(h) Earthquake at Philippi. This has often been considered a miraculous manifestation of divine power, called forth for the release from prison of St. Paul and Silas, a.d. 51.
* In Keith Johnston's Phyrical Atlas, u also lo Prestwlch's Mcu) aj Active and Extinct Volcanoes {Geology, vol. 1.), the region of Pal. and Syria ts shown as one greatly subject to earthquake shocks.
t The only other rival Is that of SerbfU : bat the claims of i Musft to be Uoreb far outweigh those of Serb&l. Bee Stanley, Sinai and PaL, ad. 1860, p. 49 ; Picturesque Pal., p. 118.
2. Prophetic. — Earthquakes being amongst the most terrible and impressive of natural phe- nomena, are made use of in the Bible for prophetic imagery connected with future calamitous events j thus — (a) * she (Ariel or Mount Zion) shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake' (Is 29», RV). (b) 'And there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places' (Mt 24'). (c.) 'And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake' (Rev 6'2). (d) 'And he (the angel) taketh the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it upon the earth ; and there followed thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake' (Rev 8°). (e) ' And there were killed in the earthquake seven thousand persons' (Rev II")- (/) 'And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth' (Rev 16"*).
3. Earthquakes of the Christian Era.— Out of the large number of recorded earthquakes, of greater or less intensity, from which Pal. and the neighbouring countries have sutiered, only a few of special importance can be noticed here.
(1) A.D. 494. Syria and Asia Minor ; the cities of lAodicea,
Hierapolis, Tripolis, and Agathicum were overthrown (ifar. Comes, p. 46, quot. by Mallet).
(2) A.D. 661. Felt over Pal., Arabia, and Syria (Theophanes,
p. 192).
(3) A.D. 658. Month of June ; very destructive in PaL and
Syria (Theoph. p. 282).
(4) A. D. 746. Jerua. and surrounding regions suffered greatly
(Theoph. p. 363).
(5) a.D. 755. A severe shock of earthquake occurred at
Jerus., whereby the Haram es-Sherif (' Mosque of Omar ') was much injured (Besant and Palmer, Hist. Jerusalem, ed. 1888, p. 97).
(6) A.D. 859. Earthquaice throughout Syria ; in Antloch
1500 houses were thrown down (AbulfaraJ, p. 166, quot. by Mallet).
(7) a.D. 1036. Earthquake by which Jerus. was much
Injured (Cedrenus, p. 737).
(8) A.D. 1170. Succession of earthquakes passed through
Pal., which, by their violence and frequency, filled all men's hearts with fear ; hundreds perished in the ruins of their houses ; grief and consternation spread around {Hist. Jerusalem, p. 352).
(9) A.D. 1202 (or 1204). An earthquake shook Pal. from end
to end ; Damascus, Tyre, and NablOs were reduced to heaps of ruins ; the walls of Acre and Tripoli fell : Jerus. alone seemed spared, and there Christian and Mohammedan met together to thank God for their safety {Hist. Jerusalem, p. 492; Abulfeda, Ann. iv. p. 211).
(10) A.D. 1402. Coast of Syria affected ; sea retired and then
Invaded the land ; several towns ruined (Muratori, t. xviii. p. 974).
(11) A.D. 1759. An earthquake protracted through a period
of three months, m which Acco, Saphat, Baalbek, Damascus, Sidon, etc., were severely injured (Fo/caTw^*, Past and Present, p. 219).
(12) A.D. 1822. On Aug. 13 an earthquake occurred at
Aleppo, lasting only ten or twelve seconds, by which this town, together with several others in Syria, were converted into a heap of ruins, and 20,000 human beings were destroyed (Chefiney, Survey of the Euphrates and Tigris). (IS) A.D. 1837, 1st Jan. Great earthquake in Pal. by which the town of Safed was destroyed, with many of the Inhabitants (Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 531 X
4. Origin of Earthquake Phenomena.— From the observations made by Hopkins, Lyell, and others regarding the cause and nature of earthquakes, it seems clearly established that they have their origin in some sudden impact of gas, steam, or molten matter, impelled by gas or steam under high pressure, beneath the solid crust. The eti'ect of such impact is to originate a wave of translation througii the crust, travelling outwards from a focus, and causing a movement of the surface to greater or less distances. These waves of translation can in some cases be represented on a map by cnrved lines ; each line representing approximately an equal degree of seismal intensity. 'That there is an intimate connexion between earthquake shocks and volcanic action is proved by the fact that eruptions from volcanic cratere
are generally preceded by earthquake shocks, and these latter are more frequent in those regions where volcanoes, either active or extinct, abound. At the same time, the most destructive earth- quakes are not necessarily in the neighbourhood of volcanoes, many of the most disastrous having occurred in places far removed from centres of eruption ; as, for example, those of Lisbon in 1755, and of Charleston in K. America in 18S6. Such cases as these have given rise to the view that active volcanoes act as safety-valves for the escape of the elastic gases and vapour underlying the cmst.*
Lrr»KiTn««.— Hopkins, • Theory of Earthquakes,' In Rep. Brit. Auoc 1847, p. S3 : Mallet, EarOiquaie Catalogs, ibid. 18S8 ; Lyell, Principle oj Geolotjy, voL li.; Prestwich, Geology, vol. I. cb. 13, with map of earthquake areas ; Judd, Voteanoe4, ed. 1888, p. MS; Uull, Volcanoet, Pcut and Pretenl, Contemp. Science 8er. p. 417 (1882) : for the earthquakes referred to m Bible, Plumptre, BMicai Studia. 136 ; Andrews, Life o/ Our Lord, 661, 676 ; Scbdrer, HJP, L L 403, 426 ; Puscj- on Am 4".