SODOM AND GOMORRAH

According to Genesis, 'Sodom '(, Greek Σόδομα) 'and Gomorrah' (, Greek Γόμορρα) were two cities destroyed by God in the book of Genesis .
For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim were destroyed by "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (). Since then, their names are synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's wrath ().
Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for sinfulness and sexual deviation. The story has therefore given rise to words in several languages, including English: the word "sodomy", meaning acts (stigmatized as "unnatural vice") such as homosexual sex, and zoophilia and the word "sodomite", meaning one who practices such acts. However, the name Sodom is derived from a Hebrew word meaning "burnt", and Gomorrah from a word meaning "buried", which refer to their destruction.

Contents

The Biblical text

Jewish views

The view of Josephus

Christian views

Islamic view

Historicity

Modern Sodom

See also

References

The Biblical text

Sodom was one of a group of five towns, the Pentapolis (): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela -- also called Zoar (). The Pentapolis region is also collectively referred to as "the Cities of the Plain" () 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 (). Lot, a nephew of Abram (Abraham) chose to live in Sodom, because of the proximity of good grazing for his flocks ().
In , 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 destroyed the city.
In the Tanach version, Bereishit19:4-5, the final episode in the story of Sodom is described as the angels visit Lot to warn him to flee:
Lot refused to give the visiting angels to the inhabitants of Sodom, instead he offered them his two daughters but the people refused. The men were struck with blindness, allowing Lot and his family, who were then instructed to leave the city, to escape. Then Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone by God. No reason is given for the inclusion of Gomorrah in the destruction.

Jewish views

Classical Jewish texts do not stress the homosexual aspect of the attitude of the inhabitants of Sodom as much as their cruelty and lack of hospitality to the "stranger". (See Jewish Encyclopedia on the importance of hospitality.) Though homosexual acts were included among the 613 Mitzvah or Commandments as an abomination, a single homosexual act being punishable by death, the people of Sodom were seen as guilty of many other no less significant sins. Rabbinic writings affirm that the Sodomites also committed economic crimes, blasphemy and bloodshed^[1]. One of the worst was to give money or even gold ingots to beggars, but to inscribe their names on them, and then subsequently refuse to sell them food. However, the unfortunate stranger would not be allowed out of the city, and would end up starving. After his death, the people who gave him the money would reclaim it.
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 major crime done to strangers was almost identical to that of Procrustes in Greek mythology. This would be 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.
In another incident, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, went to visit Lot in Sodom and got in a dispute with a Sodomite over a beggar, and was hit in the forehead with a stone, making him bleed. The Sodomite demanded Eliezer pay him for the service of bloodletting, and a Sodomite judge sided with the Sodomite. Eliezer then struck the judge in the forehead with a stone and asked the judge to pay the Sodomite.
The Talmud and the book of Jasher also recount two incidents of a young girl (one involved a daughter of Lot, named Paltith) who gave some bread to a poor man who had entered the city. When the townspeople discovered their acts of kindness, they burned Paltith and smeared the other girl's 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...'" ().

The view of Josephus

Flavius Josephus, a Romano-Jewish historian, wrote:
and Josephus recounts that when angels came to Sodom to find good men they were instead greeted by rapists[1]:

Christian views

There are two prevailing views of the sin of Sodom in Christian thought. One is that the destruction of Sodom was due to inhospitality, as illustrated by the gifts of God to Abraham for his gracious action, contrasted with consequences of the behavior of the city's inhabitants. First we see hospitality and the way we should act, then inhospitality in that the people of Sodom seek to mistreat 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 promulgated for the punishment has been focussed on sexual immorality and not assault):

This idea is paralleled in the Gospels when Jesus compares an inhospitable reception to Sodom:
This view of the Biblical story reflects that of other ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, where hospitality was of singular importance and strangers were under the protection of the gods.^[2] Also in these civilizations, men were held in a much higher regard than women, in Greece women being seen as little more than property, therefore, to demand not only a guest but a male guest be violated against his will would be seen as more of a crime than to allow women to be used to save the guest.
The other prevailing explanation among Christians, informed by certain interpretations of other Biblical texts (see The Bible and homosexuality) and believed to be further suggested by the following, is that the sins of Sodom involved sexual immorality:
Interpretations of this passage vary. It may be that "going after strange flesh" is a euphemism for homosexuality, or, it may refer to sex with strangers, sex outside of wedlock, or possibly something akin to bestiality, as the men of Sodom were seeking copulation with angels rather than humans. [2]

