En Gedi

The "Word in Life" study bible by Nelson Publishers states the following about Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving plenty of hints:

Sodom and Gomorrah were two of the five "cities of the plain" (Gen. 13:12) at the southern end of the Dead Sea in a fertile area that was said to be like Eden (13:10). "Sodom" means "place of lime," and "Gomorrah" means "submersion." These cities are notorious in the Bible and in the world for "wickedness and rebellion against God" (see 2 Peter 2:6).

It is an area selected by Lot, Abraham's nephew, as "the place to graze his flocks and pitch his tents" (Gen. 13:11). The area was judged by God for a host of sins, and was destroyed by fire and brimstone that "rained from the sky" (Gen. 19:24-25). Today, the area is barren, although in Biblical times, it was quite fertile. It is the site of frequent earthquakes and other geological events. Nearby "repositories" of salt, asphalt, and sulphur are in large supply.

In "Jesus the Man," Barbara Thiering states that within the Temple Scroll (of the Dead Sea Scrolls) reside rules for purity that were developed by the Essenes. One rule states that when a man "became unclean" for whatever reason, he had to remove himself from the community for a period of time commensurate with the severity of his crime. Remains of shallow pools containing a white mineral deposit along the bottoms have been found at a southern Essene outpost, Ain Feshka.

This deposit has been found to be calcium carbonate, a mineral found in limestone, shells, and other material. When heat is applied, calcium carbonate changes to calcium oxide, CaO, which is then pure lime. In its solid state, carbon oxide is used to make mortar and cement, so it is likely that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah had more than one use for this natural resource. When hydrogen is added, lime can be used to neutralize acid soil, as anyone who has alkaline plants can attest to, so it is no mystery that the natural lime "sweetened" the soil in the area, making it lush and agreeable to sheepherding.

Ain Feshka is thought to have been a place of repentance, where Essene monks went when they were punished for an array of infractions. Thus the excavated pools coated with lime in this location makes perfect sense, as part of the cleansing process is the washing of clothes.

These ruins are just south of Qumran, along the Dead Sea. Alongside each pool exist paved terraces with "cylindrical stones lying lengthwise" have been found. They appear to have been used both as scrubbing boards and racks for drying. The Essene community liked to use frankincense as a laundry detergent. It is a starch-like substance that consists mostly of calcium carbonate. When the clothes were rinsed, the frankincense then settled at the bottoms of the large basins.

Aerial View of Qumran

At this moment in time, based upon the information available to me, I theorize that since "Sodom" means "place of lime," and "Gomorrah" means "submersion," that this area was a place of repentance and punishment, thus equivocating it with sin, and was part of the Davidic/Levitical complex along the Dead Sea which includes Qumran. This is consistent with both the Dead Sea Scrolls and John's practice of baptism, since he came from that sect of Judaism. The man on the street would never understand the goings-on at such a place, and would therefore describe in it terms of terror and horrors. This is how superstition is born, and to me, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is just that: an old wives' tale. A person in extreme ignorance would incorrectly interpret the activities of an Essene community as sinful, since it did not conform to everyday practices.

I have seen articles on the Internet which protest against the Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying it is homophobic and promotes homophobia. I wish that people would stop grinding their personal axes and cease twisting Scripture to suit their own personal problems! The real Sodom and Gomorrah had nothing to do with homosexuality. It is not an issue in this instance and has no place in history -- past, present or future. However, God has stated quite clearly in the Old Testament that He is against immoral behavior of all kinds, so it is altogether possible that several stories were combined into one to make a point about sin. Again, in order to have the ears to hear and the eyes to see, we must first look at the facts. Anything else is playing "shot for shot," has no good purpose under God's heaven, and can only lead to destruction. So therein lies the moral of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, inaccurate though it is.

The Davidic line has always held itself apart. It had to, otherwise gossip such as this would have been much more prevalent. Such rumormongers spread lies because of rejection and jealousy. Who knows? This story may have been started by someone who was thrown out of the Davidic community for something so serious that simple ritual purification could not cleanse him of. This person would go around trying to win others to his side, and pick only those who would rather believe the sensational rather over fact. In all fairness, it is possible that while the Essenes may not have started the rumor, they may have had a hand in its perpetuation, simply to throw the ignorant off the track, so they could do their work in peace and quiet. Since things are never one-sided, if my theory is correct, the responsibility went both ways. Remember what Jesus said about speaking in parables and why He did it.

