Fossil Fuels and Related Compounds
These are notes for an incomplete "Concept" page.
- Information is being added as the Bible Pages are added. In the end, everything will be compiled, further information added (as necessary), broken links connected, etc.
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Is there any mention of fossil fuels in the Bible? (By this, we are referring to hydrocarbon products that can be found buried underground.)
- Coal, natural gas and oil are NOT mentioned. But bitumen and pitch are.
Here are the references to products that are probably references to fossil fuels
Bitumen, also called "tar," a compound that was common around the Dead Sea
When the people chose to build the tower at Babel:
- Genesis 11:3 - They said one to another, "Come, let's make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar [bitumen] for mortar.
- See Genesis 11:1-9.
"Tar (bitumen) pits" were plentiful in the valley of Siddim, where Sodom and Gomorrah were located.
- Genesis 14:10 - Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar [bitumen] pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the hills.
- These pits of bitumen were large and plentiful enough, that people fleeing from the advancing army could fall into them and die.
- See Genesis 14:1-24.
The basket Moses' mother prepared for him was coated with this material.
- Exodus 2:3 When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar [bitumen] and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.
- See Exodus 1:22 - 2:10.
Pitch, possibly the liquid form of bitumen
The basket Moses' mother prepared for him was also coated with this material.
- Exodus 2:3 - When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar [bitumen] and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.
- See Exodus 1:22 - 2:10.
Devastation in the land of Edom (prophecy, a picture of eternal fire)
- Isaiah 34:9-10 - Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch. It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.
The following are NOT fossil fuels
COAL
When mentioned in the Bible, it is a reference to charcoal, not mineral coal.
An unidentified type of coating (not bitumen or pitch)
The coating used on the ark - a word with uncertain derivation
- Genesis 6:14- Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
It may have been a plant product, but it is not a reference to fossil fuels mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. (They are a different Hebrew word.)
It should not be surprising that this material is not the same as the fossil fuels used later in the Bible. Before the Flood, fossil fuels hadn't yet been formed! (For that matter, "gopher wood" is also an unidentified material.)
Other Comments
- Bible pages that have mention fossil fuels - (listed above, where appropriate).
- Sulfur is also related to two of the above passages.
- In Isaiah 34:9-10, sulfur and pitch are both mentioned in the same passage.
- In reference to the Valley of Siddim, bitumen is mentioned in Genesis 14:10; sulfur is mentioned in Genesis 19:24.
Unless otherwise noted, all notes and comments are © by Dennis Hinks.
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