Sodom and Gomorrah: the meaning of phraseology, history and the biblical legend

We often meet with the expression "Sodom and Gomorrah", but very few people know about its meaning and origin. In fact, these are two cities, of which the biblical story narrates. According to the story, they burned out because of the sins of the people who lived there. What kind of sins are we talking about? Did these cities really exist? The answer to these and many other questions we will try to give in this article. So, Sodom and Gomorrah: the meaning of phraseology, the biblical legend and history ..

The Biblical legend

For the first time, Sodom and Gomorrah are referred to as the southeastern tip of Canaan, located east of Gaza, where the land is referred to as the eastern bank of the Jordan River. Here came Lot, the nephew of Abraham. In the Bible, there are even words that Jerusalem borders Sodom from the south and south-east sides. The inhabitants of Sodom were called Philistines or Hanakeans in the Jewish manner, and the king of the city was a monarch named Ber.

According to the Bible, by the time of Abraham's life there was also a war between the army of Chedorlaomer and the army of Sodom, which was later defeated, and Abraham's nephew, Lot, was captured by the enemies. Biblical tales refer to the fact that Sodom was a rich and developed city, but the Lord God decided to punish the inhabitants for being extremely sinful and evil, possessing a multitude of vices that the righteous people would not accept. Tradition tells us that God shed sulfur and fire on these cities to destroy the lands themselves and their inhabitants for their misdeeds. In addition, according to the Bible, Adma and Sevaim were also destroyed, although to date there is no evidence that they actually existed. After the fire, the land of Sodom was populated by the descendants of Lot, the only ones who managed to avoid the fire, and it became Moab.

Trying to find a city

Since Sodom and Gomorrah are widely known even to non-religious people, many attempts have been made to learn more about their location and finally find evidence that they existed. So, not far from the Dead Sea, on its south-western shore, there are mountains that consist mainly of rock salt and are called Sodomite. It would seem that this should be somehow connected with the biblical city, but in reality there is no reliable information about why this name was chosen. The interest in the Biblical legend is so wide that in the period from 1965 to 1979, five attempts were made to find a city that was lost due to the sins of its inhabitants, but they were unsuccessful. The history of Sodom and Gomorrah did not leave indifferent the Russian scientists who, together with the Jordanians, tried to find out what was left of the ancient city.

Expedition of Michael Sanders

In 2000, the British scientist Michael Sanders became the leader of an archaeological expedition aimed at searching for the destroyed cities. Their work was based on images that were obtained from the US space shuttle. According to these pictures, the city could be to the north-east of the Dead Sea, contrary to all the data from the Bible. Scientists believed that they managed to find the most accurate location of Sodom, the ruins of which, in their opinion, are at the bottom of the Dead Sea.

The Jordan Valley

Some scholars also believe that the ancient ruins located in Tell el-Hammam in Jordan, and can thus be the biblical city of sinners. Therefore, it was decided to undertake research on this field in order to confirm or refute the hypothesis. Excavations under the guidance of Stephen Collins, an American scientist who relied on the data of the book of Genesis, reinforce the assumption that Sodom was in the southern region of the Jordan Valley, which is surrounded on all sides by depressions.

"Sodom and Gomorrah": the meaning of phraseology

This expression is widely interpreted, but most often it denotes a place of debauchery, in which the moral standards of society are neglected. It also happens that this expression is used to describe an incredible mess. From the names of the city of Sodom in Russian appeared the term "sodomy", denoting most often sexual relations between people of the same sex, that is, sodomy. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are most often remembered by people precisely in connection with this.

The meaning of phraseology can also imply any non-traditional sexual contacts that are considered immoral in modern society. These acts include oral, anal sex or any perversion. The Lord, according to the legend, destroying cities, punished sinners to show the whole world what awaits those who resort to unconventional sexual practices and disobey it.

Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah

According to the text of the Bible, the inhabitants of cities were punished not only for sexual debauchery, but also for other sins, among them egoism, idleness, pride and others, but homosexuality is still recognized as the main one. Why is this sin recognized as the most terrible, for certain it is not known, but in the Bible it is called "abomination" before the Lord, and the legend calls people "not to go to bed with a man as a woman."

