6 PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND POLITICS
Noah is commanded to build an ark that also includes instructions
for caulking the vessel with pitch (Genesis 6:14):
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in
the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
The occurrence of slime (bitumen) pits in the Valley of Siddim
(Genesis, 14:10), a valley at the southern end of the Dead Sea, is
reported. There is also reference to the use of tar as a mortar when
the Tower of Babel was under construction (Genesis 11:3):
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime
had they for mortar.
In the Septuagint, or Greek version of the Bible, this work is
translated as asphaltes, and in the Vulgate or Latin version, as bitumen. In the Bishop's Bible of 1568 and in subsequent translations
into English, the word is given as slime. In the Douay translation of
1600, it is bitume, while in Luther's German version, it appears as
thon, the German word for clay.
Another example of the use of pitch (and slime) is given in the
story of Moses (Exodus 2:3):
And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an
ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and
put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's
brink.
Perhaps the slime was a lower melting bitumen (bitumen mixed
with solvent) whereas the pitch was a higher melting material; the
one (slime) acting as a flux for the other. The lack of precise use of
the words for bitumen and asphalt as well as for tar and pitch even
now makes it unlikely that the true nature of the biblical tar, pitch,
and slime will ever be known, but one can imagine their nature. In
fact, even modern Latin dictionaries give the word bitumen as the
Latin word for asphalt.
It is most probable that, in both these cases, the pitch and the
slime were obtained from the seepage of oil to the surface, which
was a fairly common occurrence in the area. And during biblical
times, bitumen was exported from Canaan to various parts of the
countries that surround the Mediterranean (Armstrong et al., 1997).
Noah is commanded to build an ark that also includes instructions
for caulking the vessel with pitch (Genesis 6:14):
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in
the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
The occurrence of slime (bitumen) pits in the Valley of Siddim
(Genesis, 14:10), a valley at the southern end of the Dead Sea, is
reported. There is also reference to the use of tar as a mortar when
the Tower of Babel was under construction (Genesis 11:3):
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and
burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime
had they for mortar.
In the Septuagint, or Greek version of the Bible, this work is
translated as asphaltes, and in the Vulgate or Latin version, as bitumen. In the Bishop's Bible of 1568 and in subsequent translations
into English, the word is given as slime. In the Douay translation of
1600, it is bitume, while in Luther's German version, it appears as
thon, the German word for clay.
Another example of the use of pitch (and slime) is given in the
story of Moses (Exodus 2:3):
And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an
ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and
put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's
brink.
Perhaps the slime was a lower melting bitumen (bitumen mixed
with solvent) whereas the pitch was a higher melting material; the
one (slime) acting as a flux for the other. The lack of precise use of
the words for bitumen and asphalt as well as for tar and pitch even
now makes it unlikely that the true nature of the biblical tar, pitch,
and slime will ever be known, but one can imagine their nature. In
fact, even modern Latin dictionaries give the word bitumen as the
Latin word for asphalt.
It is most probable that, in both these cases, the pitch and the
slime were obtained from the seepage of oil to the surface, which
was a fairly common occurrence in the area. And during biblical
times, bitumen was exported from Canaan to various parts of the
countries that surround the Mediterranean (Armstrong et al., 1997).