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This article is about the biblical town of Sodom. See also Sodom, Shetland for the place on
Whalsay and Sodom
(video game character) for the video game character.
Sodom was the chief town of a group of five towns on the plain of the Jordan River in an area that constituted the southern limit of the lands of the Canaanites (Genesis 10:19). Lot, a nephew of Abram (Abraham) chose to live in the city.
According to the Bible, both Sodom and Gomorrah (called as a group
The Cities on the Plain) were destroyed by God for their sins. Opinions differ as to what the sin actually was.
The Biblical text
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 [angels] which came in to thee this
night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. (KJV)
Lot refused to give the angels staying in his house to the men of Sodom and instead offered them his two daughters. The men
refused to accept this compromise, and Lot was only saved from assault by the angels. Lot and his family were then instructed to
leave the city, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and
brimstone by God.
Based on this incident it is often postulated that the sin was homosexuality and rape. However, it should be noted that the events
that form the basis of this claim only occur in the narrative after God has already passed sentence on the cities -- God could
not have been condemning Sodom for its treatment of Lot's guests themselves.
In contrast, the biblical book of Ezekiel holds that the crimes were economic, and
not sexual.
- As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. This was
the guilt of your sister Sodom; She and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and
needy. They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it. Ezekiel
16:46-50
The view of Josephus
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, wrote that "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 declined all intercourse with others. Indignant at this conduct, God accordingly resolved
to chastise them for their arrogance." (Josephus, Antiquities I: 194-5)
Jewish views
Classical Jewish texts hold that God did not destroy Sodom and Gemorrah because their 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 to outsiders.
A Jewish tradition, described in the Mishnah, postulates that the sin of Sodom was
related to property: they believed that "what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours" (Abot), which is interpreted as a lack
of compassion. It should be noted that the statements in the Mishnah and in the midrash literature are not always based on the literal meaning of the text, and often are considered to have
little historical basis. However, they do provide us with information on what Jews of that era believed.
One tradition is that these five wealthy cities violated the Law of Hospitality: there is a series of legends regarding Sodom's hospitality, but
these are apparently borrowed from Greek mythology. 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. This is an adaptation of the Greek myth of Procrustes.
Talmud on Sodom
The Babylonian Talmud (in tractate Sanhedrin 109a) provides a number of examples of
what the rabbis felt the crimes of Sodom were. Their sins had to do with cruelty and greed. Two of the examples are:
- The men of Sodom waxed haughty only on account of the good which the Holy One, blessed be He, had lavished upon them...They
said: Since there cometh forth bread out of (our) earth, and it hath the dust of gold, why should we suffer wayfarers, who come
to us only to deplete our wealth. Come, let us abolish the practice of travelling in our land.
- There were four judges in Sodom named Shakrai (Liar), Shakurai (Awful Liar), Zayyafi (Forger), and Mazle Dina (Perverter of
Justice). Now if a man assaulted his neighbour's wife and bruised her, they would say to the husband, Give her to him, that she
may become pregnant for thee. If one cut off the ear of his neighbour's ass, they would order, Give it to him until it grows
again.
In modern terms, the Talmud suggests that the Sodomites were condemned for restricting immigration and for institutionalizing the law of "might makes right".
Midrash on Sodom
The midrash compilation "Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer" offers a number of reasons why the Sodomites were considered evil,
but again there is no mention of homosexuality. One of the texts states:
- Rabbi Ze'era said: The men of Sodom were the wealthy men of prosperity, on account of the good and fruitful land whereon they
dwelt... Rabbi Nathaniel said: The men of Sodom had no consideration for the honour of their Owner by not distributing food to
the wayfarer and stranger, but they even fenced in all the trees on top above their fruit so that so that they should not be
seized; not even by the bird of heaven... Rabbi Joshua... said: They appointed over themselves judges who were lying judges, and
they oppressed every wayfarer and stranger who entered Sodom by their perverse judgment, and they sent them forth naked...
Again in modern terms, this story suggests that they were condemned for enclosure of the commons, and for perversion of justice.
Current usage of the term "sodomy"
For whatever reason, the classical Jewish views on Sodom are unknown, and Christian Bible readers focus (Jews might say
excessively) on homosexuality. Thus the story of Sodom has given the several languages, including English, the word "sodomy", meaning supposedly "unnatural" acts such as
anal sex, and also the word "sodomite", meaning one who practises such acts.
[1]
The account of Sodom is part of the basis for many Christian denominations'
condemnation of homosexuality.
Modern historical approach
Most 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
Ba'Hadra. Ba'Hadra was located near the Dead Sea and a coating of sulphur has been
found on the site. The theory for the sulphur is that an earthquake opened a nearby pocket of natural gas. Natural gas, being lighter then 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. Skeletons from Ba'Hadra do not show an abnormally high syphilis rate
for a city of that size.
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 unfortunate translation of the word enoshe (#582)
in Genesis 19:4. Most versions say "men", which is incorrect. The Hebrew word enoshe is not gender specific but
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 mistranslation 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" demonstrates this point.
There is no Old Testament text in which yadha refers to homosexual coitus (intercourse), 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. As it is, we have no grounds to assume that the men of
Sodom wanted to rape the visitors. We just 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 'enowsh 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" (utilized in this same passage in Genesis 19:8) is entirely different. One has to ask: Why would homosexuals want to
have sex with two strangers if they were unsure of what sex they were?
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 a virgin
sacrifice to appease the mob in an effort to protect the visitors. By 50 AD we find the first time 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."
See also: Religion and homosexuality,
Vine of Sodom and "Sodomite" (sic)
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