The Bible says not a word about homosexuality (behavior or orientation). The word homosexual was not even included in the English translations until about 1940. Only the confusion and ignorance about the horrible practices of pederasty being falsely translated as homosexuality is the cause of the false teachings and making life so difficult for so many loving wonderful Christian gays and lesbians.
Homosexuality by itself is not immoral. When sex is used to corrupt, for prurient and/or exploitative purposes or selfish reasons or to hurt someone else, this is immoral.
It is also important at the beginning to place the topic in prospective. Victor Paul Furnish, Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, recounts having received an urgent telephone call from a television host scheduled to interview a "gay rights leader." The host wanted to confront the leader with biblical injunctions against homosexuality, but had been unable to find any. Furnish states that "[t]hat interviewer had already discovered something important although he scarcely realized it: Homosexuality is not a prominent biblical concern." Another author says it this way: "The first point that must be made... is that the current intense interest in the issue of homosexuality and the Bible is our interest; it does not reflect the biblical priorities." Victor Paul Furnish, The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues, 2d ed., (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985), 53-54. Ibid., 53. (Emphasis in original.)
Out of the thousands of passages in the Bible, only a handful are usually used by those espousing biblical condemnation of homosexuality. The prophets, who's office often involves cataloging sin, do not condemn same-gender sexual relations. At least in recorded Scripture, Jesus said nothing at all on the subject. There is not one mention of same-gender sexual relations in any of the gospels. While one must be cautious about arguing from silence, I agree with Spong that this "does suggest that those who consider this 'the most heinous sin' must be terribly disturbed that our Lord appears either to have ignored it completely or to have said so little on the subject that no part of what he said was remembered or recorded." Spong, 135-36
Genesis 18 - 19
Genesis 19 describes how two angels visited Sodom and were welcomed into Lot's house. The men of the city gathered around the house and demanded that Lot send the visitors to the mob so that they might know the angels. [The Hebrew verb yada (to know) is ambiguous. It appears 943 times in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). In only about a dozen of these cases does it refers to sexual activity; it is not clear whether the mob wanted to rape the angels or to meet with them, and perhaps attack them physically. From the context, it is obvious that their mood was not friendly]. Lot refused, but offered his two virgin daughters to be heterosexually raped if that would appease the mob. The offer was declined. God decided to destroy the city because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. The angels urged Lot and his family to flee and to not look back. Unfortunately, Lot's wife looked the wrong way, so God killed her because of her curiosity.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah actually condemns inhospitality and idolatry, not homosexuality. Read the Scriptural cross-references: Deuteronomy 29:23, Isaiah 1:9, Jeremiah 23:14, Lamentations 4:6, Ezekiel 16:49-50, Amos 4:11, Zephaniah 2:9, Matthew 10:15 / Luke 10:12, Luke 17:29, Romans 9:29, Jude v.7, Revelation 11:8
NOWHERE in the Scriptures does it say that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexual sex. Even if the specific point of the story was concerning a sexual matter, rather than hospitality, the issue is rape not homosexuality. Rape can in know way be something pointed at to condemm homosexual behaviour. They don't just want to lie down with them voluntarily; they want to rape the angels. Jesus claimed the issue was simply one of showing hospitality to strangers (Luke 10:12). How ironic that those who discriminate against homosexuals seem to be the true practitioners of the sin of Sodom. If it does refer to homosexual behavior, it's homosexual rape.
Rape is more of an act of violence than a sexual act. As it would be illogical to condemn all heterosexual sexual acts because some people acted abusively, it is also illogical to bring condemnation to all homosexual acts when only some acted irresponsibly.
Women in the culture of the Old Testament were treated as property; to be used as their owners saw fit. Men, on the other hand, were to be given respect. Sexual violence against a man by another man was an all too common demonstration of dominance over another. Its purpose was to take away the dignity of the subdued; to humiliate the man through forced anal intercourse. This was carried out by straight men. Not unlike in some prison situations today. . This was part of the terrible acts of pederasty, the opposite of today's loving homosexual natural relationships. Compare with Judges 19.
