Story and Photos by Steve Voynick
Rock salt from Jebel Usdum near the Dead Sea, a deposit that was first mined about 1000 B.C.
The Bible references minerals and metals more than 1,700 times, using such familiar phrases as “fire and brimstone,” “pieces of silver,” “copper from the rock,” “salt of the Earth,” and “jars of clay.” It is interesting to consider these minerals and metals not in their scriptural contexts, but from the perspectives of history, geology, and biblical archaeology.