According to the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah (עֲמוֹרָה, Standard Hebrew ʿAmora, Tiberian Hebrew Ġəmôrāh, ʿĂmôrāh) —were two cities destroyed by God for their sins. Traditionally, the view has been that Sodom and Gomorrah's sins involved homosexuality and rape. They were also accused of being "inhospitable."

According to the Bible, Sodom (סְדוֹם, Standard Hebrew Sədom, Tiberian Hebrew Səḏôm) was the chief town of a group of five towns, collectively referred to as "The Cities of the Plain (which included Zoar/Misar)," on the plain of the Jordan River in an area that constituted the southern limit of the lands of the Canaanites (Genesis 10:19).

Also according to the Bible, Lot, a nephew of Abram (Abraham) chose to live in Sodom, because of the proximity of good grazing for his flocks.

The Biblical text

In Genesis 18, God informs Abraham that he plans to destroy the city of Sodom because of its gross immorality. Abraham pleads with God not to destroy Sodom, and God agrees that he would not destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people in it, then 45, then 30, then 20, or even 10 righteous people. After much searching, Abraham only finds one righteous person living in Sodom, his nephew Lot. Consequently, God follows through with his plans to destroy the city.

In Genesis 19, the final episode in the story of Sodom is described as the angels visit Lot to warn him to flee:

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. (KJV) (In this context, "know" is interpreted as a term for sexual intercourse.)

Lot refused to give the visiting angels to the men of Sodom and instead offered them his two daughters. The men refused to accept this compromise. The angels saved Lot from an assault. Lot and his family were then instructed to leave the city, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone by God.

A similar event is recorded in the Book of Judges, 19 , this time involving the town of Gibeah. This suggests that the occurrences in Sodom were not unique.

Judges 19:20-22: "You are welcome at my house," the old man said. "Let me supply whatever you need. Only don't spend the night in the square." So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink. While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him." (NIV)

See also:

• Related passages to Lot's people can be found on verses: , , , , , , , , and .

Christian Views

Traditional theologians and bible scholars accept that the sins of Sodom were homosexuality and rape. However, these were not the only sins:

Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Biblical scholars debate the proper English interpretation of this passage. Some scholars feel that

Jewish views

Classical Jewish texts do not specifically indicate that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because inhabitants were homosexual. Rather, they were destroyed because the inhabitants were generally depraved and uncompromisingly greedy. Rabbinic writings affirm that the primary crimes of the Sodomites were terrible and repeated economic crimes, both against each other and outsiders.

A rabbinic tradition, described in the Mishnah, postulates that the sin of Sodom was related to property: Sodomites believed that "what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours" (Abot), which is interpreted as a lack of compassion. Another rabbinic tradition is that these two wealthy cities treated visitors in a sadistic fashion. One example is the story of the "bed" that guests to Sodom were forced to sleep in: if they were too short they were stretched to fit it, and if they were too tall, they were cut up.(compare Procrustes)

The Talmud also recounts the incident of a young girl (some sources say it was a daughter of Lot) who gave some bread to a poor man who had entered the city. When the townspeople discovered her act of kindness, they smeared her body with honey and hung her from the city wall until she was stung to death by bees. It is this gruesome event (and her scream, in particular), the Talmud concludes, that are alluded to in the verse that heralds the city’s destruction: "So Hashem said, ‘Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and because their sin has been very grave, I will descend and see…" (Gen. 18, 20-21)

The view of Josephus

Flavius Josephus, a Romano-Jewish historian, wrote:

"Now, about this time the Sodomites, overweeningly proud of their numbers and the extent of their wealth, showed themselves insolent to men and impious to the Divinity, insomuch that they no more remembered the benefits that they had received from Him, hated foreigners and avoided any contact with others. Indignant at this conduct, God accordingly resolved to chastise them for their arrogance, and not only to uproot their city, but to blast their land so completely that it should yield neither plant nor fruit whatsoever from that time forward." Jewish Antiquities 1:194-195

