[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Port or Dock.
On Sun, 31 Mar 1996, David Jay Kaufman wrote:
> Speaking of the water. Does anyone know if there is evidence that
> the Dead Sea was used as a kind of spa in ancient times? Are there
> stories of the water's medicinal properties?
In Antiquities XVII.171-72 and Jewish War I.657, Josephus reports that
Herod the Great, at the end of his life, was taken to warm springs at
Callirrhoe on the shore of "Lake Asphaltophoros" across the Jordan for
medical treatment. However, the waters involved in the treatment
are said to descend into the lake and include among their virtues the fact
that they are sweet enough to drink, so they are obviously not from the
lake itself. The Loeb edition includes a note that the baths there are
mentioned in Pliny, Ptolemaeus, are shown on the Madaba Mosaic, and are
mentioned in Genesis Rabbah 37.6.
David Suter
Saint Martin's College