There is no Old Testament text in which yadha refers to homosexual coitus (intercoarse), with the single exception of this disputed Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis. The less ambiguous word shakhabh, however, is used for homosexual, heterosexual, and bestial intercourse. Shakhabh 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. As it is, we have no grounds to assume that the men of Sodom wanted to rape the visitors. We just know that there intentions were unfriendly.
The traditional interpretation of this story largely stems from the unfortunate translation of the word enoshe (#582) in Genesis 19:4. Most versions say �men�.
�Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city
of Sodom - both young and old - surrounded the house�
The Hebrew word enoshe is not gender specific but indicates mortals or people. The word esh (#376) would have been used to mean �man� or eshal (#802) to mean �woman� if gender specific terminology was meant. This mistranslation gives the impression that just the men of the city had surrounded Lot�s house and the further impression that they were all homosexuals out to have sex with the angels. The word enoshe is used in Genesis 17:23 with the word zechar (#2145) meaning �male� demonstrates this point. The King James Version states it this way:
�Abraham took Ishmael and�every male among the men of Abraham�s house��
The question arises, what other kind of men are there but males? Abraham was selecting the males from among all the �people� on his household for circumcision. The more modern translations corrected Genesis 17:23 to indicate people (or in this case household), but for some reason did not make the same correction in Genesis 19:6.
Looking at the scriptures in Hebrew, we find an interesting usage of a couple of different words. When the mob cries out "Where are the men who came in to you tonight?", the Hebrew word translated men is again 'enowsh which, literally translated, means "mortal". This indicates that the mob knew that Lot had visitors, but were unsure of what sex they were. The Hebrew word for "man" (utilized in this same passage in Genesis 19:8) is entirely different. One has to ask: Why would homosexuals want to have sex with two strangers if they were unsure of what sex they were?
Note that these women that Lot offered were virgins. Note also that the Sodomites were pagans. Virgin sacrifices to idols were a common practice Sodom. Therefore, it can be concluded in another way that Lot was offering his daughters as a virgin sacrifice to appease the mob in an effort to protect the visitors.
By 50 AD we find the first time the sin of Sodom is associated with homosexual "acts" in general. In the Quaest. et Salut. in Genesis IV.31-37, Philo interpreted the Genesis word y�dh� as "servile, lawless and unseemly pederasty."
Genesis 38:1-26
(Genesis 38:1-26 gives a clear picture of the views of sex, marriage, women as property and the man-centered society in the book of Genesis. Remember that Judah is the son of Jacob whose name is the basis for the word "Jew". This chapter speaks for itself. It is a clear picture of sexuality in the Bible.)
Genesis 38:1-26:
1 Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her.
3 So she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Er.
4 Then she conceived again and bore a son and named him Onan.
5 And she bore still another son and named him Shelah; and it was at Chezib that she bore him.
6 Now Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, and her name was Tamar.
7 But Er, Judah's first-born, was evil in the sight of God. So God took his life.
8 Then Judah said to Onan: Go in to your brother's wife and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring ("seed") for your brother.
9 And Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he spilled his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother.
10 But what he did was displeasing in the sight of God. So God killed him also.
11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar: Remain a widow in your father's house until my little boy Shelah grows up. He thought: I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers. So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.
12 Now after a considerable time Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. When the time of mourning was over, Judah went up to his sheep-shearers at Timnah along with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13 And Tamar found out that her father-in-law was going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.
14 So Tamara took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil, wrapped herself, and sat in the gateway of Enaim, which is on the road to Timhah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife.
15 When Judah saw Tamar, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16 So he turned aside to her by the road and said: Here now, let me come in to you. He sis not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said: What will you give me that you may come in to me?
17 He said: I will send you a kid from the flock. She said also: Will you give a pledge until you send it?
18 And Judah said: What pledge shall I give you? Tamar said: Give me your driver's license and your American Express Card (actually she requested his seal, cord and staff, but these were personal and could be identified easily, just like driver's license and credit cards today.) So Judah gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
19 Then Tamar arose and departed and removed her veil and put back on her widow's garments.
20 When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite to receive back his pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her.
