Introduction Textual Evidence Archeoseismic Evidence Paleoseismic Evidence Notes Paleoclimate - Droughts Footnotes References
... and when Janaeus came down to kill the scribes they escaped from him and went to Syria and stayed in country of Koselikos and the gentiles there rose to kill them and they heziu them a great zia [shocked them a great shock, scared them great scare] and they struck them a great blow and left some survivors and they went to Bet Zabadi Rabbi Hidka says the day the natives wanted to kill the scribes of Israel the sea upwelled and destroyed a third in the settled land.The Megillat Taanit, written before the destruction of the second Temple in 70 AD, summarizes oral traditions listing 35 days to celebrate joyous events in early Jewish history; primarily during the Hasmonean period (167 BC – 37 BC) (Karcz (2004)). One such day on the 17th of Adar (February-March) is described as such
... on the 17th the natives attacked the remnant of scribes in the country of Belikos and Beit Zabdai and a salvation came to the House of Israel.The original Megillat Taanit text neither mentions King Alexander Janneus nor describes an earthquake and a possible tsunami. Karcz (2004) reports that the quote in the Megillat Taanit may, according to some Judaic scholars, refer to something that occurred during the rule of the more favorably viewed Hasmonean King Jonathan Maccabeus (who ruled from 160 BC – 142 BC) while he was fighting King Demetrius Nicator and the Arabs in Lebanon and Syria rather than fellow Jews (the Pharisaic rebels) thus potentially resolving the mystery of why this occasion might be viewed as joyous. For this reason, Karcz (2004) suggests the possibility that this description may refer to the alleged Dead Fish and Soldiers Earthquake of ~142 BC – the date of which he notes is elastic when one examines sources. See the Notes Section of the Dead Fish and Soldiers Quake for further discussion.
Location | Status |
---|---|
Tekieh Trenches Syria | possible - ~2 m displacement |
Bet Zayda | possible |
En Feshka | unlikely to be Seventeenth of Adar Quake - Type B (microbreccia) 1 cm. thick |
En Gedi | unlikely to be Seventeenth of Adar Quake - 1 cm. thick |
Nahal Ze 'elim | possible from around this time - 8 cm. thick intraclast breccia |
Taybeh Trench Jordan | possible from around this time |
Qatar Trench Jordan | no events seen around this date |