C.E. Madaba map.
depicts no Lisan because of high water levels.
Collins’s attempt to move Zoar from near the mouth of the Zered to near the mouth of the Arnon is
faulty as well (by the way, the Arnon River is depicted on the Madaba Map, further north). He cites
Deuteronomy 2:4-5, 9, 34:1-3 and Joshua 13:8-28 as evidence that because Israel was not to
displace Moab or Edom, Zoar can’t be as far south as the mouth of the Zered. Collins fails to realize
that the territory of Moab forbidden to Israel was in the heights above the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley
and the Dead Sea are distinct regions which were not forbidden to Israel “as far as Zoar.”
Moving Zoar to the mouth of the Arnon doesn’t improve Collins’s case for Sodom anyway. From the
Arnon mouth to Tall-Hammam, where he wants to place Sodom, is still over 40 miles.
The best location for Zoar is on the southeast side of the Dead Sea.
—Bill Schlegel

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where Moses gazed at the Promised Land; Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John baptized Jesus;
Lot’s Cave, where Lot and his daughters sought refuge after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah;
and many more. Travel with us on our journey into the past in our free eBook Exploring Jordan.

Steven Collins Answers Bill Schlegel

With all due respect, Mr. Schlegel’s take on the location of Zoar is a classic case of “seeing what one
wants to see” and “believing what one wants to believe” in spite of the facts. I will address his points
vis-à-vis my location of Zoar [at/near the con uence of the Arnon River (Wadi Mujib) with the Dead
Sea] in the order of his objections.
His rst protestation has to do with the sixth-century C.E. Madaba Map. I’ve studied this map in
detail for many years. Most recently, in shooting a documentary for National Geographic, the entire
oor of the Byzantine church which contains the mosaic map was cleared and cleaned so that I
could personally examine it in detail (on my hands and knees!). One of the rst things I noticed was
that some of the traditional ‘readings’ and ‘assignments’ of certain places on the map were
obviously in error, and based on interpretations of the geography loaded with assumptions that are
likely false. The locations on the map noted by Schlegel are among them.
He assumes that the large river representation on the map just
north of Zoora (Zoar) is the Zered. However, the letters preserved
on the map, although usually read “-ARED” are actually “-AREA.”
There is no delta. But even if it was “Zared,” the placement of the
Zered River on any map is made based on one’s predisposition
about Zoar, and not on any objective information about the Zered
River’s location. If one placed Zoar on the Arnon/Wadi Mujib,
then, it could be labeled “Zared!”
So, what’s actually represented on the Madaba Map? It’s an Author Steven Collins in a eld large
absolute fact that the Madaba Map features only the deep north with standing stones, stone circles
basin of the Dead Sea. This is detailed quite nicely in Neev and and dolmens near Tall el-Hammam, a
site he associates with Biblical
Emery’s geological work The Destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah
Sodom.
and Jericho1 and numerous other geological resources. Based on
numerous data-sets dealing with ancient Dead Sea levels, it’s
clear that during the Roman and Byzantine Period the level of the Dead Sea was even lower than
today—about -440m. As Neev and Emery point out, at the time when the Madaba Map was made
there was no shallow south basin, thus no Lisan Peninsula. Zoar was then a deep-water port on the
Bay of Mazra’a at the south end of the north basin. Also, there was a Roman road going east/west
over the Lisan (not possible when the south basin is lled). Today, at the present historic low-level,
you can easily see Roman and Byzantine ruins along the eastern shoreline of the Dead Sea, right
next to the water!
Mr. Schlegel’s suggestion that “Perhaps exactly the opposite is true—the Madaba Map depicts no
Lisan because of high water levels” is made in abject ignorance of the facts. As Neev and Emery
state: “As Zoar of the rst century A.D. was a seaport, it had to be on the shore and must have been
north of [the paved Roman road traversing the Lisan] or near the head of the Bay of Mazra’a [at the
south end of the north basin]. The absence of any geographic indication for the [Lisan] peninsula’s
existence on the Madaba Map leads to a similar conclusion. Such an outstanding and picturesque