Ironically, in such an ancient people as the Philistines, homosexuality was a generally accepted phenomenon, and no one condemned it. This probably was because their ancestors were pagan tribes and peoples living in Canaan, far from monotheistic religion. According to the legend, the Lord, fearing that the Jewish people could also go to such a sinful way of life, sent them to the promised land, and therefore commanded them to destroy the cities so that their inhabitants would not spread around the globe. There is even a line in Genesis that says that debauchery has spread so much in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that it has crossed all boundaries, so they should have been destroyed.

Reflection in art

Like many other myths and legends, the story of the two cities of sinners is embodied in art. This biblical story was reflected in the work of the great Russian writer Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, who wrote the poem "The Lot's Wife". In 1962, even a film was filmed, which, in fact, is a fairly free interpretation of the biblical story of the city of the fallen. Thus, in Marcel Proust, in his famous cycle "In Search of Lost Time," there is a novel of the same name, which tells of a morally lowered bourgeoisie, "Sodom and Gomorrah." Pictures depicting debauchery and other sins, too, often remind of the inhabitants of these cities, which the Lord himself decided to burn. There are at least a dozen paintings depicting Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his daughter, who, according to legend, had sexual relations. Strangely enough, according to the legend, the initiators of the incest were themselves daughters who were left without husbands who wanted to continue the race.

Lot, nephew of Abraham

The oldest of the surviving canvases is the work of Albrecht Durer, which is called "The Flight of Lot". It depicts an elder, accompanied by two daughters, and in the distance his wife is seen, and everything looks pretty decent. However, in later works of masters of different epochs and currents one can find a fundamentally different interpretation. So, for example, the work of Simon Voue under the name "Lot and his daughter" shows us an elderly man already, amusing himself with his half-naked daughters. Similar paintings are also found in such painters as Hendrik Goltzius, Francesco Furini, Lucas Cranach, Domenico Maroli and several others.

Interpretation of the biblical legend

According to the Book of Genesis, Sodom and Gomorrah are cities that the Lord punished for disobedience and non-observance of worldly laws. How is the legend treated now? What do scientists think about the causes of the death of these sinful cities? Now some scientists who are somehow connected with religion believe that in reality our modern world is mired in vice and debauchery, but we are so used to it that we no longer notice it. They believe that modern people are so used to what is contrary to the Lord, that all these perversions and vices have become habitual. They believe that we are actually on the road to destruction, taking everything that happens around us. For example, one of the Russian scientists, Doctor of Technical Sciences V. Plykin in his book writes that, not knowing the laws of the universe, modern people have created their own laws, which, in fact, are artificial and, not being a righteous life, lead society to death .

The same scientist believes that scientific and technological progress affects negatively the moral foundations of mankind, which only aggravates everything and brings people closer to the world of vice. What is Sodom and Gomorrah in the modern world? Some also believe that due to the fact that people care only about how to take everything from life without caring about the consequences, mankind produces negative energy. Believe it or not in this approach, this, of course, is everyone's business. Maybe you should not shift the ancient laws to modern society.

Truth or fiction?

The biblical story of the cities of sinners is known all over the world. Such vices as sodomy, idleness, pride, selfishness have caused the death of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The legend tells of the people of the Philistines, who are so deeply mired in sin that they are unworthy to walk on the land of the Lord God.

Now, after so many centuries after the events described, it is impossible to say whether these cities really existed and whether they were burnt by a "rain of sulfur and fire" for the misdeeds of their inhabitants. A huge number of attempts were made to find the remains of these settlements, but in reality none of them was successful.

Conclusion

According to legend, when two angels came to the city to find at least ten righteous people, they saw there only vice and debauchery. And then the Lord, angry, decided to burn the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. That this was the case, it is written in the book of Genesis, but the legend remains a legend, and archaeological evidence that could prove this was not found. Nevertheless, whether this happened in fact or this, like many other ancient legends, is an absolute fiction is not so important. The most important thing here is to be able to learn a lesson from this story so that modern people do not get bogged down in the same vices and debauchery and are not punished in the same way as the ancient Philistines who caused the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah - two cities overcrowded with sinners.