Earthquake

(1 Kings 19:11; Matt. 27:51) — one of the awesome physical phenomena of nature, manifested by a subterranean rumbling, tremors, and landslides, sometimes by a rending of the earth and the swift destruction of everything existing and living upon it. The deep sense of fear that arises during earthquakes involuntarily brings to mind the omnipotence of the Lord and His righteous wrath, expressed in this truly dreadful and majestic phenomenon. In Holy Scripture, however, only a few instances of actual earthquakes are indicated.

It is thought, for example, that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the perishing of Korah and his company, were caused by a sudden earthquake (Num. 16:31–32). There was also an earthquake at the time when Elijah was on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:11, 12). An earthquake in the reign of Uzziah, mentioned by the prophets Amos (1:1) and Zechariah (14:5), is also mentioned by Josephus, with the addition that it split a mountain near Jerusalem and was so violent that it formed a very great valley between the two parts of the mountain.

An earthquake was one of the dreadful signs accompanying the Lord’s crucifixion. “Then,” says the Evangelist Matthew, “the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened” (27:51, 54). A similarly great earthquake occurred at Philippi, when Paul and Silas were in prison (Acts 16:26). Earthquakes, however, still visit Palestine not infrequently in the present day as well. Thus a comparatively recent earthquake, which occurred in 1837, was one of the most terrible, inflicting enormous damage on Tiberias, in which a full third of its inhabitants perished.

During it, one could see the earth opening and closing again. In this dreadful catastrophe many thousands of people perished, and in other places whole towns and villages were reduced to ruins. The Savior mentions earthquakes in His discourse with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, as one of the signs that were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem (Matt. 24:7), and Josephus and other historians confirm the literal fulfillment of this prediction of the Lord’s. Earthquakes, in the language of the prophets, allegorically signify various convulsions and upheavals in the life of peoples and kingdoms.