Reply #7: Erroneous interpretations [View All]

[NMMNG]

Created by prejudices.

The biggest sin of the Sodomites was actually inhospitality.

The interpretation now accepted by many Biblical scholars (excluding the most evangelical sects) is as follows: Lot was a ger, a sojourner, a resident alien in Sodom. He had certain civic obligations in return for the protection which the city offered him, and there are indications that he was unpopular in the city. He did not have a right to open his house to foreigners, and the citizens of Sodom were merely demanding to see the credentials of these two foreigners, that is, to "know" whence they came and their intentions. Lot had to refuse, however, because he himself was under the obligations of the Jewish code of hospitality to his guests. He offered the Sodomites his daughters as the first appeasement that came to his mind, not as a heterosexual substitute for a homosexual demand. The cities were they destroyed for not recognizing the obligations of hospitality, and the whole story is a moral allegory on the dire effects of inhospitality.

http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/homopho2.htm

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Lot refused to expose his guests to the abuse of the men of Sodom. To do so would have violated the law of sacred hospitatliy. In desert coutry, where Sodom lay, to stay outside exposed to the cold of the night could be fatal, so a cardinal rule of Lot's society was to offer hospitality to travelers.

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What was the sin of Sodom? Abuse and offense against strangers, insult to the traveler, inhospitality to the needy, and sexual abuse. That is the point of the story understood in its historical context. The whole story and its culture make clear that the author was not concerned about sex in itself, lot offered his daughters without a second thought, the point of the story is not sexual ethics. The story of Sodom is no more about sex than it is about pounding on someone's front door. The point of the story is abuse and assault, in whatever form they take. To use this text to condemn homosexuality is to misuse this text.

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Even Jesus understood the sin of Sodom as the sin of inhospitality. Other passages in the Bible come right out and say the same thing.

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http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/7608/sodom.htm