Islamic view

''Main article: Islamic view of Lot''
In Islamic tradition, the nephew of Abraham or Ibrahim is known as 'Lut' (Arabic: لوط ) and is considered a prophet.
As in other traditions, Islam teaches that Lut had originally lived in Ur and was a nephew of Abraham. His story is often used as a reference by traditional Islamic scholars to show homosexuality to be against God's law or Haraam. He was commanded by God to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to preach to the people on monotheism and to bring their sinful behavior to an end. Their sins included indecent practices such as public orgies, aggressiveness in their public places of assembly, blocking free passage of the roads, the killing and robbing of travellers, and dishonesty in the markets. In the Qur'an as in the Bible, Lut's messages are ignored, and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. However, this does not mean that his wife used to practice homosexuality but worshipped what her people used to worship (that is, she was a polytheist).
The two major differences between the Biblical and Qur'anic stories are that in the Qur'an Lot's wife is left in the city to be destroyed along with its inhabitants, as she remained a polythiest; and that the Qur'an does not contain any passages concerning Lot's drunken incest with his daughters.

Historicity

The historical existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is still in dispute by archaeologists. Some believe they never existed, some believe they are now under the Dead Sea, and others claim 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 (, , ).
Strabo states that locals living near Moasada (probably Masada) say that "there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis".^[3] In 1850, Ferdinand de Saulcy described Jabal (Mount) Usdum, a limestone and salt hill at the southwestern tip of the Dead Sea, and Kharbet Usdum ruins nearby as the site of biblical Sodom.^[4]. Usdum is similar to Sadūm, the Arabic for Sodom, and this is the source of modern Sodom toponimics.
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.^[5] This rain of fire may have been a combination of meteorites and earthquakes along the fault line running into the Dead Sea.
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.^[6] It is also possible that the sin of the inhabitants appearing in the original text was edited out and lost.
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)'.^[7]
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 the same order as in Genesis. Although not all of the names have been verified, the names ''si-da-mu'' [TM.76.G.524] and ''ì-ma-ar'' [TM.75.G.1570 and TM.75.G.2233] are almost universally accepted as representing Sodom and Gomorrah.^[8] 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.^[9] 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, or quite possibly within the Dead Sea, whose position may have since shifted along its fault.^[10]
Other possible candidates for Sodom or Gomorrah are the sites discovered or visited by Walter E. Rast and R. Thomas Schaub in 1973, including Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira, es-Safi, Feifeh and Khanazir. All sites were located near the Dead Sea, with evidence of burning on many of the stones and a sudden stop of inhabitation towards the end of the Early Bronze Age.^[11] Archaeological remains excavated from Bab edh-Dhra are currently displayed in Karak Archaeological Museum (Karak Castle)and Amman Citadel Museum in Jordan.

Modern Sodom

The site of the present Dead Sea Works, a large operation for the extraction of Dead Sea minerals, is called "Sdom" (סדום) according to its traditional Arab name, Khirbet Usdum (see above Historicity). Nearby is unique Mount Sdom (הר סדום), or Jabal Usdum in Arabic, consisting mainly of salt. In the Plain of Sdom (מישור סדום) to the south there are a few springs and two small agricultural villages.

See also

★ Religion and homosexuality

★ Vine of Sodom

★ Anal Sex

★ Vayeira, the Torah portion containing the story of Sodom and Gomorrah

★ Higher criticism

References

1. A tale of two cities : Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament, early Jewish and early Christian traditions, James Alfred Loader, , , Peeters Publishers, 1990,
2. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, , Harry Thurston, Peck, Harper and Brothers, 1898,
3. Strabo XVI 2:44
4. "Voyage autour de la mer Morte et dans les terres bibliques, , Ferdinand, Saulcy, de, Gide et J. Baudry, 1853,
5. "The Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Accadian Account)." Records of the Past XI 115, A. H. Sayce, , , , ,
6. Sodom and Gomorrah: The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain, J. Penrose Harland, , , Biblical Archaeologist,
7. "East of the Jordan": Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures, B. Macdonald, , , American Schools of Oriental Research, 2000,
8. BAR Interviews Giovanni Pettinato, Hershel Shanks, , , Biblical Archaeology Review,
9. Are "The Cities of the Plain" Mentioned in the Ebla Tablets?, Alfonso Archi, , , Biblical Archaeology Review,
10. The Discovery of the Sin Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Bryant G. Wood, , , Bible and Spade,
11. Once Again: Sodom and Gomorrah, Willem C. van Hattem, , , Biblical Archaeologist, Spring 1981


★ 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 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."

★ 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

★ "Commentary on Genesis 19" by Robert Jameison, D.D. 1871

★ "Commentary on Genesis 19" by Theodore Beza