HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE #02: SODOM AND GOMORRAH
by Adventista Subversivo
If you ask someone to point to a part of the Bible where God specifically condemns homosexuality, the answer will likely be Genesis 19, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The popular story is that God destroyed these two cities due to unbridled homosexuality (this is where the word “sodomy” comes from as we know it today), sending two angels to extract only Lot, the only non-gay citizen, and his family. before the wrath descends on the region.
The problem is that there is absolutely no reference in the Bible to anyone in Sodom being gay. Even if there were, that was never the reason for God's wrath. If anything, the biggest sin for the people of Sodom was that they really hated outsiders.
In the story, God sends two angels in human form to Sodom to visit Lot's house and inform him that he must pack because something serious, Old Testament style, was scheduled to happen there the next day. That's because the people of Sodom were "bad" and their sins were "serious" - nothing more specific than that. But when Lot's neighbors saw that he had visitors from outside the city, they gathered their torches and went to show foreigners his incredible hospitality (they did this, apparently, by beating and raping).
It is true that the gang of lynchers from Sodom made a clear threat of rape against Lot's (male) visitors. The quote from the Bible, an authorized version of King James in Portuguese, is: “Bring them out here so we can have sex with them!". In English, it is not so. It would be something like "Bring them out here so we can get to know them", even though, in biblical discourse, "getting to know" someone does not exactly mean having a cup of coffee together. Not to mention that the Bible says that ALL the men in the city surrounded Lot's house. Were ALL of them gay? And if so, why would Lot offer his virgin daughters to gay men?
Many interpret this as evidence of how crazy the people of Sodom were about gay sex. Except that making a threat of rape does not make a person gay. In fact, it makes her a violent idiot (the prisons say so). Not to mention that this line is the only reference to any type of sexual activity in all history. When the Bible later clarifies what Sodom had done to irritate God, what is said is that the people there were immoral, lazy, arrogant and not very charitable.
What was the true sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?
"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49).
According to Ezekiel 16:49 we can conclude that the true sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the lack of hospitality towards others.
Jesus himself, knowing the context of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was to have sinned due to lack of hospitality towards the foreigner, when sending his workers to announce the message of the Kingdom of God, wisely used the example of Sodom and Gomorrah as we see in the book of Matthew:
“If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” (10:13-15).
The prophet Ezekiel, in harmony with the Genesis account, points out pride and selfishness as Sodom's sins. Jesus, in the text above, points out the lack of hospitality as the transgression of Sodom. No word on homoaffectiveness appears in such texts. Even apocryphal books (from Catholic editions - Such books are not included in the Protestant Bible because divine inspiration is not recognized in them, however, they are valuable documents with regard to historical facts.) express the same idea about Sodom and Gomorrah:
Ecclesiastical 16.8
"He did not spare the neighbours of Lot, whom he loathed on account of their arrogance."
Wisdom 19.13-17
“But violent thunder gave warning of the punishment that was coming on those sinners. They suffered a well-deserved punishment for their great wickedness. No nation had ever hated strangers so bitterly. 14 Other people had been known to refuse welcome to strangers who came to them, but these people made slaves of those who were their guests and who had shown them kindness. 15 Every nation will be punished if it does not welcome foreigners, 16 but these people, who had earlier welcomed the foreigners with happy celebrations and treated them as equals, later made them suffer cruelly. 17 These people were also struck with blindness, like the men of Sodom who came to the door of that righteous man Lot. They found themselves in total darkness, as each one groped around to find his own door."
Conclusion:
The text clearly reveals an attempt at collective sexual violence to Lot's visitors motivated by xenophobia. The inhabitants of Sodom violently violated the law of hospitality, sacred to the Semitic peoples (Exodus 22.21). In an attempt to humiliate the visitors, they were bad, arrogant and proud. Seeing homo-affection in such a gesture of violence demonstrates complete ignorance of what the Bible actually says.