21 And he asked the men of her place, saying: Where is the temple prostitute who was by the road at Enaim? But they said: There has been no temple prostitute here.
22 So he returned to Judah and said: I did not find her; and furthermore, the men of the place said: There has been no temple prostitute here. (The word for "temple prostitute" in these two verses means exactly that and implies that Judah was willing to compromise with Canaanite baalism for a roll in the hay.)
23 Then Judah said: Let her keep them, lest we become a laughingstock. After all, I sent this kid (goat) and she wasn't there.
24 Now about three months later, Judah was informed: Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot. Behold, she is also with child by harlotry. Then Judah said: Bring her out and let her be burned!
25 While Tamar was being brought out, she sent to Judah to tell him that she was with child by the man to whom these items of I.D. belonged. Tamar said: Please look at these items and see who they belong to.
26 And Judah recognized them and said: She is more righteous than I, for I did not give her to my son Shelah. And Judah did not see her again. (Verses 27 � 30 tell how Tamar gave birth to twins, one of whom was an ancestor of Jesus.)
(Tamar is listed in the Gospel of Matthew 1:3 as an ancestor of Jesus as is Ruth and "the wife of Uriah �Bathsheba, none of whom were Israelites.)
Prostitutes were a common part of the religious fertility rituals in ancient times and no doubt were prevalent in Sodom and Gomorrah. A word used by many today to condemn homosexuals is the word Sodomite. Many use this term as a reference to those who lived in Sodom and supposing them to be homosexuals, have used this word synonymously with homosexual as a negative slam. The word, however, does not appear in the story of the destruction of Sodom and is used only four times in the entire Bible. It is the word kawdashe (#6945) and refers to male temple cult prostitutes. Usually, as in Deuteronomy 23:17, their counter parts, kedayshaw (#6948), the female temple cult prostitutes are also mentioned. These are not homosexuals. They are prostitutes who were active in the worship of the pagan fertility gods and goddesses of ancient Palestine, according to Dake�s Annotated Reference Bible. The word sodomite originated from the King James Version, but only in reference to these temple cult prostitutes. Later versions must have picked up the homosexual connotation from the traditional understanding and interpretation of what the sin of Sodom was, and has since been used to condemn homosexuality.
Some people say that Jude 7 refers to homosexuality. In Jude 7, the writer says that the people had gone after �strange flesh�. Some believe that this is referring to homosexuality. The translation �strange flesh� is from the Greek words heteros sarx (#2087 and #4561) meaning �different flesh�. Had the writer wanted to refer to homosexual acts, it would have made more sense to use terms homos sarx (#3676 and #4571) meaning �same flesh�. The Old Testament Pseudopigrapha suggests an alternative rendering of this verse might be that Jude was stating that �just like the wicked angels, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah left their first grace and gave themselves to idolatrous prostitution and the violent treatment of other people, so they have become and example by suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.�
It wouldn't have said different flesh if homosexuality was intended because homosexuality is not different flesh, its same flesh. They were talking about the angels.
A view of strange flesh comes from Gen 6. Here we read of a time when the "sons of God" cohabited with the "daughters of humans", resulting in a strange progeny called in the Hebrew "nephilim", a rare word indicating something weird or strange.
To examine what is meant by "sons of God" look to Job 1:6. Here we see that Satan, a fallen angel, was before God as one of the "sons of God" we would understand the "sons of God" to be other angels. We again get the understanding that "sons of God are angels from Job 38:7. Strange flesh means a linking between angelic flesh and human flesh. Remembering that the two visitors to Lot in Sodom were angels, we see this was also going after strange flesh. This has nothing to do with homosexuality, but of the mixing of two distinct orders of creation.
Compare this to Jude 6-7 where Jude talks about angels doing what come unnaturally: And the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper abode [God] has kept... in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (New American Standard) It seems that inter-species relations are forbidden and grieve God as an unnatural thing.
