P
Portrait
Guest
Dear juliamajor,.
The primary sin of Sodom was injustice. " outcry " in old testament is attached to injustice and disregard for the poor and downtrodden. The sin of injustice and the the sin of idolatry in the old testament can be compared with first patient in the outbreak of a plague - all other victims of the plague can be connected to that first one. The sin of Sodom was initially the sin of injustice. Like a plague sin can mutate and morph into other sins. Bubonic becomes pneumonic. Sin falls upon sin (Shakespeare?) .just like murder becomes easier after the first victim, so sin and more sin becomes easier.
Collective guilt of women or children who would be incapable of homosexual rape seems a little off to me. And really doesn’t fit in with OT view of communal guilt. But denial of the basic rights and injustice is very much a biblical collective sin. The prophets in Israel railed time and time against it. Idolatry actually leads to injustice which leads into and exacerbates every other sin. Read exodus commentary by Nahum sarna or the Jewish study Bible to get an old testament view of Sodom… but the NAB notes are correct about injustice and immorality.
In other words in THE OLD TESTAMENT mind -first among sins that leads to other sins is idolatry, which leads ti injustice which leads to every other sin that can be imagined.
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
As mentioned in a previous post, dear friend, whilst Sodom and Gomorrahwere undoubtedly guilty of other sins, the chief sin on which the N.T. writers fix upon is homosexual vice: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly…” (II Pet. 2: 6). From this passage it is clear that the false prophets and teachers against whom St. Peter warned the faithful, fell into the wicked unnatural vice of for which those cities were famed. The words “making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly” could scarcely be cited as a warning against social injustice or indifference to the poor, but must surely imply such as brought so tremendous a vengenace from Heaven against those cities if the plain. Moreover, we are told that Lot was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked”, in other words it was the licentious conduct of that lawless society in which he lived that tortured his “righteous soul” (v. 8). The term, “filthy” could hardly be applied to injustice or disregard to the downtrodden, though that is not in any way to minimise the gravity of these sins.
For St. Jude, the primary sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was “going after strange flesh” (v. 7)that is to say, immorally indulging in unnatural lust. Homosexual deviant acts are the sins which St. Jude focuses our attention upon and in the O.T. narrative it is the unnatural vice is given as the reason for the obliteration of Sodom and Gommorrah. St. Jude’s unequivocal statement is an inspired commentary upon the O.T. story and should not be ingnored. To be sure, homosexual vice was not Sodom’s only sin, but according to Sacred Scripture is was certainly one of them and the one which merits the attention of the N.T. writers.
As regards the collective guilt of women and children, dear friend, it needs to be remembered that they were still a part of the community of these wicked cities, even if they were not involved in the actual unnatural vice itself. When Jerusalem was sacked in AD 70 many Jewish women and their children perished in that “great tribulation”, even though they were not insurgents themselves, many of them died of famine. Josephus tells usthat children wandered about the market place with stomachs distended on account of the famine. In all calamities the innocent will sadly suffer, but no one will suffer eternally in Hell unless they truly deserve that dreadful end - “The Judge of all the earth will do right”.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
I had no idea it was just an American issue.