ContradictionsReading order 526Bible context 5 min read
What was Sodom's sin?
The passages use Sodom to illustrate different offenses and warnings. They do not all claim to give one exclusive explanation of its destruction.
Textual conflict
Weak contradiction
The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
Importance
Major
A major event or claim with wider implications.
Multiple offenses and later rhetorical comparisons coexist because none supplies an exclusive historical cause.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Sodom is condemned for pride and neglecting the needy
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, 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.
Rejecting Jesus' messengers is compared unfavorably with Sodom
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.
But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.
And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
Even 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.
Religious ritual is condemned alongside violence and neglect
Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Sodom illustrates punishment of the wicked and rescue of Lot
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Ezekiel 16:49-50 explicitly names pride, plenty, idleness, and failure to help the poor. It also mentions abomination without defining that word as one specific act. Leviticus 18:22 uses the same general word for a sexual prohibition but does not mention Sodom. Sharing that word does not establish that Ezekiel intended only that prohibition.
Genesis 19:4-5 describes the crowd demanding access to the visitors, while Jude 1:7 stresses sexual wrongdoing and strange flesh. Matthew 10:14-15 and Luke 10:10-12 instead use Sodom as a comparison when warning cities that reject messengers. A comparison of future judgments does not by itself state that rejecting those messengers was Sodom's historical offense.
Isaiah 1:10-17 attacks ritual alongside bloodshed and injustice, Jeremiah 23:14 likens corrupt prophets to Sodom, and 2 Peter 2:5-9 emphasizes punishment and Lot's rescue. These are different rhetorical uses of the city. Multiple offenses can coexist, so different lists alone are not contradictory. The passages undermine the claim that the Bible supplies only one simple, exclusive account of what Sodom represents.
Topics
contradictionEzekielLeviticusMatthewLukeGenesisJudeIsaiahJeremiah2 Peter