Society in ancient days
In ancient societies where there were no hotels, no rapid transport and little rule of law. Cultural mores governing hospitality and respect for sojourning strangers were essentials for survival, and therefore of the utmost importance. In the mythology of Greece, next to haughtiness alone, inhospitality provoked the greatest wrath among the gods and goddesses. This was no less the case in ancient Israel.
Hospitality is a very important item in the Bible and is mentioned many times:
Exodus 22:21; 23:9
Deuteronomy 10:19; 14:29; 24:14-22
Leviticus 19:33-34
Matthew 10:5-15
Mark 6:7-11
Luke 10:3-12
Romans 12:6-15
1 Timothy 3:2
Titus 1:7-8
1 Peter 4:8-10
At the centre of Sodom's greatest transgression was the violation of that ancient code of hospitality. Jesus, in recalling the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, says nothing regarding any sexual improprieties. Instead he speaks of these cities exemplifying the fate of those towns which refuse to welcome the apostles.
And that little incident brings to mind another point: Harbouring unknown strangers within a city for the night was dangerous. The residents of the city had great reason to demand to see Lot's guests. The Bible has recorded an incident wherein a mere two people were responsible for bringing about the total destruction of an entire city (Joshua, chapters 2 and 6). According to that account, spies were sent to discern the nature of the city and its defences. They were sheltered by a lady by the name of Rahab. And despite the fact that Rahab was a prostitute, and that prostitution was a grave sin: a short time later, Rahab's family was the only one in Jericho which survived Joshua's attack. Why? Hospitality.
City gates were closed at night expressly to prevent lawless or subversive aliens from entering on unknown errands, and travellers carried credentials because they might at any time be asked to prove that they were abroad on legitimate business. Thus we might translate "Bring them out to us, that we might know them" as "We wish to know whom you are bringing into our city".
Now we see why the bringing of strangers into the city, at night, without the approval of the leaders of that city, was a punishable offence. Lot, not being a resident of that city, was naturally not deemed trustable enough to have that privilege. In essence: He insulted the city's inhabitants with his flagrant -- and in retrospect, obviously dangerous -- behaviour. They were out to "learn him a little lesson".
Now, as a host, it would have been a grave offence against the hospitality code to turn his guests over to the mob. But on the other hand their arrival had not been sanctioned by the city elders. Furthermore, Lot's refusal to let the town's people have a look see at his guests only served to further fan the flames of suspicion: Perhaps Lot's "guests" really were enemy agents sent to spy out weaknesses within the city...
History of hospitality
The hospitality code regarding guests and practice of humiliating enemies is well documented. From the Texts of Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit from north Syria, circa 1400BC) we read that an ideal son is one "Who would drive away any who would molest his night-guest." The parallel to the Sodom story is not to be overlooked. Indeed, the editor of that text (Winton Thomas) links the passage to the common practice among the Bedouin AND Lot in Genesis 19.
J. Edgar Brun in "Old Testament History and the Development of a Sexual Ethic" cites the practice of raping the defeated male enemy -- especially amongst the Egyptians -- as a form and symbol of domination. He then links this historical fact to the later Hebrew prohibition of male homosexual acts. He states:
"[The Israelites] too viewed sodomy [sic] as an expression of scorn; and in a society where the dignity of the male was a primary consideration, voluntary acts of a homosexual nature could not be tolerated. Both parties would then be undermining the very foundation of a patriarchal society; the one because he uses another as a woman; the other because he allows himself to be used as a woman.
And so centuries passed, and generations of Jewish scholars continued to understand the divine retribution against Sodom and Gomorrah to be a lesson on arrogance and inhospitality. Only later did Church moralists refer to the Sodom story in the context of sexual practices. Such as when, late in the first century A.D., the writer of the book of Jude asserts that Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves over to sexual immorality (Jude 1:7). Still, this is no indictment against the homosexual orientation.
