Late last week on the blog the I made mention of the
sins that “cry to heaven for vengeance.” The traditional list, is
summarized in the Catechism which states The catechetical tradition
also recalls that there are “sins that cry to heaven”: the blood of
Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the people oppressed in
Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice
to the wage earner (# 1867).
It probably does not surprise you that I got push-back from certain homosexuals who wrote in to “remind” me
that the sin of Sodom “has nothing to do with homosexual acts, or
homosexual rape. Rather,” they said, “It is only about violations of
hospitality rules of the ancient near east.”
I did not post these comments since I did not
have time then to deal with this oft heard but very mistaken notion
about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. But the meaning of
the story is not unclear, and attempts to radically reinterpret the
fundamental issue at the core of the story, tell us more about the
struggle of the “interpreter” than of the story which has a rather
plain, unambiguous meaning. The sin, the abomination, of Sodom, while
not excluding any number of injustices, is clearly set forth as
widespread homosexual practice.
When interpreting the meaning of a passage we do well to look
not only to the plain meaning of the text, but also to other Biblical
texts that may refer back to it and help clarify any ambiguities. In
this text we can do both.
So first let’s look at the text itself as set forth:
Then the Lord said,
“The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so
grievous 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.” The men turned
away and went toward Sodom….The two arrived at Sodom in the evening,
and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he
got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My
lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can
wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the
morning.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the
square.” But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and
entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without
yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from
every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the
house. 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.” Lot went
outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my
friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 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.” “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.
But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and
shut the door. 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. The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else
here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who
belongs to you? Get them out of here,because we are going to destroy
this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that
he has sent us to destroy it.” (Genesis 18:20-22; 19:1-13)
Now those who want to argue that this text is vague
in meaning, begin by stating that the phrase “have sex with them” is
more literally rendered from the Hebrew as “that we may know them.” And
it is true that the Hebrew word יָדַע (yada) is rendered “know.” But this word is also a Hebrew idiom for carnal knowledge. For example in Genesis 4:1 we read: Now Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”
That the carnal knowledge meaning is intended here is also made clear in
the context of what follows. Lot first calls their proposal a “wicked
thing.” But just getting to know someone, or to greet a stranger, is
not a wicked thing. Further that unlawful carnal knowledge is meant is
also made clear in that Lot (horrifyingly) proposes that they have sex
instead with his daughters “who have never slept with a man” (i.e. his
virgin daughters).
It is true that Lot is further motivated by the fact
that these men (angels in disguise) are under his care. But that does
not change the nature of the threat that is involved, namely homosexual
seduction or rape.
Being unable to dissuade “all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old”
from the attempt at homosexual seduction, Lot is pulled to safety by
the the two angelic visitors who tell Lot to get ready to go since they
have come to destroy the city.
Now to the average reader who does not need to be defensive, the text conveys a clear message
of widespread homosexuality in Sodom, a fact rather bluntly confirmed
by the angelic visitors. And this is the clear emphasis of the story,
not hospitality norms or other secondary concepts.
However, it may help to confirm this fact in other texts of the Bible
and to legitimately ask if this is the only sin involved. Two texts
are most specifically helpful in this regard. First there is a text
from Ezekiel:
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 abominable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as
you have seen. (Ezekiel 16:49-50)
Now this is the text used most often by those who deny any homosexual context
in the sin of Sodom. And, to be fair, it does add a dimension to the
outcry God hears. There are clearly additional sins at work in the
outcry: pride, excess or greed, and indifference to the poor and needy.
But there are also mentioned here unspecified “abominations.” The
Hebrew word is תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה (tō·w·‘ê·ḇāh) which refers to any number of
things God considers especially detestable, such as worshiping idols,
immolating children, wrongful marriage and also homosexual acts. For
example, Leviticus 18:22 uses the word in this context: Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.
But of itself, this text from Ezekiel does remind us that widespread homosexuality is not the only sin of Sodom.
And while the abomination mentioned here may not be specified exactly,
there is another Scriptural text that does specify things more clearly
for us. It is from the Letter of Jude:
In 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. In the very same way, these dreamers
pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. (Jude 7-8)
And thus it is specified that the central sin of Sodom involved
“sexual immorality (ἐκπορνεύσασαι) and perversion (ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω
σαρκὸς ἑτέρας – literally having departed to strange or different
flesh).” And this would comport with the description of widespread
homosexual practice in Sodom wherein the practitioners of this sin are
described in Genesis 19 as including, “all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old.”
Hence we see that, while we should avoid seeing the sin of Sodom as only widespread homosexual acts (for what city has only one sin?), we cannot avoid that the Scriptures do
teach that homosexual acts are central to the sins of Sodom which cry
to heaven for vengeance, and for which God saw fit to bring a fiery
end.
Genesis 19 speaks plainly of the sin, Ezekiel 16
broadens the description but retains the word “abomination,” and Jude 7
clearly attests to sexual perversion as being the central sin with
which Sodom and Gomorrah were connected.
God the Holy Spirit has not failed to teach quite clearly
on the fundamental nature of the sins involved in these ancient
cities. Widespread homosexual practice is surely the keynote of
condemnation received by these cities and attempts to recast the matter
as a “hospitality” issue must be seen for the fanciful distortion they
are.
