BRIMSTONE, formerly the common vernacular name for sulphur (cf. KJV and NEB Rev 9:17); now chiefly used when referring to its inflammable character. Sulphur is a non-metallic element with a yellow color and commonly found as well-formed crystals. It is soft, melts at 113^oC and burns with a blue flame with the formation of noxious, suffocating sulphur dioxide gas. There are three main geological environments: (1) in the cap rock of salt domes, e.g. the Gulf Coast region of USA, (2) in sedimentary beds, e.g. S central Sicily and (3) in regions of volcanic activity, e.g. Japan, where it is found in craters and crevices of extinct volcanoes, having been deposited by gasses of volcanic origin in the fumarolic stage of decadent vulcanism. Such a volcanic environment existed in recent geological times near Lake Tiberias, and in Syria, where Mount Hebron was a prominent volcano, and a thick pile of plateau basalt lavas form the Hauran Plain. Radiocarbon analysis of carbonized organic matter indicates that one of the youngest basalt flows is only 4,000 years old, i.e. must have occurred during human occupation of the region. This existence of volcanic phenomena prob. led to the passing down of ideas such as “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8—“sulphurous flames” NEB) and “like a stream of brimstone” (Isa 30:33). The term may have been used loosely in connection with ideas based on explosive volcanic phenomena (“rain...fire and brimstone”—Ps 11:6). It may also have been used in relation to other catastrophic events such as landslips and earthquakes; this may explain the background of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24).

Bibliography C. M. Riley, Our Mineral Resources (1959), 276-282; E. M. Blaiklock (ed.), The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Atlas (1969), 4, 5, 438-452.