For better or for worse we are a culture that has come to rely on soundbites and memes for information and self expression. These can be a quick way to get an idea across, but they run the very real risk of taking things out of context. We may develop very strong feelings about a subject that, in reality, has nothing to do with subject at all. The worst case scenario is the gross equivocation that can happen when a person thinks that they understand a subject, when in reality their understanding might reflect the complete opposite. The difficulty, of course, is that seeking clarity often takes effort; and effort is something that turns many people away. Memes and soundbites are quick and convenient. Anything more than that gets pushed aside, or clicked passed without thought.
Our current cultural climate concerns me. A lot of my concern comes from a how many people use the bible to justify their own agendas. There was no better example of this than when the President tear-gassed people so that he could take a picture of himself holding a bible in front of a church. Whatever your political opinion of him may be, the incident is part of historical record now.
I thought that it might be helpful to take the popular medium of the blog, and explore a biblical story that many people claim to know and can also generate exceptionally strong feelings. It is a perfect example of how we take what we think we know and accept it without seeking to look past our preconceived ideas for the truth of it. It is my hope that by trying to understand the text, we may see ourselves in the text – if not personally then culturally.
Let’s look at the biblical story of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Found in the book of Genesis, chapter 19.) I plan on taking this step by step. So, buckle up.
1. Know what you are looking at.
The story of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is found in the Christian Old Testament.
The Christian “Old Testament” is a collection of 39 books (Protestant list) or 46 books (Catholic list) that is taken from (and mostly parallels) the Jewish bible, the Tanakh. The entirely of Tanakh is (and always has been) written in Hebrew. So, although you might be reading a delightful translation in English, what you might actually be reading is a Hebrew text that has been translated into Latin (the Vulgate) and then translated into Greek (the oldest copies of the Christian canon are all in Greek) which then, in turn, is translated into English. (For an engaging treatment on this see Bart Ehrman’s book, “Misquoting Jesus,” chapter 1.) In the better translations of the bible, the translators have sought to return to the oldest manuscripts possible, which means that they have translated your text from Hebrew. (For this story, and any other reading that requires the first five books of the bible, I recommend Richard Elliott Friedman’s translation in his translation of Torah with notes, “The Bible with Sources Revealed.”)
The story is found in the book of Genesis, which despite being first in the order of reading, was not the first in the order of writing. It is generally understood that the book of Exodus was the first book to have been written (Exodus chapter 15 being the oldest identifiable writing in the bible – period.) The story itself, however, is among the oldest written.
So, we are looking at something that is among the oldest in written biblical tradition.
It is found in the part of the Christian bible that was taken from the Jewish bible, Tanakh.
And, in the Tanakh, it is found in the first five books, called Torah.[i]
It serves us well to ask questions like:
When was this story written?
What were the politics of the time?
What might the authors have known or have been going through?
What was the culture like there, at that time?
And the questions can reasonably continue.
2. Read the story.
The story is found in Genesis 19, but there is a preface to the story in chapter 18. Usually when I teach this, we analyze chapter 18 separately, which is about Abraham interceding with (or bargaining with) God. So, I will skip it here, too. (If you want, then I will write about that in another post. Let me know.)
Here is the translation of the story from the New American Bible Revised Edition, but please, feel free to use any translation you like. Using more than one translation can be a revelatory exercise in its own. It can reveal to the reader the various word choices that a translator can chose, and might even raise questions about why they chose the terms they did.
(Notice that the little numbers – called verse numbers – do not designate the beginning of sentences.)
Try to read it without any preconceptions or prejudices. Try to read as though for the first time.
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
1 The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground,
2 he said, “Please, my lords, come aside into your servant’s house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey.” But they replied, “No, we will pass the night in the town square.”
3 He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a banquet for them, baking unleavened bread, and they dined.
4 Before they went to bed, the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old—all the people to the last man—surrounded the house.
5 They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have sexual relations with them.”
6 Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him,
7 he said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing!
8 I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with men. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
9 They replied, “Stand back! This man,” they said, “came here as a resident alien, and now he dares to give orders! We will treat you worse than them!” With that, they pressed hard against Lot, moving in closer to break down the door.
10 But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with them, and closed the door;
11 they struck the men at the entrance of the house, small and great, with such a blinding light* that they were utterly unable to find the doorway.
12 Then the guests said to Lot: “Who else belongs to you here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, all who belong to you in the city—take them away from this place!
13 We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the LORD against those here is so great that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters.* “Come on, leave this place,” he told them; “the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Come on! Take your wife with you and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
16 When he hesitated, the men, because of the LORD’s compassion for him, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.
17 As soon as they had brought them outside, they said: “Flee for your life! Do not look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Flee to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”
18 “Oh, no, my lords!” Lot replied to them.
19 “You have already shown favor to your servant, doing me the great kindness of saving my life. But I cannot flee to the hills, or the disaster will overtake and kill me.
20 Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It is only a small place. Let me flee there—is it not a small place?—to save my life.”
21 “Well, then,” he replied, “I grant you this favor too. I will not overthrow the town you have mentioned.
