Sodom and Gomorrah

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination;
they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. — Leviticus 20:13

Because of the common interpretation of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the word "sodomy" has made it into our lexicon synonymous with anal intercourse. This article explains the misconceptions upon which Sodom and Gomorrah got associated with homosexuality.

Statistically, male homosexuality constitutes no more than two percent of the male population in the United States. Arguably, San Francisco is the gay capital of the world, composed of 40% male homosexuals. It doesn't make sense that Sodom had a majority of male homosexuals, if any; especially, considering the conservative cultures of those times.

For this reason, it is not convincing that the men of Sodom had intentions of sodomizing Lot's guests. The misinterpretation comes about when the Sodomites wanted "to know" Lot's guests. Sometimes this can imply sex, but in context, they were rightly suspicious that the guests were spies.

Other passages in the OT describe them as sinful for worshipping other gods. If we accept sodomy was practiced, it was for religious reasons and not the primary reason Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The last part of this article discusses cult prostitution which was practiced in the Canaanite religions; the inhabitants were not Hebrew.

Summary

Lot was a friend and a nephew of Abraham. When Abraham left Chaldea for the Promised Land, Lot went with him. On the way, both men became so wealthy with livestock that the land couldn't support both of them. So they had to separate in order to avoid tension and remain friends. Abraham went to Canaan and Lot went to the city of Sodom in the Jordan Valley.

Yahweh heard news of the grave sins in the Jordan Valley, so he sent two angels to investigate. When the angels arrived at Sodom, Lot was at the entrance of the city to greet them. At Lot's urging, the angels stayed at his house. They weren't there for long when the men of Sodom demanded Lot to send out his guests so they can know them. Lot pleaded to accept his two virgin daughters instead. This only angered the crowd even more. When they barged their way into his house, the angels stopped them by blinding them.

The angels told Lot to take his family and leave the city the next morning because they were sent to destroy it. When Lot told the two men who were engaged to marry his daughters, they stayed because they thought he was joking. The next morning when the sun was about to rise and Lot was delaying; the angels took him, his wife and daughters safely out of the city. The angels warned not to look back or they will be destroyed.

When the sun rose, Lot, his wife and daughters were safe in the small city of Zoar in the valley. Then fire and brimstone rained from heaven. As the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the other cities in the valley were being destroyed, Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.

When it was all over, Lot didn't feel it was safe to remain in Zoar, so they moved to a cave in the highlands. Now Lot's virgin daughters lost their mother and their husbands to be, and men would no longer want them. So they hatched a plan to have children by their father. For two nights in a row, they got their father drunk and had sex with him. Their two sons became the fathers of the Moabites and the Ammonites.

Interpretation

Symbology: Except for Zoar, none of the cities of the valley were spared because valleys symbolize darkness and subsequently evil. The city might have been spared because it was too small to have enough wicked men to merit destruction. The men get blamed for sinning but the women and children were destroyed too.

Fire and brimstone symbolize the sun's rays. Lot's sons-in-law were destroyed because they didn't have faith. Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt because it is a sin to look back into darkness. In biblespeak, pillars symbolize phallic symbols. A phallus of salt symbolizes barrenness. As way of showing contempt for the Moabites and Ammonites, the Jewish writers had their namesakes conceived in incest. The cave in which the acts took place symbolizes evil.

Astrology: The life of Abraham follows the solar cycle according to the zodiac. At this time the sun is in Gemini and Cancer. The two angels are represented by the Gemini Twins. Sodom and Gomorrah are represented by the constellation Hydra which crosses the equator dividing it in two. When the sun rises in Cancer, the constellation disappears. Its rays symbolize fire and brimstone, which obliterates the two cities.

Gemini plays a second role along with Orion and the Pleiades. The Pleiades look like a cluster of grapes. Orion's arm is outstretched as if reaching for grapes which symbolize wine. The Gemini twins stand above Orion as if they could be seen to lie on top of him when having sex.