Sodom the Second: Gilbeah
There's another Old Testament passage that is relevant. The story is found in Judges 19:11-30. It bears a striking resemblance to the Sodom story -- a traveller arrives at the city (in this case, Gilbeah). There he meets an old man who is, like Lot, a resident alien. The old man warns the traveller that he should not stay in the town square, and he extends the hand of hospitality in accordance with Holy law, inviting the traveller to share his abode for the night. And here too, the permission of the city elders is not sought. So, the men of the city surround the old man's house and demand that the traveller be sent out so "that we may know him" (there's that "yadha" again). The old man refuses to send out the guest, but offers his virgin daughter and his concubine to the mob instead. When the crowd rejects the offer, the old man throws his concubine outside as a diversion, whereupon the "base fellows" in the mob rape and abuse her all night, leaving her dying at the threshold. When the Israelites learn of the abuse of the concubine, they rise up against Gilbeah and, with God's help, destroy the city.
Here we have an instance almost identical to Sodom, except that this time we have not mere attempted rape, but actual heterosexual rape combined with murder. Yet no one uses this story to imply God's condemnation of heterosexuality in general, do they? Likewise, it is not possible to say that the story of Sodom is about homosexuality in general. Even if the original intent of both the townsmen of Sodom and those of Gilbeah was homosexual rape, obviously both stories are about heterosexual males who indulge in it as a sport or game of dominance. Otherwise the offers of females as diversionary sexual objects in both stories makes no sense. To extend such an offer to homosexual males would be pointless because it would hold no interest for them.
Some people say this story also condemms homosexuality. As with the story of Sodom and Gomorra above, this story has nothing to do with whether loving, committed monogamous homosexual or lesbian relationships are blessed by God, but rather with the perversity of gang rape, wanton lust, and (even worse, in that society), the sin of inhospitality. As in the story of Sodom and Gomorra, the old man's willingness to offer to his neighbors his own virgin daughter as well as his guest's concubine (sex slave) is portrayed as a noble thing to do -- a self-sacrificial recognition of the sacredness of hospitality to the stranger. In other words, the story underlines the heroic maintenance of the cultural tradition of hospitality as a sacred trust. This is a horrible and terrifying story -- horrible for its cavalier acceptance of the violence toward women that such a patriarchal society could produce.
Biblical interpreters today have an obligation to stress that the moral lesson intended by this passage is not that patriarchal violence is legitimate, but that hospitality toward the stranger is a sacred trust. But even with such an interpretation, modern readers of the text cannot merely excuse the text's apparent disregard for women or its implicit but terrifying acceptance of the "use" of women for sexual purposes. Thus, a proper appropriation of this terrifying story may be that believers in Yahweh have an obligation to take in and protect dishonored strangers. In our society, that would include any oppressed majority, such as women, or any persecuted minority, whether blacks or Asians or Hispanics or gays and lesbians themselves or persons with AIDS.
Who were the Sodomites? What is the meaning of the term "sodomite"?
According to Unger's Bible Dictionary, the people of the area worshipped fertility gods, chief among them were Baal/Ashtoreth (Astarte, Asherah - she had many names). This was the female goddess of war and fertility, sensual love and maternity. "She and her colleagues specialized in sex and war and her shrines were temples of legalized vice" (Unger, p. 412).
Her worship practices were basically orgies, with worshippers required to have sex with the priests and priestesses. The priests or male prostitutes, according to Unger, who were consecrated to her cult "were styled qedishim, 'sodomites' (Deuteronomy 23:18; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46).
Here is how Unger describes "sodomite" based on scriptural references (p. 1035):
"Sodomite (Heb. qadesh, consecrated, devoted). The sodomites were not inhabitants of Sodom, nor their descendents, but men consecrated to the unnatural vice of Sodom (Gen. 19:5; compare with Romans 1:27) as a religious rite. This dreadful 'consecration,' or, rather, desecration, was spread in different forms over Phoenicia, Syria, Phrygia, Assyria, and Babylonia. Ashtaroth, the Greek Astarte, was its chief object. The term was especially applied to the priests of Cybele, called Galli, perhaps from the river Gallus in Bithynia, which was said to make those who drank it mad."
