Sodom dan Gomorrah

Menurut Genesis, Sodom (bahasa Arab: سدوم Sadūm,, Bahasa Yunani Σόδομα) dan Gomorrah (bahasa Arab: عمورة ʿAmūrah, , bahasa Yunani Γόμορρα) adalah dua bandar yang dimusnahkan oleh Tuhan dalam Kitab Bible.  

Oleh kerana dosa-dosa penduduk Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, dan Zeboim telah dibinasakan oleh "brimstone dan api dari Tuhan dari syurga" (). Dalam agama Kristian dan Islam, nama-nama mereka menjadi bersinonim dengan dosa impenitent, dan mereka jatuh dengan suatu penyataan seperti peribahasa kemarahan Tuhan (, Qur'an ).

Sodom dan Gomorrah telah digunakan sebagai metafor untuk kedosaan dan penyelewengan seksual. Ceritanya oleh itu memberikan kenaikan ke kata-kata dalam pelbagai bahasa, termasuk perkataan bahasa Melayu "sodomi", suatu istilah kini digunakan secara berpengaruh dalam undang-undang (berasal dari kegunaan Kristian tradisional) untuk menjelaskan hubungan seks bukan-faraj, dan juga bestiality.

Teks Bible 
Sodom adalah salah suatu kumpulan lima bandar, Pentapolis (): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, dan Bela -- juga digelar Zoar (). Daerah Pentapolis juga secara berkumpulan dirujuk sebagai "Bandar-bandar Plain" () sejak mereka semua terletak di plain Sungai Jordan, dalam suatu kawasan yang mendirikan had tanah Bani Kanaan (). Nabi Luth, seorang anak buah lelaki Nabi Ibrahim memilih untuk tinggal di Sodom, oleh kerana proximity of good grazing for his flocks ().

Dalam , Tuhan memberitahu Nabi Ibrahim bahawa dia merancang untuk membinasakan bandar Sodom oleh kerana kejahatannya. Nabi Ibrahim merayu dengan Tuhan untuk tidak membinasakan Sodom, dan Tuhan bersetuju bahawa Dia tidak akan membinasakan bandar tersebut jika adanya 50 orang alim dalamnya, kemudian 45, kemudian 30, kemudian 20, atau juga sepuluh orang alim. Dua malaikat Tuhan hanya mendapati seorang yang alim yang tinggal di Sodom, anak buah Nabi Ibrahim Nabi Luth. Berikutnya itu, malangnya, Tuhan membinasakan bandar itu.

Dalam versi Tanach, Genesis19:4-5, episod terakhir dalam cerita Sodom dijelaskan ketika para malaikat melawat Nabi Luth untuk memberinya amaran untuk melarikan diri:
 

Nabi Luth menolak untuk memberikan para pelawat malaikat ke penduduk Sodom. Dia selain itu memberikan mereka kedua anak perempuan, tetapi rakyat menolak. Lelaki itu disembar dengan kebutaan, membenarkan Nabi Luth dan keluarga, yang kemudian diarah untuk meninggal bandar, untuk melarikan diri. Meskipun ketika Sodom dan Gomorrah dibinasa dengan api dan brimstone oleh Tuhan, isteri Luth menoleh ke belakang, masih ingin merasa kembali ke bandar, dan dengan secara pintas dia ditukar menjadi setiang garam. 

Dalam  Tuhan membandingkan Jerusalem dengan Sodom, mengatakan "Sodom tidak pernah membuat apa yang kamu dan anak perempuan kamu telah lakukan." Dia menjelaskan bahawa dosa Sodom adalah bahawa "Dia dan anak perempuannya adalah bongkak, sangat banyak diberi makan dan tidak membimbangkan; mereka tidak membantu yang miskin dan yang meme

memerlukan bantuan. Mereka adalah tidak berakhlak dan menolak benda-benda sebelum."

Pandangan Yahudi 

Teks-teks klasik Yahudi tidak menekankan pada aspek homoseksual pada sifat penduduk Sodom sebanyak mana kekejaman dan kekurangan peramahan mereka terhadap "orang yang tidak dikenali."  (Lihat Jewish Encyclopedia pada kepentingan peramahan.) Kaum Sodom dilihat sebagai bersalah pada banyak dosa-dosa besar yang lain. Tulisan Rabai mengeraskan bahawa kaum Sodom juga melakukan jenayah ekonomi, blasphemy dan tumpah darah. Salah satu yang terdahsyat adalah memberi wang atau ingot emas ke para pengemis, tetapi dengan membubuh nama mereka padanya, dan kemudian berikutnya menolak untuk menjual mereka makanan. Orang yang tidak kenal yang tidak berdaya akan akhirnya berada dalam kelaparan dan selepas kematiannya, kaum itu yang memberinya wang akan mendakwanya kembali.

