ReViews

Discovered: Sodom and Gomorrah!

A Video (Nashville, TN: Wyatt Archaeological Research, 1992) 45 min., $25.00 (call 941–421-1782 to order)

Ron Wyatt claims to have discovered Noah’s Ark, the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah, the “real” Mount Sinai (the one in Saudi Arabia), chariot wheels from the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant—well, you name it.

Our office regularly receives calls and letters from people who have heard Wyatt speak or have seen his videos and want to know if they should believe his extravagant claims. We respond that we—and the academically trained archaeologists we deal with—give Wyatt little credence. If it sounds too good to be true, we say, it probably is.

Wyatt is an amateur archaeologist; he makes his livelihood as an anesthetist. Wyatt calls himself a “biblical archaeologist,” but he would be more at home in the 19th century, when some supposed experts expected the Bible to be a clear, uncomplicated guide to the treasures of the past. In Wyatt’s case, the treasures he seeks are not gold or jewelry, but sacred objects and locales mentioned in the Bible.