EARTHQUAKE (Or)). There is good rea son for holding that earthquakes are closely con nected with volcanic agency. Both probably spring from the same cause; and may be regarded as one mighty influence operating to somewhat dissimilar results. Volcanic agency, therefore, is an indica tion of earthquakes, and traces of the first may be taken as indications ofthe existence (either present or past, actual or possible) of the latter.
Syria and Palestine abound in volcanic appear ances. Between the river Jordan and Damascus lies a volcanic tract. The entire country about the Dead Sea presents indubitable tokens of volcanic agency. Accordingly these countries have not un frequently been subject to earthquakes. The first visitation of the kind, recorded to have happened to Palestine, was in the reign of Ahab (B.c. 918 897), when Elijah (r Kings xix. tr, 12) was directed to go forth and stand upon the mountain before Jehovah : and behold Jehovah passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah ; but Jehovah was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake ; but Jehovah was not in the earth quake : and after the earthquake, a fire ; but Je hovah was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.' A terrible earthquake took place' in the days of Uzziab, king of Judah' (s.c. Si 1-759), which Josephus (Antiy. ix to. 4) says, 'shook the ground, and a rent was made in the Temple, so that the rays of the sun shone throuo it, which, falling upon the king's face, struck him with the leprosy,' a punishment which the historian ascribes to the wrath of God consequent on Uzziall's usurpa tion of the priest's office. That this earthquake was of an awful character, may be learnt from the fact that Zechariah (xiv. 5) thus speaks respecting it—' Ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earth quake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah :' and also that it appears from Amos (L t) that the event was so striking, and left such deep impressions on men's minds, that it became a sort of epoch from which to date and reckon ; the prophet's words are two years before the earthquake.' That earthquakes were among the extraordinary phenomena of Palestine in ancient times is shewn in their being an element in the poetical imagery of the Hebrews, and a source of religious admonition and devout emotion. In Ps. xviii. 7, we read, Then the earth shook and trembled ; the founda tions also of the hills moved and were shaken, be cause he was wrath' (comp. Hab. iii. 6; Nah. i. 5 ; Is. v. 25). It was not an unnatural transition that any signal display of the will, sovereignty, or goodness of Providence, should be foretold in con nection with, and accompanied as by other signs in the heavens above or on the earth below, so by earthquakes and their fearful concomitants (see Joel ii. 28; Matt. xxiv. 7, 29). The only earth quake mentioned in the N. T. is that which hap pened at the crucifixion of the Saviour of mankind (Matt. xxvii. 50, 51 ; Luke xxiii. 44, 45 ; Mark xv. 33). This darkness has been misunderstood, and then turned to the prejudice of Christianity [DARK NESS]. The obscuration was obviously an atten dant on the earthquake. Earthquakes are not sel dom attended by accompaniments which obscure the light of day during (as in this case from the sixth to the ninth hour, that is, from twelve o'clock at noon to three o'clock several hours. If this is the fact, then the record is consistent with natural phenomena, and the darkness which sceptics have pleaded against speaks actually in favour of the credibility of the Gospel. Now it is well
known to naturalists that such obscurations are by no means uncommon. It may be enough to give the following instances. A very remarkable vol canic eruption took place on the 19th of January 1835, in the volcano of Cosegiiina, situated in the Bay of Fonseca (usually called the Coast of Con chagna), in Central America. The eruption was preceded by a rumbling noise, accompanied by a column of smoke which issued from the mountain, increasing until it assumed the form and appearance of a large dense cloud, which, when viewed at the distance of thirty miles, appeared like an immense plume of feathers, rising with considerable velocity, and expanding in every direction. In the course of the two following days several shocks of earth quakes were felt ; the morning of the 22d rose fine and clear, but a dense cloud of a pyramidal form was observed in the direction of the volcano. This gradually ascended, and by eleven o'clock A.M. it had spread over the whole firmament, entirely ob scuring the light of day, the darkness equalling in intensity that of the most clouded night : this dark ness continued with little intermission for three days ; during the whole time a fine black powder continued to fall. This darkness extended over half of Central America. The convulsion was such as to change the outline of the coast, turn the course of a river, and form two new islands. Pre cisely analogous phenomena were exhibited on oc casions of earthquakes that took place at Cartago, in Central America, when there prevailed a dense black fog, which lasted for three days (Recreations in Physical Geography, p. 382).
In the case of the volcanic eruption which over whelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii (A. D. 79), we !earn from the younger Pliny that a dense column of vapour was first seen rising vertically from Vesu vius, and then spreading itself out laterally, so that its upper portion resembled the head, and its lower the trunk of a pine. This black cloud was pierced occasionally by flashes of fire as vivid as lightning, succeeded by darkness more profound than night, and ashes fell even at Misenum. These appear ances agree perfectly with those witnessed in more recent eruptions, especially those of Monte Nuovo in 1538, and Vesuvius in 1822. Indeed earth quakes appear to exert a very marked influence on our atmosphere: among other effects Lyell (Prin cz:ples of Geology, i. 400) enumerates sudden gusts of wind, interrupted by dead calms, evolution of electric matter, or of inflammable gas, from the soil, with sulphureous and mephitic vapours ; a redden ing of the sun's disk and a haziness in the air often continued for months (Joel ii. 30, 31).
An earthquake devastated Judna some years (31) before the birth of our Lord, at the time of the battle of Actium, which Josephus (Antiq. xv. 52) reports was such as had not happened at any other time, which brought great destruction upon the cattle in that country. About ten thousand men also perished by the fall of houses.' Jerome writes of an earthquake which, in the time of his childhood (about A.D. 315), destroyed Rabbath Moab (Jerome on Is. xv.) The writers of the middle ages also speak of earthquakes in Palestine, stating that they were not only formidable, but fre quent. In 1834 an earthquake shook Jerusalem, and injured the chapel of the nativity at Bethlehem. As late as the year 1836 ( Jan. i) Jerusalem and its vicinity were visited by severe shocks of earth quake, yet the city remains without serious injury from these subterranean causes.—J. R. B.