Sodom and Gomorrah

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, the cities were destroyed by God "because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous" (Genesis 18:20). 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 passes sentence on the cities.

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

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 interpretted 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 (such as 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).

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.

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...

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 the act of anal sex, and also the word "sodomite", meaning one who practises the same.

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 Afro-Syrian Rift valley). 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. Evidence has been found of towns in the region being ravaged by earthquakes, and some scholars have suggested that the abundance of sulphur in the region could account for the description of fire and brimstone raining down.