What does Genesis 19 tell us about the sin of Sodom?
What does Genesis 19 tell us about the sin of Sodom?
The Revisionist Answer
The sin of Sodom was inhospitality toward Lot’s guests. The context of Genesis 19 does not mention homosexuality. The meaning of know in 19:5 refers to identifying the visitors. The corresponding Hebrew word is used more than nine hundred times with the meaning of “to become acquainted”; relatively rarely does it have the meaning of “to know sexually.”
Even if homosexuality was involved at Sodom, it was rape, which had nothing to do with consensual, mutual same-gender behavior as it is now defined. Homosexual rape was an especially humiliating form of conquest over victims. Victors raped the vanquished.
The Biblical Answer
The words of the text describe the evil intent of the Sodomites. In light of Sodom’s reputation recorded earlier in Genesis (13:10, 13; 18:20–21, 23ff.), the behavior of the sodomites was known to be particularly despicable. However important hospitality was in that society, inhospitality does not fit this description.
The meaning of the terms in any text is defined by the context. The meaning of know in Genesis 19:5 must be considered by the use of the same word in 19:8, where it has an unmistakably sexual meaning: Lot said his daughters had not “known” a man. This use argues strongly that the same word has the same meaning within the scope of four verses, unless there is strong contrary indication. But all other evidence supports, rather than weighs against, a sexual connotation. “To have sexual intercourse” must be the preferred translation for know.
The literary form of the larger context, in which the incident describing Sodom occurs, argues strongly for a sexual nature to the sin of Sodom. The events at Sodom pose a threat to fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham regarding a seed and a land (Genesis 12, 15). Sodom threatens the fulfillment of God’s larger promise and plan to bless the Gentiles through Abraham and to bring about a just society (pp. 32–36).
It is correct that rape, or homosexual conquest, was the intent of the men’s actions. Yet Sodom is used frequently in Scripture as an illustration of depravity or judgment in which rape or conquest does not fit or is inadequate; the full range of homosexual thought and behavior does fit.
Among the thirty-nine such applications of Sodom are Deuteronomy 29:23 (cf. vv. 19–21); 32:32–35; Isaiah 1:9–10 (cf. vv. 4–5); 13:19; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40 (cf. vv. 31–32); Lamentations 4:5–8; Ezekiel 16:44–50; Amos 4:11 (cf. ch. 4); Zephaniah 2:8–10. “Sodom” takes on the broader connection with homosexuality throughout the rest of Scripture, having implications of pride, in addition to violence or inhospitality. The passages mentioning Sodom never suggest the idea of homosexual rape over conquered foes