Matthew 13:10:

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"

He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear, for assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Not all produce at the same yield. Why is that? Because we're not all the same. We produce based on faith, which is what Jesus taught. Jesus never taught religion...He taught faith. Religion is manmade, a dead tree that bears dead fruit and has dead works like the response from the gay community above. Only faith in the Creator brings life and yield for the harvest. Religion falls on fallow ground...faith bears good fruit. Religion is based on the doctrines of men and is idolatry. Religion breeds and perpetuates ignorance...faith is confidence in the knowledge of God's creation. Religion is milk...faith is meat.

To backtrack, an ignorant person would see the earthquake and subsequent natural destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as God's judgment of a sinful community, who did things that no "God-fearing and God-loving" person would do, never suspecting that what went on in these communities was the result of a purer religion, belief, faith, and love than could ever be imagined in the outside world. An earthquake would generate the heat necessary to turn calcium carbonate into calcium oxide, which probably accounts for the high concentration of lime in that area to this present day. Asphalt and sulphur are also easily explained. They were probably spewed up from the bowels of the earth during that natural disaster, and everything was laid bare and barren. This is what normally happens in earthquake zones. (It is a well-known fact that the entire Mediterranean area is extremely prone to earthquakes. Take the story of Pompeii, and Mt. Etna on the island of Sicily, and the island of Thera off the coast of Greece, which some believe to be the sunken continent of Atlantis.)

I have read that Qumran, the Essene community on the Dead Sea that produced Jesus and John the Baptist, was also known as Sodom and Gomorrah. It makes perfect sense for a facility of repentance and purification to be close at hand for a congregation the size of that at Qumran. Therefore, if Qumran can be called Sodom at alternate times, depending upon the context of the discussion, then it is possible that when the original Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, for whatever reason, the Essenes saw fit to move it right into their northern center.

We all know that it is physically impossible for a human being to turn into a pillar of salt. The story of Lot's wife is a remarkable case of reverse psychology, as is the context in which it resides. Jesus said that his followers are the salt and the light. The light is the truth, and the salt is the preservative for that truth. In Jesus' day, all Jews are believed to have kept the laws of Kashrut, of koshering food. It was not until Jesus was crucified that God appeared to Peter on a rooftop and told him to eat everything, that no animal was unclean anymore.

Meat and poultry are made kosher first by the way the animals are fed and kept, then by the way they are killed, after which the meat is cleansed even more by soaking it in water and coarse salt. Thus the blood, which carries impurities and causes spoilage, is removed. Jesus did not choose his words by accident. His intention was for his followers to preserve the facts in their purest and cleanest form. Using our gifts of perception, judgment, or discernment, we act the same way the salt does, whereupon we are to shine what remains to the world.

When someone is said to be a "pillar," it means that the person bears the weight, and is the ultimate or the best, and holds everything else up. When Abraham, Lot and his wife fled the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. In plain English, this unnamed woman chose to turn back, rather than run away, and so upheld the truth of the situation, for whatever reason. No one knows what really happened to her, but one thing is certain: she was zealous for the light and was thus transformed within herself so much that she did not go with Lot to his new home, but chose to remain with the Davidic dynasty and the related priesthood. I would speculate to say that Lot's wife may actually have become the Judaic equivalent of a nun, since many women existed this way in this particular sect.

Qumran itself was struck by an earthquake in 31 BC. Khirbet Qumran, or the present-day ruins (Khirbet) of this ancient Essene community, was rebuilt, so the damage was not as severe as it was in those last days of Sodom and Gomorrah. It seems that the Jordan River Valley is an earthquake zone; even the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea in the Book of Exodus can be explained by a tidal wave that was caused by such an event in the Mediterranean.

The presence of Abraham at Sodom and Gomorrah at this time ties in with my discussion of the real Melchizedek, especially when one considers the fact that Abraham bargained with God (the erstwhile Melchizedek in one of his alternate roles), and then God agrees to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if Abraham can find ten righteous men within the city walls. Perhaps the Essenes had to move their compound because of annoying neighbors, and decided to blow up their community so that no audit trail was left for people to speculate over. Gunpowder contains sulphur, and asphalt is surely used for construction. Certainly the Essenes must have known how to make explosives, when you consider that the Father at the time of Jesus was none other than Simon the Magician.

If Abraham was the Father of the Essene community at Sodom and Gomorrah, then it would have been his prerogative to ask for mercy. However, I do not believe that Abraham begged anyone to spare the area. I think that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was either a contrived or natural event, or both, and that it was made into a moral lesson by the writers of the Old Testament, instead of recording the actual history and leaving their audience to decide for themselves what really happened there and what God wanted us to learn from it.