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Inhospitality Or Homosexuality
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of travel in Bible times.
If they agree on nothing else, many fundamentalists, Catholics and Evangelicals believe widespread homosexuality caused God to destroy Sodom. Yet when asked to produce a verse of scripture which clearly states that homosexuality was the sin of Sodom, they are unable to do so.
Perhaps that is because lack of hospitality (among other sins) provides a far better answer to the question than homosexuality. It is difficult for modern Christians in an entirely different cultural setting, to grasp the importance of hospitality in Biblical times.
What does the Bible say about
hospitality and lack of hospitality?
was a welcome place of refuge.
Hospitality in ancient near Eastern culture was far more important than in modern western culture. Travel through an often desolate wilderness was a tiresome 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 offer shelter.
Imagine yourself riding 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.
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In the Sodom story, Genesis 19, 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.
Testimony Supporting Inhospitality
As The Sin Of Sodom
1. The Testimony of Lot, an eyewitness
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After the men of Sodom gather at Lot’s door and demand, “Bring the men out unto us that we may know them,” Lot steps outside, shuts the door to protect his guests and tries to reason with the would-be rapists.
Lot, the main participant and an eyewitness to the incident, cites hospitality as the primary reason the men of Sodom should not rape his visitors:
“for therefore [for hospitality] came they under the shadow of my roof” -Genesis 19:8.
Lot’s appeal to the men of Sodom not to breach the hospitality ethic carries evidentiary weight for anyone who believes the Bible. For Lot, an active participant in this drama, inhospitality was a major factor in the Sodom story.
Anti-gay Christians claim that committed same sex relationships transgress the male-female comple- mentarity which God built into humans at creation. Lot apparently didn't get that memo because he never argues: "Don’t rape these men because that would transgress male-female complementarity."
2. The Testimony of Jewish Law
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Genesis 13:8 tells us the herds of Abraham and Lot were so large that the men agreed to separate their camps, in order to have enough room to graze. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. The pagan influence of the people of Sodom eventually caused Lot to lose his family.
Scripture demonstrates extraordinary concern for the welfare of strangers. God carefully instructs His people that strangers must be treated with hospitality, justice and righteousness. Emphasis on hospitality - being careful not to practice inhospitality - permeates Jewish law.
a. God contrasts the hospitality of Abraham with the inhospitality of the men of Sodom, Genesis 18-19.
b. God commands the Jews not to treat strangers with inhospitality.
“Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” -Exodus 22:21.
God grounds the hospitality ethic
in Israel’s history
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c. God's next command against inhospitality is aimed at Israel’s heart.
“Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 23:9.
d. God next commands Israel to love strangers. The Greek word philoxenia, translated "hospitality" in the New Testament, literally means “loving strangers.”
God instructs Israel that it is not enough to simply treat strangers with hospitality. The children of Israel must "love strangers" as they love their neighbors.
“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.” -Leviticus 19:18.“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” -Leviticus 19:34.
3. The Testimony of Ezekiel About Sodom's Sin
The prophet Ezekiel, writing under inspiration of God, precisely describes the sin of Sodom, listing six transgressions which the people of Sodom committed. Don't you find it interesting that homosexuality is not among these sins but inhospitality definitely is?
“As I live, saith the LORD GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom,
- pride,
- fulness of bread, and
- abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters,
- [Inhospitality] neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were
- haughty, and
- committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.” -Ezekiel 16:48-50
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Ezekiel is crystal clear about the sin of Sodom.
Had God intended us to believe that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality, God would have said so in clear and unmistakable language. Yet He did not. Instead, God points out, in clear and unmistakable language, that Inhospitality is the sin of Sodom. Do you agree with God and His prophet Ezekiel about the sin of Sodom?
The abomination Ezekiel refers to (in Genesis 19) was the attempted gang rape of angels. The vicious behavior of the men of Sodom violated the hospitality ethic. Genesis 19 is most assuredly not about a loving, committed relationship between two men or two women.
Links to more information
Do you know what the Bible means by loving strangers?
Have you read the Babylonian Talmud On Sodom?
The Sodom story is not about consensual same sex relationships.
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