Reformist Torah approach with Hebrew translations

"Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house"

The traditional interpretation of this story largely stems from the gender biased translation of the word enoshe in Strong's in Genesis 19:4. Most versions say "men", which is incorrect. The Hebrew word enoshe is not gender-specific; it indicates mortals or people. The word esh would have been used to mean "man" or eshal to mean "woman" if gender specific terminology was meant. This translation gives the impression that just the men of the city had surrounded Lot's house and the further impression that they were all homosexuals out to have sex with the angels. The word enoshe is used in Genesis 17:23 with the word zechar meaning "male" demonstrating this point.

There is no Old Testament text in which yadha specifically refers to homosexual coitus, with the single exception of this disputed Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis. The less ambiguous word shakhabh, however, is used for homosexual, heterosexual, and bestial intercourse. Shakhabh appears fifty times in the Old Testament; if it had been used instead of yadha in the Sodom story, the meaning of the text would have been unmistakable. Based on this interpretation, we lack conclusive grounds to assume that the men of Sodom only wanted to rape the visitors. We simply know that their intentions were unfriendly.

Looking at the scriptures in Hebrew, we find an interesting usage of a couple of different words. When the mob cries out "Where are the men who came in to you tonight?", the Hebrew word translated "men" is again enoshe which, literally translated, means "mortal". This indicates that the mob knew that Lot had visitors, but were unsure of what sex they were. The Hebrew word for "man"

Note that these women that Lot offered were virgins. Note also that the Sodomites were pagans. Virgin sacrifices to idols were a common practice in Sodom. Therefore, it can be concluded in another way that Lot was offering his daughters as virgin sacrifices to appease the mob in an effort to protect the visitors. By 50 AD, we find the first time that the sin of Sodom is associated with homosexual "acts" in general. In the Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesin ("Questions and Answers on Genesis") IV.31-37, Philo interpreted the Genesis word yãdhà as "servile, lawless and unseemly pederasty."

Revisionist Interpretation

A more recent view (one that has been part of the Jewish interpretation for centuries) advocated by liberal theologians and biblical scholars is that the events in Sodom have to do with Abraham's hospitality and the gifts of God bestowed on him for his gracious action. First we see hospitality and the way we should act, then inhospitality in that the people of Sodom seek to mistreat and rape the newcomers. The biblical text itself seems to suggest that the sin is based in part on inhospitality to some (if not a major) extent (although traditionally, the reason for the punishment has always been immorality):

Ezekiel 16:49-50: Now this was the sin of Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

This idea is paralleled in the Gospels when Jesus compares an inhospitable reception to Sodom:

Matthew 10:14-15: If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

Islamic View

Lut (Arabic: لوط ) was a prophet listed in the Qur'an and known as Lot in the Bible.

According to Islamic tradition, Lut lived in Ur and was a nephew of Ibrahim. He was commanded by God to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorra (Sadum) where the people were well-known for their indulgence in homosexual lifestyles. When he arrived there, the people ridiculed his teachings and ignored him.

Allah's repeated offer of forgiveness was communicated by Lut but each time it fell on deaf ears.

Lut, who was a patient, determined, and courageous servant, manifested his joyous faith in and respect for God. His tribe's mockery and attacks only reinforced his enthusiasm and determination. Like all of the other prophets, he continued to command what is good and forbid what is evil, thus scrupulously fulfilling his God-given duty.

The Biblical stories of Lut's incestuous relationship with his daughters are considered a perversion and blasphemous in Islam, as such an action would remove a man from being a prophet of God in the Islamic view.

The Qur'an tells that Lut was willing to offer his daughters — or, as some scholars suggest, young women of his tribe — so that people would turn away from the prohibited act of homosexuality.

