Hey everyone, let's talk about a story you've probably heard a
million times Sodom. But what if I told you that a
huge part of that story, maybe the most important part, has
been completely misunderstood for, well, for centuries?
OK, let's just put it right out there.
This story has been used a lot to condemn gay men.
But here's the twist. There are no gay men in this
story. Not a single one.
Yeah, the authors were talking about something totally
different. So what was it really about?
And you know what's really cool? We don't even have to guess.
The Bible actually spells out the answer for us in a
completely different book written way later.
And trust me, what it says is probably not what you're
expecting. All right, so to get to the
bottom of this, let's play detective.
We're going to go right back to the source.
Look at the evidence piece by piece.
First stop, what actually went down in the city of Sodom.
OK, so here's how the story kicks off.
You've got these two visitors, total strangers who just show up
in Sodom. They don't know a soul just
looking for a safe place to crash for the night.
So this guy named Lott sees them and right away he invites them
into his house, offering them food and shelter.
I got to understand, back then this was a really big deal.
Hospitality, you know, protecting strangers was like
rule #1 it showed you were a good person.
But then things get ugly fast. A massive angry mob, we're
talking men from all over the city, surrounds Lott's house,
and they are definitely not there to say hello.
The mob is screaming at Lot, telling him to send the visitors
out. And they say this one super
important line. Bring them out to us so that we
may know them. And that one little word no.
Well, that's the key to this whole mystery.
OK, so we've got our first major clue, that word no.
Let's dig into the evidence. What in the world do they mean
by no? So the original Hebrew word here
is yada. And look, yes, yada can mean to
have sex, but that's not what it usually means when you've got an
angry mob threatening strangers. It almost always means something
violent, like interrogation or assault.
Basically a brutal way to show who's in charge.
And this really gets to the heart of it.
Just think for a second about what this story doesn't talk
about. There's zero mention of love or
relationships or sexual orientation or two people who
care about each other. This is about violence.
It's a mob threatening strangers.
Like we said from the start, there are no gay men in this
story. So that leads us right back to
our big question. If the sin wasn't what so many
people have said it was, then what was Sodom's real sin?
And this is the best part. We don't have to guess.
The Bible literally gives us the answer.
A prophet named Ezekiel comes along later and just spells it
all out for us. So Fast forward a few 100 years.
This prophet Ezekiel is writing and he brings up Sodom and he
explains in super clear detail exactly what their sin was.
And here it is, the big reveal in Ezekiel 1649.
It says plain as day 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.
That's it. Nothing else is mentioned at
all, so let's just break that down really quick.
Ezekiel's list of Sodom sins #1 arrogance #2 being overfed and
unconcerned, basically having more than enough but not caring
about anyone else and #3 not helping the poor and needy.
Do you see the pattern here? Every single one of these is
about injustice and just a total lack of caring for other people.
OK, so why is this such a big deal?
Why does this even matter? Well, because it means there are
two completely different ways to understand this story, and they
lead to two totally different lessons.
On the one hand, you have this common misreading that's been
used as a weapon to judge a whole group of people for who
they are. But then you have Ezekiel's
reading, and that version is a warning.
A warning against greed and pride and turning your back on
people who need help. I mean, those are two completely
different takeaways, right? So when you're actually look at
the evidence, the whole story of Sodom changes.
It stops being about who someone is, and it becomes a powerful
lesson about a community's character.
It's really about how we treat strangers and how we care for
the most vulnerable people in our society.
And that kind of leaves us with a final thought, doesn't it?
The only reason we uncovered all this is because we decided to
ask a few more questions about a story we thought we knew.
So it makes you wonder what else is out there to discover if we
just start asking new questions about old stories.