Parallel myth: Orpheus was the son of a Muse and a Thracian prince. Muses were gods renowned for their artistic talent and the Thracians were the most musical of the people of Greece. Orpheus had a gift for playing music that only the gods alone could excel. When he met and wooed Eurydice, the maiden he loved, she could not resist the power of his song. They married, but their joy was brief. Directly after the wedding, Eurydice was walking in a meadow when a viper stung her and she died. Orpheus could not endure his grief, so he set to journey into the underworld to find her and bring her back.

The sound of his lyre charmed the denizens of Hades to stillness. The ruler of Hades could not resist the spell of his voice nor refuse him anything. He summoned Eurydice to go with Orpheus. But there was one condition: that he would not look back at her as she followed him, until they reached the upper world. So they passed the doors of Hades and went up and up to the path out of darkness. The urge to look back to assure himself she was there overcame him when he stepped into daylight. But it was too soon; she was still in the cavern. He tried to grab her but it happened too quickly. He tried to rush down after her, but the gods would not let him enter a second time while he was alive.

Geography: At the southern tip of the Dead Sea, the air has a mixture of sulfurous smell and oppressive heat. It is the lowest place on land where nothing grows on its salt flats except for asparagus-like salt columns. This was the Bible storytellers' way of explaining the area.

Deconstruction

Prelude

Lot was the nephew of Abraham.

⁷Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. (Gen. 11:7)

When Yahweh told Abraham to go to the Promised Land, Lot went with him.

¹NOW THE Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."
⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Gen. 12:1-4)

There was strife between Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen. The land could not support both of them.

⁵And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,
⁶so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together,
⁷and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt in the land. (Gen. 13:5-7)

So Abraham told Lot, "We are kinsmen. So there is no strife between us, we should separate."

⁸Then Abram said to Lot,"Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are kinsmen.
⁹Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left."(Gen. 13:8-9)

Lot departed for Sodom in the Jordan Valley, and Gomorrah and Abraham went to Canaan.

¹⁰And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar; this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
¹¹So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and Lot journeyed east; thus they separated from each other.
¹²Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. (Gen. 13:10-12)

After they separated, Yahweh said to Abraham, "The men of Sodom are great sinners."

¹³Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
¹⁴The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; (Gen. 13:13-14)

Because he has heard of their grave sins, Yahweh decides to go down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see if it is true.

²⁰Then the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
²¹I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know."
²²So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord. (Gen. 18:20-22)

In this exchange between Abraham and Yahweh, Abraham wanted to know if Yahweh would destroy the righteous along with the wicked. He managed to bargain Yahweh down to ten righteous men, as enough to save a city from destruction.

²³Then Abraham drew near, and said, "Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?
²⁴Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt thou then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?
²⁵Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
²⁶And the Lord said, "If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
²⁷Abraham answered, "Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.
²⁸Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for lack of five?" And he said, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there."
²⁹Again he spoke to him, and said, "Suppose forty are found there." He answered, "For the sake of forty I will not do it."
³⁰Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there." He answered, "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."
³¹He said, "Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there." He answered, "For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it."
³²Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there." He answered, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it."
³³And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place. (Gen. 18:23-33)

Therefore Sodom was destroyed because Abraham failed to find ten righteous men.

Sodom and Gomorrah-Gen 19

When two angels came to Sodom in the evening, Lot met them at the gate.

¹The two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth,

Lot asked them to spend the night at his house. The angels wanted to spend the night in the street.

²and said, "My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way. They said, "No; we will spend the night in the street."

But Lot was insistent, so they entered his house and he made them a feast.

³But he urged them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

No sooner were they ready to bed down for the night, when the men of Sodom surrounded the house. —The phrase "all the people" leaves open the possibility that the crowd included women.

⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house;

They called to Lot, "Send out your two guests so we may know them. —The phrase "know them" could be a biblical euphemism for sex. Or it could suggest the crowd was suspicious of the two strangers. Were they friend or foe?

⁵and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them."

Lot pleaded. "Please do not act so wickedly." —The crowd was obviously angry because of their suspicions about the strangers. This doesn't necessarily mean they were sexually frustrated.