Spiritually, the people of the plains (as the people of Sodom, Gomorrah, and three other area cities) were called, followed fertility gods and goddesses whose practices relied on sexuality as a magical means of ensuring fertile crops and fertile wombs. The eunuch priests of the Great Mother Goddess (called Aruru, Astarte, Ishtar, and other names, depending on the location) engaged in sex with male worshippers who wanted to earn the goddess' blessings. Robert Graves described these priests as the "dog priests" or "Enariae," whose high holiday fell on the Dog days at the rising of the Dog-star, Sirius (Tom Horner, Jonathan Loved David, p. 60). It is from these worship practices that scholars believe the ancient Hebrews drew the derogatory term, "dog," to describe these priests. But more on this later.
The Great Goddess or Great Mother was the one who granted fertility to humans, animals and crops, according to the people in the land. By worshipping the Great Mother, by any of her names, one could be guaranteed fertility. The worship involved what is called sympathetic magic, i.e., "...to make the corn grow high, one leaps into the air; in order to kill one's enemy, one sticks pins into his effigy" (page 61).
So, to ensure rebirth of crops, you cast your seed (sperm) into the representatives of the Great Mother, her priests or priestesses. The males were even better than the females, since "they had made a greater sacrifice: they had offered to the goddess their manhood" (page 65).
So, basically, these people were engaging in licentious sexual practices as a way of worship and prostituting themselves.
What was the great outcry, which had come to the Lord, causing God to come down to earth to check personally?
According to George Edwards in Gay/Lesbian Liberation: A Biblical Perspective, the word "outcry" comes from the word zecaqa, "a technical legal term... signifying 'the cry for help which one who suffers great injustice screams.'" It is the cry of the poor and homeless, of the innocent and powerless for justice. In Sodom, the Hebrews perceived a people whose disdain for the rights of others characterized the entire Canaanite people.
Prostitutes were a common part of the religious fertility rituals in ancient times and no doubt were prevalent in Sodom and Gomorrah. A word used by many today to condemn homosexuals is the word Sodomite. Many use this term as a reference to those who lived in Sodom and supposing them to be homosexuals, have used this word synonymously with homosexual as a negative slam. The word, however, does not appear in the story of the destruction of Sodom and is used only four times in the entire Bible. It is the word kawdashe (#6945) and refers to male temple cult prostitutes. Usually, as in Deuteronomy 23:17, their counter parts, kedayshaw (#6948), the female temple cult prostitutes are also mentioned. These are not homosexuals. They are prostitutes who were active in the worship of the pagan fertility gods and goddesses of ancient Palestine, according to Dake�s Annotated Reference Bible. The word sodomite originated from the King James Version, but only in reference to these temple cult prostitutes. Later versions must have picked up the homosexual connotation from the traditional understanding and interpretation of what the sin of Sodom was, and has since been used to condemn homosexuality.
I Peter 2:10
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Romans 8:1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned
Genesis 13:10-11
10 Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company.
Genesis 18:20-21
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:8b
...they (his house guests) have come under the protection of my roof.
Genesis 19:5
They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
Isaiah 1:10-20
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
11 "The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-- I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood;
16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong,
17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;
20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 3:8-9
8 Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.
9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.
Jeremiah 23:13-14
13 "Among the prophets of Samaria I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.
14 And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness. They are all like Sodom to me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."
Lamentations 4:6
The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her.
Amos 4:11
"I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
Zephaniah 2:9
Therefore, as surely as I live," declares the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, "surely Moab will become like Sodom, the Ammonites like Gomorrah-- a place of weeds and salt pits, a wasteland forever. The remnant of my people will plunder them; the survivors of my nation will inherit their land."
Matthew 10:14-15
14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
Always allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, here is what the prophet Ezekiel has to say about the matter " 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. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." (Eze.16:49,50, NIV). Further, Ezekiel is telling the Jews that they are doing more detestable things than even the Sodomites did, yet no one has ever claimed that all the Jews at the time were actively homosexual. It is obvious that what ever the sin of Sodom was, universal homosexuality was most definitely not it.
