Sodom Study Notes

What Does the Bible Say About Gay? (Sodom and Gomorrah) Intro: Why we’re studying: Not to change anyone’s mind, but to inform people’s minds. We have a group of gays and lesbians within our church. It would be helpful for our church to better understand how we justify homosexuality in the light of scripture. • In studies like this, people sometimes feel the need to force their ideas. I have no desire to do this (and you shouldn’t either). This is me telling you what I believe and what I’ve learned – you can do with it what you like. • Please express your opinions, feelings, and questions. Even though I am gay, I don’t take “but I don’t agree with what you’re saying” personally. What we’ll do: • Six main passages: Genesis, Leviticus, Romans, Corinthians, Timothy, Jude (Sodom/Jude and Corinthians/Timothy will be dealt with together). • My story (I’ll share as much or as little as you want): Seminary. Used these tools – ironically – to land in this place. o The driving hermeneutical principal for this study will be that the Bible can’t mean for us what it never meant for the original readers. That’s why we’ll explore language, culture, history, text, etc. o The Bible is innocent until proven guilty. Like a jury, we have to put away our preconceptions – built up not over a lifetime, but over 2,000 years of history – in order to find its pure truth.

The Story (Genesis 19) •

The Context o Hospitality: Hospitality in ancient near Eastern culture was far more important than in modern culture. Travel through an often desolate wilderness was a slow process. Inns and safe places to spend the night were few and far between. Therefore, travelers tended to stop and spend the night with whoever was friendly enough to invite them in. Imagine yourself riding a camel or leading a camel through arid, dusty country day after day and you begin to appreciate the importance of hospitality in ancient times. Welcoming weary travelers for an overnight stay was common in the ancient near east. Hosts welcomed travelers passing through, expecting the same hospitality would be returned to them in their travels. Travelers in ancient times depended on the hospitality of strangers for their lives and safety. o The Jewish Legal Precedent  Exodus 22:21  Exodus 23:9  Leviticus 19:34

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The Back Story: o Abraham asks God to save the city if he can find one good person. (Genesis 18:16-33) o God sends two strangers to Sodom to see what happen.  Why did the angels want to spend the night in the square? (Gen 19:1-3) They were testing the town’s hospitality – see who would take them in  Why wouldn’t Lot let the angels stay in the square? (Gen 19:1-3) Not because he was afraid for their safety, but because he was the righteous man showing hospitality. o During the “rape,” Lot says, “But don't do anything to these men, for they have

come under the protection of my roof." •

The Conflict: “So we can ‘know’ them” (Genesis 19:4-5) o (?) “know” does not mean “sex.” “…the Hebrew ‘to know’ is very rarely used in a sexual sense in the bible: in only 10 of its 943 occurrences in the Old Testament does it have the sense of carnal knowledge. The passage on Sodom is the only place in the Old Testament where it is generally believe dot refer to homosexual relations.” (Boswell, 94) o Sex is the point. Why else would he offer his daughter as “bait?”  Three types of homosex in ancient times • Age: pedastry (a student as service/payment to a teacher) • Status: Higher status taking advantage of lower status • Committed  Homosexual sex was often used in ancient times as a form of humiliation. A sign of a barbaric society in Bible times was that it humiliated strangers and prisoners. The ultimate method was torture. The ultimate torture was for a straight man, often several straight men, to rape a stranger, enemy, or prisoner, anally.  Being the active partner was not taboo – being the passive partner was. “[there was a] popular association of sexual passivity with political impotence. Those who most commonly played the passive role in intercourse were boys, women, and slaves – all persons excluded from the power structure.” (Boswell, 74)  The humiliation of strangers in the Sodom story is the ultimate violation of hospitality. • Lot: “But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." (Genesis 19:8) Lot is responsible for the safety of his angel visitors and all their needs as long as they are under his roof. Travelers in ancient times depended on the hospitality of strangers for their lives and safety. • Men of Sodom “"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." (Genesis 19:9) Their treatment of strangers (gang rape) was their crime. The homosexual aspect is secondary.

Further Evidence What did other writers say? If the first principal of hermeneutics is that “the Bible cannot say to us what it didn’t say to the original readers,” the second principal is, “Whenever possible, let the Bible interpret itself.” When the Old Testament writers (and Jesus) spoke about Sodom and Gomorrah, they “were on a far more intimate footing than modern writers with both the language and life-style of the people involved.” (Boswell, 95) What did they say? o Ezekiel 16: 48-50 o Matthew 10:11-16 o Mark 6:11 o Jude 1:5-7 o This one’s trickier. “sexual immorality” and “perversion” in the Greek is “sarkos heteras.” This literally translates into “different/strange flesh.” (as opposed to flesh that was like theirs) Jewish tradition taught that this was referring to the men of Sodom wanting to have sex with angels (strange flesh). The Problem of “Sodomy”

Much of the confusion about the Biblical perspective on homosexuality comes from the words “sodomy” and “sodomite.” It is important to note that these words are never used in scripture. When we say the Bible condemns “sodomy,” we are using slang the Bible never uses. o The OT word translated “sodomy” is “Kadash” (literally “temple prostitute”). We think the Bible says “don’t be like the Sodomites,” but it doesn’t. It says “don’t be like the Kadash.” (better translated “sexually immoral”) “Sodom” was a Hebrew word. They could have used it if they had wanted to… But they didn’t. o The words “Sodomite” and “Sodomy” didn’t start to be used until approximately 1297 when the scriptures were translated into Latin (sodomita). “Sodom in fact gave its name to homosexual relations in the Latin language, and throughout the Middle Ages the closest word to ‘homosexual’ in Latin or any vernacular was ‘sodomita.’” (Boswell, 92-93) o Originally “Sodomy” (thanks to the ascetics) meant “non-procreative sex” and was used to mean homosexuality, anal sex, sex during menstruation, masturbation, etc. It referred to both homo and hetero sex. o During the inquisition, people were lumped into “those we hated.” (Jews, Muslims, Heretics, etc.) Gays were those who had non-procreative sex. They were lumped into a group with the heretics. Sodomy then came to mean “gay sex” and Sodomite “homosexual.” o A “retro-reading” then made the scripture say the “Kadash” were Sodomites and therefore homosexuals (which by then had gained a negative stigma).  “Three Little Pigs” Originally it’s about three little pigs and is a classic American story. 200 years from now, the Dutch invade America. They start telling their children our stories, but in Dutch don’t have a word for “little pigs.” Instead they call them “flargs,” which means “mammals who build things.” Everyone comes to accept that the story is about “three little mammals who built things,” which is close. Another 1000 years pass. Laws are passed that state mammals are no longer allowed to build houses. Since “the three little flargs” were mammals who built houses, “flargs” becomes synonymous with “outlaws.” “The three little flargs” are now “the three little outlaws.” Whenever the story it taught, the pigs are dressed like robbers and thugs. The story is used to illustrate how it’s immoral for mammals – especially pigs – to build houses.  Question: 1200 years from now, what is the story of the three little pigs about?