tongue-like shore would not have been overlooked by the artist-cartographer of that map.” They
further state that “Postures of two cargo vessels portrayed on the Madaba Map imply that the main
tra c was between Zoar, port at the southeast corner of the north basin, and the north coast as
close as possible to Jericho, the gate to Judea. The Bay of Mazra’a was always the main, if not the
only, natural deepwater haven … If Zoar were at Es-Sa , it never could have functioned as an
e cient harbor.”
Given that the Madaba Map shows only the deep north basin, the large ‘river’ representation to the
north of Zoar is none other than the Wadi Mujib (Biblical Arnon River/Gorge). It’s exactly where it’s
supposed to be, including being virtually due east of Hebron on the map! There are just two major
wadis emptying into the north Dead Sea basin: the Wadi Mujib and the Wadi Zarqa-Ma’in farther
north. Thus, the north (and correctly smaller) ‘river’ represented is the Wadi Zarqa. If this is not the
case, then the Madaba Map would have to be declared a geographical distortion unusable for
cartographic purposes.
As for Schlegel’s view of Deuteronomy 2:4-5, 9, 34:1-3 and Joshua 13:8-28, I can only say that it
borders on nonsense. His statement that I fail “to realize that the territory of Moab forbidden to
Israel was in the heights above the Rift Valley,” and that the “Rift Valley and the Dead Sea are
distinct regions, which were not forbidden, to Israel ‘as far as Zoar’” is just wishful thinking. The
territories of Moab and Edom (and the Ammon, for that matter) followed their wadi/river borders
right into the Rift Valley. Indeed, in the time of Moses, even the valley oor northeast of the Dead
Sea was called the Plains of Moab!
That the Reuben/Gad tribal allotment stretched from “the Kikkar of the Valley of Jericho, City of
Palms, as far as Zoar” is clearly marking out its south border at the Arnon River/Gorge, the natural
and perpetual border between the Transjordan Israelites and Moabites. The Roman/Byzantine Zoar
is in the same vicinity, just south of where the Wadi Mujib/Arnon empties into the Dead Sea. The
‘port’ of Zoar was likely moved to the Bay of Mazra’a to avoid the oft’-catastrophic ash oods
disgorging from the Wadi Mujib during seasonal rains. That “the sound of [Moab’s] cry rises from
Heshbon to Elealeh and Jahaz, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah…” (Jer 48:34)
indicates, in this sorth-to-south sequence, that Zoar is in the middle of the (then) Moabite territory
(in a time when the northern border of Moab had moved north to include Heshbon).
As for the distance from Tall el-Hammam to Zoar at the con uence of the Arnon with the Dead Sea
—it is 27 miles, not “over 40 miles” as Schlegel states. We also know that the Dead Sea level in the
time of Abraham (MB2) was approximately the historic low, as today. This provided a walkable shelf-
like shoreline as a relatively easy route between the two. Additionally, the statement of Genesis
19:23 that “the sun had risen over the land when Lot came to Zoar” is better understood as “the sun
had gone forth over the land, and Lot came to Zoar;” that is, the sun had completed its daily course
and was in the process of setting in the west by the time Lot reached Zoar. Thus, Lot had from
dawn to dusk to travel from Sodom (Tall el-Hammam) to Zoar.
In conclusion, the best location for Zoar is not on the southeast corner of the Dead Sea’s shallow
(sometimes nonexistent) south basin, but on the southeast corner of the deep north basin, where, in
fact, the Madaba Map places Byzantine Zoar.2
—Steven Collins

Bill Schlegel is associate professor of Bible at The Master’s College, Israel Bible Extension (IBEX),
where he teaches Biblical history, geography and Hebrew. He is author of the Satellite Bible Atlas
Steven Collins is director of the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project and dean of the College of
Archaeology and Biblical History at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
where he also serves as curator of its ancient Near East collections.

Notes:
*Q&C: Geographically Puzzled. Steven Collins response to Shirley S. Reed. BAR July/Aug 2013, p.
10-11.
1. David Neev and K.O. Emery The Destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jericho: Geological,
Climatological, and Archaeological Background, Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1995; pp. 131-138.
2. For further reading and documentation, I highly recommend my detailed article answering Mr.
Schlegel at tallelhammam.com under “Related Publications.”

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