Sodom

For other uses, see Sodom (disambiguation).

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin, 1832.

According to the Book of Genesis, Sodom (Hebrew: סְדוֹם, Standard Sədom Tiberian Səḏôm, Greek Σόδομα) and Gomorrah (Hebrew: עֲמוֹרָה, Standard ʿAmora Tiberian Ġəmôrāh, ʿĂmôrāh, Greek Γόμορρα) were two cities destroyed by God for their sins.

For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim were destroyed by "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24-25). Since then, their names are synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's just wrath (Jude 1:7).

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 homosexuality and anal sex, and the word "sodomite", meaning one who practices such acts.

The Biblical text

Sodom was one of a group of five towns, the Pentapolis (Wisdom 10:6): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela — also called Zoar (Genesis 19:22). The Pentapolis region is also collectively referred to as "the Cities of the Plain" (Genesis 13:12) since they were all sited 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 Sodom, because of the proximity of good grazing for his flocks (Genesis 13:5-11).

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 ten righteous people. The Lord's two angels only found one righteous person living in Sodom, Abraham's nephew Lot. Consequently, God follows through with his plans to destroy the city.

In Genesis 19:4-5, the final episode in the story of Sodom is described as the angels visit Lot to warn him to flee:

4. When they had not yet retired, and the people of the city, the people of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, the entire populace from every end[of the city].

5. And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, and let us be intimate with them." (Judaica Press)

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 men were struck with blindness, allowing Lot and his family, who were then instructed to leave the city, to escape, and Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone by God.

A similar event is recorded in the Judges 19:20-22, this time involving the town of Gibeah. This suggests that the occurrences in Sodom were not unique:

20. And the old man said, "Peace be to you, just let all your needs be upon me, but do not lodge in the street."

21. And he brought him into his house, and gave fodder to the donkeys, and they washed their feet, ate and drank.

22. As they were enjoying themselves, and behold, the men of the city, men of wickedness, surrounded the house, (and were) beating at the door. And they spoke to the man, the elderly master of the house, saying, "Bring out the man that came into your house, so that we may be intimate with him. (Judaica Press)

Jewish views

Classical Jewish texts do not specifically indicate that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because the inhabitants were homosexual^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}.

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. (Sanhedrin 109a) 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…" (Genesis 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

and Josephus recounts that angels came to Sodom to find good men they were instead greeted by rapists and sodomists[1]:

“	And the angels came to the city of the Sodomites...when the Sodomites beheld the young men, who were outstanding in beauty of appearance and who had been received into Lots’s house, they set about to do violence and outrage to their youthful beauty....Therefore, God, indignant at their bold acts, struck them with blindness, so that they were unable to find the entrance into the house, and condemned the Sodomites to destruction of the whole population.	”
	— Jewish Antiquities 1:199-202

Reformist Torah approach with Hebrew translations

{{#invoke:Message box|ambox}} "Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house"

One might get the impression that only the men of the city had surrounded Lot's house and also that they were all homosexuals out to have sex with the angels. But neither of these points is necessarily supported by a close reading of the text.

As was historically the case with the English word men, the Hebrew word anashim used here can also refer to a group comprised of both sexes. (For example, in Genesis 17:23 the word anashim must be paired with the word zechar, meaning "male", to indicate that men and not women were circumcised.) If women were present too, then it is hard to argue that the whole crowd was looking for a homosexual experience.

The traditional interpretation may also rely on another textual misunderstanding, relating to the crowd's declaration of what they want to do to the visitors. There is no Old Testament text in which the word yadha specifically refers to homosexual coitus, except for this disputed Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis. The less ambiguous word shachabh, however, is used for homosexual, heterosexual, and bestial intercourse. Shachabh 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.

One more textual feature may support this point. When the mob cries out "Where are the men who came in to you tonight?", the Hebrew word translated men is again the sexually ambiguous anashim. One may ask: Why would homosexuals want to have sex with two strangers if they were unsure of what sex they were? However if the sin was rape, and the rapists were indiscriminate, then the sex of the strangers would not matter.

Note that these women that Lot offered were virgins. Note also that the Sodomites were pagans. Virgin sacrifices to idols may have been a common practice in Sodom. Therefore, it is possible that Lot was offering his daughters as virgin sacrifices to appease the mob in an effort to protect the visitors.

In any case, by 50 C.E., 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."

Liberal Christian views

A view 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.

This view of the biblical story reflects that of other ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, where hospitality was a main feature in deciding the quality of a person^{[citation needed]}. Also in these civilizations, men were held in a much higher regard than women, in Greece women being seen as little more than property^{[citation needed]}, therefore, to demand not only a guest but a male guest to be violated against his will would be seen as more of a crime than to allow women to be used to save the guest.

Conservative Christian views

File:Leyden-Lot.png

In a sixteenth-century depiction by Lucas Van Leyden, a drunken Lot embraces his daughter while Sodom burns in the distance.

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. Most scholars feel that "strange flesh" is a reference to homosexuality, while some (particularly liberal Christians) feel that the "strange flesh" involved refers to bestiality as the men of Sodom were seeking copulation with angels, not humans. [2]

See Also: Jamieson, Robert, D.D. "Commentary on Genesis 19". "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible". [3]. 1871.

Beza, Theodore. "Commentary on Genesis 19". "The 1599 Geneva Study Bible". [4]. 1600-1645.