But this, too, was of little importance to the people. Then finally the angels disguised as two men came to Lut. They gave him the news of the imminent destruction of the city's people, and Allah ordered the prophet to take away his selected people and leave his wife, and not to look back upon the city.

Scientific View

Some biblical scholars believe that a sin was attached to the story of Sodom to justify the destruction of the cities, which may be based on an authentic account of a natural cataclysm, possibly an earthquake in the region. It is known that the towns are described as lying along a major fault, the Jordan Rift Valley, the northernmost extension of the Great Rift Valley of the Red Sea and East Africa. It is also possible that the sin of the inhabitants appearing in the original text was edited out and lost.

The historical existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is still in dispute by archaeologists, with some believing they never existed, some believing they are now under the Dead Sea, and others claiming that they have been found (under other names) in the region to the southeast of the Dead Sea. One candidate for Sodom is a site known as Bab edh-Dhra. Bab edh-Dhra was an Early Bronze Age city located near the Dead Sea, and bitumen and petroleum deposits have been found in the area, which contain sulfur and natural gas (as such deposits normally do). The theory is that an earthquake opened a nearby pocket of natural gas. Natural gas, being lighter than air, drifted up. However, instead of dissipating harmlessly the gas reacted with the fires burning in the city (the smallest flame could have set off the natural gas). As a result, the city was devastated.

Those who believe that the city never existed assert that the name "Sodom" is a derivative of the word "scorched", implying that such a name could have been given only after the city's alleged destruction, not before. However, this name may have been descriptive of the arid unproductive plains near the Dead Sea.

Current usage of the term sodomy

The classical Jewish views on Sodom are relatively unknown, compared with a Christian view that tends to interpret the text as referring to homosexuality. Thus the story of Sodom has given rise to words in several languages, including English: the word "sodomy", meaning acts (stigmatized as "unnatural vice") such as anal sex, and the word "sodomite", meaning one who practices such acts. The account of Sodom is part of the basis for many Christian denominations' condemnation of homosexuality.

References

• Gagnon, Robert A.J. (2002), The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, Abingdon Press, pages 71-91.

See also

• Religion and homosexuality
• Vine of Sodom

External links and sources

• Ashen city-shaped remains in the vicinity of Masada, that stretch for miles, with deposits of sulphur in 'ball' shapes (i.e. brimstone), a type of sulphur found nowhere else on planet earth. Ron Wyatt's account of his supposed re-discovery of this ancient city.
• The 1975-1981 Excavations At The Town Site Of Bab Edh-Dhra
• "Bab edh-Dhra is located on the South-East edge of the Dead Sea in Jordan, not far from Numeira (identified with Gomorroh)."
• Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain. "One of the most important transitions in human history involved the establishment of the world's first cities approximately 5,000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. In the eastern Mediterranean region (Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), people built the first walled cities during a period archaeologists call the Early Bronze Age (EBA, c. 3500–2000 BCE). In the EBA on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain (Map 1), people began burying their dead in extensive cemeteries, creating a landscape of the dead. Interestingly, they soon built two walled towns next to the cemeteries that they had used for a few centuries. In these settlements, called Bab edh-Dhra' (pronounced "bob-ed-draw") and Numeira (pronounced "new-mere-a"), people established the way of life that we read about in the Bible. In fact, for the writers of the Bible, the desolate nature of this stretch of shore along the Dead Sea and the visible ruins of Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira may have helped them to identify this area with the stories of the ill-fated sites of Sodom and Gomorrah."
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• This site has an extensive coverage of both the liberal and conservative Christian views of the story of Sodom and Gomorra.
• at the Catholic Encyclopedia Sodoma i Gomorra

Sodom und Gomorrha Sodoma Sodome Sodoma (città) מהפכת סדום ועמורה Sodoma ir Goroma Sodom ソドムとゴモラ Sodoma i Gomora Sodoma e Gomorra Содом и Гоморра Sodoma ja Gomorra Sodom och Gomorra 索多瑪與蛾摩拉