Some people say detestable things were refering to homosexuality. The Hebrew word here is to 'ebah. The Hebrews used this word primarily to refer to idolatry or religious defilement or impure sacrifice or to actions which violate God's nature, either in a cultic or an ethical sense. In Ezekiel's vocabulary, the word generally means idolatry, as in 7:20: "Their beautiful ornament they used for vain display, and they made their abominable images (to &'ebah) and their detestable things of it; therefore I will render it unclear for them."So the most likely conclusion is that by accusing the men of Sodom of doing to & 'ebah, Ezekiel in 16:50 is accusing them of worshipping idols, or going after false gods. (Lance, 143 citing Kenneth J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978)
Remember Ashteroth?
Homosexuality?
Which one sounds more to'ebah to you? I think the answer would be Ashteroth.
Even the conservative Strong's Hebrew Dictionary notes that the Hebrew word interpreted here as "detestable things" is especially associated with idol worship. (Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (Austin, Texas: Bible Research Systems, 1992) Verse Search for Windows, s.v. "tow' ebah.")
One must ask: If Lot's house was surrounded by homosexuals, why would he offer the mob women?
If we look in the previous chapter, Genesis 18: 16-33, we see an account of Abraham negotiating with God to spare the people of Sodom, with the final outcome of God promising "I shall not bring it to ruin on account of the ten" (verse 33). God promised Abraham that Sodom would not be destroyed if only ten "righteous men" could be found I the city. If we are to accept the opposite side's logic, this would mean that the "righteous men" referred to were heterosexuals. At this point, we need to ask ourselves: What would be the odds of less than ten people in the entire region of Sodom & Gomorrah being heterosexual? The obvious answer is: Impossible. So there logic is illogical.
Holding the view that all males were Homosexual in Sodom. There is No mention of Lesbianism amongst the female residents. And what of the children. If all the males were gay, they crossed the line, and often. This was clearly something done by people of "any" orientation to dominate and humiliate the strangers.
ALL of Sodom's people participated in the assault on Lot's house; in no culture has more than a small minority (7-10%) of the population been naturally homosexual. Therefore it can very much be assumed most of the violators were heterosexual.
Furnish notes that Sodom did not become an unambiguous symbol of same-sex sexual relations until the second century C.E., that it then applied to the exploitation of a youth or young man by an older male, and that although there are some English translations which use the word "sodomite," no Hebrew or Greek word formed on the name 'Sodom' ever appears in the biblical manuscripts on which those versions are based. In every instance in the King James Version where the term 'sodomite' is used, the reference is to male prostitutes associated with places of worship." Victor Paul Furnish, The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues, 2d ed., (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985), 57
What was the sin of Sodom? Abuse and offense against strangers, insult to the traveler, inhospitality to the needy, and sexual abuse. That is the point of the story understood in its historical context. The whole story and its culture make clear that the author was not concerned about sex in itself, lot offered his daughters without a second thought, the point of the story wouldn't be about sexual ethics. The story of Sodom is no more about sex than it is about pounding on someone's front door. The point of the story is abuse and assault, in whatever form they take. It clearly demonstrates that there is not a sexual ethic for the 20th Century in this story at all. It abuses the dignity of women, and demonstrates that sexual _orientation_ was not an operative concept at the time the story emerged. To use this text to condemn homosexuality is to misuse this text.
Those who insist that Sodom was destroyed for homosexuality are denying the very Bible they claim to revere, and attempting to push a laden camel through the eye of a needle. They are required to make five outrageous leaps of faith:
1. Homosexual love is equal to rape
2. "Yadha" meant homosexual acts only once or twice and something else 943 times;
3. All of the other references to Sodom's sins contained in the Bible are in error, incomplete, or obfuscatory;
4. The strict codes regarding hospitality and the safety of travellers were immaterial, and;
5. The concubine of the man of Gilbeah was a male.
This rape attempt has nothing to do with loving, consenting homosexual love but was clearly not the reason for God's destruction of Sodom.
Considering how often Sodom was used as an example of the result of wicked behavior, it's apparent that biblical times did not see homosexual acts as the important lesson of the destruction of Sodom.
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