Islamic view

Main article: Lut

Lut (Arabic: لوط ) was a prophet mentioned 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 or Abraham. His story is often used as a reference by traditional Islamic scholars to show that homosexuality to be against God's law or Haraam. He was commanded by God to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorra to preach against homosexuality. In the Qur'an as in the Bible, Lut's message is ignored, Sodom and Gommorra is destroyed and his wife is left behind to be destroyed.

“	And Lut, when he said to his tribe: "Do you commit an obscenity not perpetrated before you by anyone in all the worlds? You come with lust to men instead of women. You are indeed a depraved tribe." The only answer of his tribe was to say: "Expel them from your city! They are people who keep themselves pure!" So We rescued him and his family-except for his wife. She was one of those who stayed behind. We rained down a rain upon them. See the final fate of the evildoers!	”
	— Qur'an, 7:80-84

The major difference between the story of Lut in the Qur'an and the story of Lot in the Bible is that the Biblical version includes stories of Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters, which is denied in Qur'an.

Historicity

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. Their exact location is unknown, however the Bible indicates they were located near the Dead Sea (Genesis 14:1-3, Genesis 14:8-10, Deuteronomy 34:3). Strabo states that locals living near Moasada (probably referring to Masada) say that "there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis". There is a small "mountain", mainly composed of salt, next to the Dead Sea, called in Arabic Jabal (Mount) Usdum, which is similar to the Arabic for Sodom, Sadūm.

Archibald Sayce translated an Akkadian poem describing cities that were destroyed in a rain of fire, written from the view of a person who escaped the destruction, however the names of the cities are not given.

Some modern biblical scholars argue 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. Geologists have confirmed that no volcanic activity occurred within the last 4000 years, but it is possible that the towns were destroyed by an earthquake in the region, especially if the towns lie 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.

According to Burton MacDonald, the name “Sodom” "is probably related to the Arabic sadama meaning 'fasten,' 'fortify,' 'strengthen'" and Gomorrah is based on the root gh m r which means 'be deep,' 'copious (water)'. Another possibility for "Sodom" is the Arabic meaning "to dry up (spring)".

In 1976 Giovanni Pettinato claimed that a cuneiform tablet that had been found in the newly discovered library at Ebla contained the names of all five of the Cities of the Plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela), listed in just the same order that they are named in Genesis, but this claim has apparently been withdrawn. He still claims, however, that si-da-mu [TM.76.G.524] and ì-ma-ar [TM.75.G.1570 and TM.75.G.2233] represent Sodom and Gomorrah. However, Alfonso Archi states that, judging from the surrounding city names in the cuneiform list, si-da-mu lies in northern Syria and not near the Dead Sea, and ì-ma-ar is a variant of ì-mar, known to represent Emar, an ancient city located near Ebla. William Shea points out in 1983 that on the 'Eblaite Geographical Atlas' (TM.75.G.2231), ad-mu-ut and sa-dam are good readings by Pettinato and correspond to Admah and Sodom, and they are contained in a list of cities that traces a route along the shores 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. The theory is that an earthquake opened a nearby pocket of natural gas. This gas drifted up and reacted with fires burning in the city. As a result, the city was devastated.

The Modern Israeli Sodom

In accordance with the general Zionist and Israeli practice of naming places for the cities or villages which existed in the general vicinity in Biblical times, the site of the present Dead Sea Works, extensively extracting the Dead Sea minerals, is called "Sdom" (סדום) - though there is no reason to believe that the Biblical city, if it actually existed, was in that particlular location. Unlike its Biblical namesake, the modern Sodom is not associated with sins but with hard working crews sweating in the summer heat of the Dead Sea shores.

Films

Some films have attempted to portray the Biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, although many of them take liberties with the historical text.

• Sodom and Gomorrah / Sodom und Gomorra (1922) - an Austrian film directed by Michael Curtiz
• Lot in Sodom (1933) - a film that passed the censors because it depicted the wickedness of the sin.
• Sodom and Gomorrah (1963) - a film directed by Robert Aldrich which depicts the destruction of the two cities for their decadence and human cruelty.
• Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975) - an Italian film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. (Not about the historical city. Rather a tale adapted from the novel The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade and set in WW-II Italy.)
• Parts of the The Scorpion King (2002, in effect a fantasy movie) are set in a city called Gomorrah, apparently meant to be the Biblical city before it was destroyed.

Television

• In the Anime and Manga, One Piece, the Franky Family owns two King Bulls called Sodom and Gomorrah.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• 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
• Apple of Sodom
• Vayeira, the Torah portion containing the story of Sodom and Gomorrah
• Higher criticism

Refrenced in the movie "Dogma" where, Loki, The Angel of Death was responsible for the havok.

External links and sources

• Wyatt Archaeological Research 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.
• Harvard University The 1975–1981 Excavations At The Town Site Of Bab edh-Dhra
• University of Melbourne "Bab edh-Dhra is located on the South-East edge of the Dead Sea in Jordan, not far from Numeira (identified with Gomorroh)."
• University of Notre Dame 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 B.C.E.). 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."
• Atlantic Baptist University Sodom and Gomorrah
• Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance This site has an extensive coverage of both the liberal and conservative Christian views of the story of Sodom and Gomorra.
• Sodom and Gomorrah at the Catholic Encyclopedia

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Sodom  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Sodom"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.