Just how is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to be interpreted? Why does God bring fire down upon Sodom? Is the reason the one popularly given, that the people were guilty of homosexuality? To answer these questions, I should like to begin by noting how other biblical writers besides the author of this tale have used the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as a metaphor for what may happen to other peoples (Israel, Judah, Edom, Moab, etc.) or cities (Jerusalem, Babylon, Chorazin, Bethsaida, etc.) because of their wickedness. An examination of these other references turns up some significant facts. Of the eighteen passages outside of the story itself found in Old Testament writings none refer to same sex activity, and only one, Jer. 23:14, alludes to sexual immorality (namely, adultery). To cite a few examples of those found among the words of the Hebrew prophets, Isaiah (1:1-17; 13:1-22) refers generally to evil and injustice; Jeremiah (23:9-15), to general moral and ethical laxity. Ezekiel (16:46-56) and Amos (chapter 4) condemn the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, more specifically, for neglecting the poor and needy.
And what of the New Testament? Of the nine explicit references or allusions to Sodom and Gomorrah found there, only two, Jude, v. 7, and 2 Peter 2: 4-10, refer to "sexual immorality" or "depraved lusts." 2 Peter alludes to or cites the Letter of Jude so often that many Bible scholars are convinced that the writer of 2 Peter had the Letter of Jude in front of him and used it for his own letter; and if you read the passage in 2 Peter carefully, the author seems to be drawing a comparison between, on the one hand, “the sons of God” (usually interpreted as angels) who came down to earth and mated with “the daughters of men” (Gen. 6:1-4), and on the other, the men of Sodom who attempted to do sexual violence to the angel (divine) visitors whom Lot invited into his home. The comparison is that there was an unnatural mating, or attempt at a violent sexual act, between a divine being and a human being. The first acts lead ultimately to destruction by a flood, the second attempted act to destruction by fire. Possibly, the author of 2 Peter believed that Jude had the same meaning and interpretation of the Sodom story in mind.
I wonder if this use by Jesus of the metaphor of Sodom to refer to inhospitality toward his messengers may have confirmed the views of early Christian biblical scholars like Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-c. 254), who interpreted the "sin of Sodom" to be a sin against the law of hospitality, since it involved inhospitality toward God's messengers. Other early Christian scholars, like St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397), considered the sexual element secondary to the issue of hospitality in their commentary on the story, or, like John Cassian (360-435), omitted any reference to sexual matters altogether. (For an extended analysis of the early commentators, see John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, p. 96-98.) It appears that both biblical writers and early Christian commentators give little warrant for identifying the "sin of Sodom" as one of homosexual behavior.