In the next article, we'll talk about Leviticus.
The popular story is that God destroyed these two cities due to unbridled homosexuality (this is where the word “sodomy” comes from as we know it today), sending two angels to extract only Lot, the only non-gay citizen, and his family. before the wrath descends on the region.
The problem is that there is absolutely no reference in the Bible to anyone in Sodom being gay. Even if there were, that was never the reason for God's wrath. If anything, the biggest sin for the people of Sodom was that they really hated outsiders.
In the story, God sends two angels in human form to Sodom to visit Lot's house and inform him that he must pack because something serious, Old Testament style, was scheduled to happen there the next day. That's because the people of Sodom were "bad" and their sins were "serious" - nothing more specific than that. But when Lot's neighbors saw that he had visitors from outside the city, they gathered their torches and went to show foreigners his incredible hospitality (they did this, apparently, by beating and raping).
It is true that the gang of lynchers from Sodom made a clear threat of rape against Lot's (male) visitors. The quote from the Bible, an authorized version of King James in Portuguese, is: “Bring them out here so we can have sex with them!". In English, it is not so. It would be something like "Bring them out here so we can get to know them", even though, in biblical discourse, "getting to know" someone does not exactly mean having a cup of coffee together. Not to mention that the Bible says that ALL the men in the city surrounded Lot's house. Were ALL of them gay? And if so, why would Lot offer his virgin daughters to gay men?
Many interpret this as evidence of how crazy the people of Sodom were about gay sex. Except that making a threat of rape does not make a person gay. In fact, it makes her a violent idiot (the prisons say so). Not to mention that this line is the only reference to any type of sexual activity in all history. When the Bible later clarifies what Sodom had done to irritate God, what is said is that the people there were immoral, lazy, arrogant and not very charitable.
What was the true sin of Sodom and Gomorrah?
"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49).
According to Ezekiel 16:49 we can conclude that the true sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the lack of hospitality towards others.
Jesus himself, knowing the context of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was to have sinned due to lack of hospitality towards the foreigner, when sending his workers to announce the message of the Kingdom of God, wisely used the example of Sodom and Gomorrah as we see in the book of Matthew:
“If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” (10:13-15).
The prophet Ezekiel, in harmony with the Genesis account, points out pride and selfishness as Sodom's sins. Jesus, in the text above, points out the lack of hospitality as the transgression of Sodom. No word on homoaffectiveness appears in such texts. Even apocryphal books (from Catholic editions - Such books are not included in the Protestant Bible because divine inspiration is not recognized in them, however, they are valuable documents with regard to historical facts.) express the same idea about Sodom and Gomorrah:
Ecclesiastical 16.8
"He did not spare the neighbours of Lot, whom he loathed on account of their arrogance."
Wisdom 19.13-17
“But violent thunder gave warning of the punishment that was coming on those sinners. They suffered a well-deserved punishment for their great wickedness. No nation had ever hated strangers so bitterly. 14 Other people had been known to refuse welcome to strangers who came to them, but these people made slaves of those who were their guests and who had shown them kindness. 15 Every nation will be punished if it does not welcome foreigners, 16 but these people, who had earlier welcomed the foreigners with happy celebrations and treated them as equals, later made them suffer cruelly. 17 These people were also struck with blindness, like the men of Sodom who came to the door of that righteous man Lot. They found themselves in total darkness, as each one groped around to find his own door."
Conclusion:
The text clearly reveals an attempt at collective sexual violence to Lot's visitors motivated by xenophobia. The inhabitants of Sodom violently violated the law of hospitality, sacred to the Semitic peoples (Exodus 22.21). In an attempt to humiliate the visitors, they were bad, arrogant and proud. Seeing homo-affection in such a gesture of violence demonstrates complete ignorance of what the Bible actually says.
In the next article, we'll talk about Leviticus.
Translated and adapted by Sou um Jovem Adventista.
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