Genesis 19 is the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The focus of the case against homosexuality is presented in these seven verses:
4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house. 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."
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."
9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
Archeological evidence shows that Sodom was most likely destroyed around the 20th century BC, and that it was located in an area that is now covered by the Dead Sea. (
Harper's Bible Dictionary,
Bible-History.com) At this time, Greek was beginning to rise from humble origins and was gaining power throughout the Mediterranean.
The Greeks had a very strong custom called
xenia. This was a custom of hospitality that was strictly enforced throughout the Greek nation. Namely, it dictated a guest-host relationship in which the host was required to take in any guest that arrived at his home at any time, exchange gifts, and, of utmost importance, protect the guest under any and all circumstances. This custom was often enforced by death to the violator, and probably came about due to the scarcity of communication between the Greek Isles; whatever information there was was brought by travelers, and they needed to be able to count on a place to stay wherever they went. (You can check my definition of xenia
here, but the rest of the information about xenia came from my learnings of the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. If you can identify any problems with it, please let me know.)
This concept of xenia worked so well for the Greeks that versions of it can be found among many other cultures and nations of the time. This is where we come back to scripture. For those who have trouble slogging through scripture, a summary of Sodom's destruction follows.
Lot was sitting outside the gates of Sodom when two angels of God arrived. Lot introduced himself and offered the angels a berth for the night. They refuse, and he offers again. They accept Lot's offer and follow him to his home. Once there, he feeds them, washes them, and offers them a bed for the night. An excellent follower of the xenic principle. At this point the evening turns sour. The townspeople gather around Lot's house and demand that he hand over his guests so that they could rape them. Lot refuses and does something that modern society would consider appalling: he offers his two virgin daughters in the angels' stead. Remember, though, the xenic custom placed the safety of the guest over
everything else. The townspeople refuse and begin battering down the door. At this point, the angels step in, blind the attackers, and send Lot and his family out to another town, at which point they destroy Sodom.
This leaves a bit of ambiguity as to the actual reason behind Sodom's destruction, in my opinion. For more insight, we have to look at the three verses that explicitly state Sodom's sin. These are:
Jeremiah 23:14
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."
Jude 1:7
7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Ezekiel 16:49-50
49Now 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. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
These all contain a similar vein: sexual immorality or perversion. Ezekiel goes a bit further, however, and details the Sodomite's inhospitality to visitors and to their own people. Could it not be that the crime of Sodom was not so much men having sex with men, but townspeople regularly raping visitors to the town and disobeying the sacred law of xenia?
The Talmud, a record of the discussions of many rabbis on Jewish laws and ethics (
Fact-Index), concurs with Ezekiel's descriptions of Sodom's crimes:
The men of Sodom waxed haughty only on account of the good which the Holy One, blessed be He, had lavished upon them...They said: Since there cometh forth bread out of (our) earth, and it hath the dust of gold, why should we suffer wayfarers, who come to us only to deplete our wealth. Come, let us abolish the practice of traveling in our land.
There were four judges in Sodom named Shakrai (Liar), Shakurai (Awful Liar), Zayyafi (Forger), and Mazle Dina (Perverter of Justice). Now if a man assaulted his neighbor's wife and bruised her, they would say to the husband, Give her to him, that she may become pregnant for thee. If one cut off the ear of his neighbor's ass, they would order, Give it to him until it grows again.
Source
In modern terms, the Talmud suggests that the Sodomites were condemned for restricting immigration...for institutionalizing the law of "might makes right"...and perversion of justice.
Source
In fact, throughout the Talmud, the term
middat Sdom is used, which translates to "
the way Sodom thought". It is used to indicate inhospitality, arrogance, or lack of charity.
Religioustolerance.org
In Isaiah 1:1-31, Isaiah lists out the sins of Judah and Jerusalem, and likens them to the people of Sodom:
Isaiah 1:10
Listen to the LORD, you leaders of Israel! Listen to the law of our God, people of Israel. You act just like the rulers and people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
He goes on to tell their crimes: rebellion against God (Isaiah 1:4), idolatry and meaningless worship (Isaiah 1:13), injustice, lack of charity (Isaiah 1:17), murder and corruption (Isaiah 1:21-23).
Nowhere does Isaiah list homosexuality as a sin of Sodom, Judah, or Jerusalem.
Some people point to the fact that since the rapists were males and the intended victims were male, too, it must have been for the intended homosexuality that Sodom was destroyed. Let it be pondered, then: If either party had been female, would God have looked on it differently?
Sodom and Gomorrah were perpetrators of many, many sins, rape and inhospitality foremost among them. That this is an argument against homosexuality takes the story a perhaps a step further than it was intended.