22 Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” That is why the town is called Zoar.
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot arrived in Zoar,
24 and the LORD rained down sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from the LORD out of heaven.
25 He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.
26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
27 The next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain,* he saw smoke over the land rising like the smoke from a kiln.
29 When God destroyed the cities of the Plain, he remembered Abraham and sent Lot away from the upheaval that occurred when God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
3. Analyze the story.
First of all, this is a tale of two cities: Sodom and Gomorrah. You probably would not be surprised by the number of times that I have heard people talk as if it is about once city: “The Destruction of Sodomandgomorrrah.”
Let’s take a look at the story. Take few moments and pause.
What do you think it is about?
What are your reasons for coming up with that answer?
Many people, especially people who do not read critically, believe this story to be about homosexuality. Which – spoiler alert – it is not. But, the homophobic sentiment runs historically deep. The term “sodomy” comes from the Latinization of the Greek of the city name, “Sodom.” But there is no evidence of this being commonly used until the 14th century and is linked with ecclesiastical (Church) Latin. The only justification of the use of the term comes from GN 19:4-5:
4 …the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old—all the people to the last man—surrounded the house.
5 They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have sexual relations with them.”
The Hebrew clearly says “all the people” which would include both men and women. Are the women of the town guilty of attempted sodomy, too?
The most shocking part….
If you are a breathing human being, but especially if you are a parent, the most shocking thing in this story is – not the townspeople surrounding the house – but rather, Lot’s response. Lot offers his own daughters to the townspeople to rape! I find it really disturbing that people are very quick to declare their shock and horror of the townspeople surrounding the house, but seem perfectly OK with Lot offering his own children to be raped by them!
What is God’s response to Lot offering his daughters to be raped? Surely there will be a consequence. Surely this will make Lot unfit for saving. But, alas, no. There is no further mention of it. If this were a tale about sexual ethics, then Lot would have been condemned along with the rest of the town. He is not. So, it is not about sexual ethics. So what IS it about? Certainly, if it were as important a cultural narrative as we might believe it to be, then other people would talk about it. And, in fact, they do. We see this come up several times in prophetic literature. And, it’s very helpful.
The story of the destruction of the cities, as a cultural narrative, was a well known one as it is referenced in much later literature with an expectation that the audience be aware of it.
Isaiah
The prophet Isaiah, uses the reference to condemn the sins of the people, which incidentally don’t seem to include homosexuality.
In Isaiah 1: 9 – 23 the Prophet blasts the population calling them citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. And what makes them like those wicked cities?
IS 1:15 “your hands are full of blood”
IS 1: 17 rhetorically calls them out for being unjust, being corrupt, and not taking care of their most vulnerable citizens.
IS 1:23 calls them out for the same things, again.
Ezekiel
The prophet Ezekiel, (Ezekiel 16:49-51) uses the reference to condemn the people of a laundry list of sins, from which homosexuality is grossly absent.
EZ 16:49 calls the people out for having such a disparity between rich and poor, people being arrogant and blind to the needs of others as they overindulge as others go hungry, “complacent in their prosperity.” Ezekiel also, along with Isaiah, blast them for being blind and negligent to the most vulnerable people among them, “They did not give any help to the poor or needy.”
Jeremiah
And then the prophet Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 23:14) lists: adultery, living deceitfully, giving wicked people positions of power, and glorifying evil so that people embrace it as a virtue:
“Adultery,
walking in deception,
strengthening the power of the wicked,
so that no one turns from evil;
To me they are all like Sodom,
its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah are pretty heavy hitters in the biblical prophetic pantheon. They all come down very hard on the Israelites of their day, using the cultural narrative as an indictment that the people would have known. And every time, it is about living justly, eliminating the disparity between the rich and the poor, and taking care of those who need us the most.
Jesus
Finally, if you are Christian, there is no higher authority that Jesus, himself. Did he say anything about this narrative? In fact he did.
In both the Gospel of Matthew (MT 10: 11-15) and the Gospel of Luke (LK 10: 1 – 12) Jesus references the cities in their lack of care for those who need it most. In other words, he agrees with the prophets.
So, maybe if we think that the story means something other than Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Jesus, maybe, just maybe, we are wrong. Maybe what we should be concerning ourselves with is eliminating the disparity between the rich and poor, living justly, and taking care of the most vulnerable around us.
I’ll leave you with the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verses 35-45 (MT 25:35-45). Although he does not explicitly reference the story from Genesis, he does clearly echo the prophets:
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
40 And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’
45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
PS: There are other various aspects of the story that I will address in another post.
[i] The Torah is, in my estimation, the most important part of the Christian bible – period. I will not goo into a full argument here. But, I will summarize it like this:
The Torah is the set of books, originally written to establish a legacy of covenantal identity for the ancient Israelite people who will later become known as the Jews. No Torah = no Judaism. Jesus was Jewish. So, no Torah = no Judaism. No Judaism = no Jesus. No Jesus = no Christianity. So, if you are Christian (or a follower of Jesus) it is in your best interest of faith to know the Torah as thoroughly as you are able. But, this is the material for another post in the future.
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