⁶Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him,
⁷and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

"I have two daughters who are virgins. Do what you want to them instead." —Could the righteous Lot be so callous to offer his daughters to be killed or gang raped? Was he offering an olive branch to assuage the people? Or was he hiding the intentions of the strangers.

⁸Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof."

This only increased their anger. So they went to break down the door. —The underlined sentence tells us the crowd's motives. They refused to let Lot judge for them, the motives of the strangers.

⁹But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

They pushed Lot back into the house and shut the door.

¹⁰But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

Then the angels struck the intruders with blindness. —The crowd would have had no chance of harming angels with these powers.

¹¹And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping for the door.

Then the angels told Lot to take his family out of the city.

¹²Then the men said to Lot, "Have you any one else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any one you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

Because the outcry against the Sodomites has been great, Yahweh sent them to destroy the city.

¹³for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it."

So Lot told his sons-in-law, who were engaged to marry his daughters, "Get out of here, for Yahweh is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was jesting.

¹⁴So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, "Up, get out of this place; for the Lord is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

The next morning, the angels urged Lot to take his wife and two daughters, before the city is consumed.

¹⁵When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city."

When Lot lingered, the angels seized him, his wife and two daughters, and brought them out of the city.

¹⁶But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city.

When they were safely outside the city, the angels told them to flee for the hills and do not look back, lest they be consumed.

¹⁷And when they had brought them forth, they said, "Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills, lest you be consumed."

But Lot pleaded. The hills are too far away; he might not make it in time. If it is okay with the angels, can he find safety in a little city nearby?

¹⁸And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords;
¹⁹behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.
²⁰Behold, yonder city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!"

The angels granted him this favor. If he goes to the city of Zoar, he will be spared.

²¹He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
²²Make haste, escape there; for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

When the sun rose and Lot was in Zoar, Yahweh rained brimstone and fire from heaven. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities in the valley, and their inhabitants and crops were all destroyed.

²³The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
²⁴Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
²⁵and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

When Lot's wife looked back, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁶But Lot's wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

The next morning, Abraham returned to the hill where he stood before Yahweh. He saw the valley where Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities, laid in smoke and ruins.

²⁷And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord;
²⁸and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

Yahweh remembered Abraham and destroyed the cities where Lot lived.

²⁹So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

Lot left Zoar and went into the hills with his two daughters. Now he was afraid to live in Zoar, so he and his daughters dwelt in a cave.

³⁰Now Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar; so he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters.

The oldest daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old and men don't want us anymore."

³¹And the first-born said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

Let's get him drunk with wine and have sex with him, so we may preserve our offspring through him.

³²Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father."

After they got him too drunk to be aware of their presence, the oldest had sex with him.

³³So they made their father drink wine that night; and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

They planned to do it again on the second night.

³⁴And on the next day, the first-born said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father."

The second daughter had sex with him.

³⁵So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

Both daughters had a child by their father.

³⁶Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

The oldest daughter named her son Moab. He became the namesake of the Moabites.

³⁷The first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

The second daughter named her son Benammi. He was the namesake of the Ammonites.

³⁸The younger also bore a son and called his name Benammi; he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Sodom's Sins

The word "homosexuality" is a fairly new term. So we would not expect to find it in the Bible. This collection of passages comes from a computerized search of whatever I could find on the nature of Sodom's sins. The passages in this group complain about Sodom's religious sins, but nothing about male-on-male sexual sins.

God will vindicate his people when he sees that their power is gone. Where are their gods to protect them, they who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Both were taboos.

³²For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter;
³³their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps.
³⁴"Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?
³⁵Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.
³⁶For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free.
³⁷Then he will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
³⁸who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection! (Deut. 32:32-38)

Leviticus tells us that the fat is the Lord's. Neither fat nor blood shall be eaten.

¹⁶And the priest shall burn them on the altar as food offered by fire for a pleasing odor. All fat is the LORD'S.
¹⁷It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood." (Lev. 3:16-17)

Drink offerings were reserved for the Lord, a second violated taboo.

⁷Its drink offering shall be a fourth of a hin for each lamb; in the holy place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the LORD (Num. 28:7)

God was offended by their vain offerings. His soul hated their new moons and appointed feasts.

⁹If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.
¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹"What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
¹²"When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?
¹³Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. (Isaiah 1:9-14)

The prophets of Jerusalem have become like Sodom. —Nobody would accuse the prophets of Jerusalem of homosexuality, adultery maybe, but not sex with another male.

¹⁴But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah." (Jer. 23:14)

The Sodomites were wealthy but did not aid the poor and needy. They did abominable things.

⁴⁸As I live, says the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.
⁴⁹Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
⁵⁰They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it. (Ezek. 16:48-50)

They were ungodly; they did lawless deeds. Lot was distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked. —The word "licentiousness" is ambiguous. Strong's Concordance quotes the Greek phrase as aselgeia anastrophe, meaning filthy conversation. Lot was distressed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

⁶if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly;
⁷and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked
⁸(for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), (2 Peter 2:6-8)

The correct translation can be found in the King James Version.

⁷And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (2 Peter 2:7 KJV)

Cult prostitution

I've used Sex and the Bible by Gerald Larue as a reference for this section.

Canaanite religion was centered in fertility and reproduction. Male and female prostitutes belonged to the temple cult and participated in rites designed to stimulate divine help in increasing fertility in the soil and in the flocks and herds. Whether or not homosexual acts were involved cannot be known for sure. There can be little doubt that the Hebrews borrowed the concept of cult prostitution from the Canaanites.

Deuteronomic law parallels female-cult-prostitution with whore and male-cult-prostitution with dog. The words qedeshah and qadesh are derived from the root meaning, "to be holy" (q-d-h) and refers to persons engaged in the service of a deity.

¹⁷"There shall be no cult prostitute [qedeshah] of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a cult prostitute [qadesh] of the sons of Israel.
¹⁸You shall not bring the hire of a harlot, or the wages of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow; for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God. (Deut. 23:17-18)

In the King James Version we see the roots of where sodomy got associated with homosexuality. The terms "whore" and "sodomite" are used in place of cult prostitution. The modern translations are more accurate.

¹⁷There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
(Deut. 23:17-18 KJV)

These next three passages illustrate female and male cult prostitution. The strong denunciations make it clear that it was not part of traditional Hebrew worship.

1. When Moses found men of Israel playing "harlot with the daughters of Moab," he had them killed. Baal of Peor was a Canaanite god.

¹While Israel dwelt in Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.
²These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.
³So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel;
⁴and the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel."
⁵And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor." (Num. 25:1-5)

2. King Asa abolished male-cult-prostitution.

¹¹And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done.
¹²He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. (1 Kings 15:11-12)

3. King Jehoshaphat exterminated male-cult-prostitutes from the land.

⁴⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
⁴⁶And the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa, he exterminated from the land. (1 Kings 22:45-46)

Christianity

The only passage connecting Sodom and Gomorrah with anal sex is Jude 7. Christian sources associate it with homosexuality.

They acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust.

⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)

The King James is more specific with "fornication and going after strange flesh."

⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude 7 KJV)

Within the New Testament, the term arsenakoitai is used to refer to sodomites and means "those who enter the buttocks."

¹⁰immoral persons, sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, (1 Tim. 1:10)

Paul supported Jewish scripture in asserting gays and lesbians will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. (Rom. 1:27)

⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,
¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6:9)

Conclusion

Sodom and Gomorrah were Canaanite settlements that practiced cult prostitution consistent with their fertility religions. The men of Sodom were rightly suspicious of the two spies that Yahweh had sent. They became violently angry at Lot for protecting them. They were not destroyed for reasons of homosexuality. The story grew into an object lesson to condemn homosexuals.

Further reading

Killer Laws There were many laws punishable by death.