Menurut suatu adat rabai, dijelaskan dalam Mishnah, postulates bahawa dosa Sodom berkait dengan harta: kaum Sodom mempercayai bahawa "apa yang aku milik adalah hak aku, dan apa yang kau milik adalah hak kau" (Abot), yang diterjemahkan sebagai kekurangan compassion. Suatu lagi adat rabai adalah bahawa kedua-dua bandar kaya ini melayan para pelawat mereka dengan cara yang sadis. Satu jenayah utama pada para pelawat adalah hampir sama dengan Procrustes dalam mitologi Greek. Ini adalah cerita "katil" bahawa para pelawat dipaksa untuk tidur: jika mereka terlalu kecil mereka akan ditarik untuk memuatnya, dan jika mereka terlalu tinggi, mereka dipotong.

Suatu lagi peristiwa, Eliezer, pembantu Nabi Ibrahim, pergi melawat Nabi Luth di Sodom dan berada dalam satu pertengkaran dengan seorang Sodom ke atas seorang pengemis, dan dipukul pada dahi dengan batu, membuatnya cedera parah. Orang Sodom itu memahukan Eliezer untuk membayarnya pada perkhidmatan bloodletting, dan seorang hakim Sodom menyebelah dengan orang Sodom itu. Eliezer kemudian melontar batu ke kepala hakim dan meminta hakim itu untuk membayar orang Sodom.

The Talmud and the book of Jasher also recount two incidents of a young girl (one involved Lot's daughter Paltith) who gave some bread to a poor man who had entered the city. When the townspeople discovered their acts of kindness, they burned Paltith and smeared the other girl's body with honey and hung her from the city wall until she was eaten by bees. (Sanhedrin 109a) It is this gruesome event, and her scream in particular, the Talmud concludes, that are alluded to in the verse that heralds the city’s destruction: "So Hashem said, 'Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and because their sin has been very grave, I will descend and see...'" ().

Pandangan Josephus 
Flavius Josephus, seorang sejarawan Rom-Yahudi, menulis sesuatu di sepanjang barisan:

 

and Josephus recounts that when angels came to Sodom to find good men they were instead greeted by rapists:

He says how beautiful it was before everything was burned up, and how rich the towns were in the area. Josephus described what had happened:

Pandangan Kristian 

There are two prevailing views of the sin of Sodom in Christian thought. One is that the destruction of Sodom was due to inhospitality, as illustrated by the gifts of God to Abraham for his gracious action, contrasted with consequences of the behavior of the city's inhabitants. First we see hospitality and the way we should act, then inhospitality in that the people of Sodom seek to mistreat the newcomers. The second view is that the cities were destroyed for homosexuality.

Christian scholars and clerics often have disagreements about the meaning of specific texts, with the writings on Sodom and Gomorrah being no different. The latter view, while being the most common in modern times, is actually the least historical. The word, "sodomy" which first appeared in the 17th century KJV was then used simply to mean wickedness. Modern scholars in favor of the "homosexuality" theory point to two major parts of the Bible; 

First, "to know" is a Biblical term for sexual behavior in this context.  This is also understood as Lot offers his 'virgin' daughters to the men at the door instead of the visiting men.  Thus,  is interpreted as a militant solicitation for homosexual sex.  
Second, they argue that homosexuality is the "strange flesh" mentioned in the following passage, 

The other view is derived from the classical Jewish perspective, already mentioned, and other portions of the Bible.  This view sees the sin of Sodom as being about general malice, xenophobia and inhospitality, and that if "to know" is intended to be a euphemism for sex, it is clearly a case of gang rape.

Thus, "going after strange flesh" may refer to sex with strangers, sex outside of wedlock, or possibly something akin to bestiality

This idea is paralleled in the Gospels when Jesus compares an inhospitable reception to Sodom:

This view of the Biblical story reflects that of other ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, where hospitality was of singular importance and strangers were under the protection of the gods. Also in these civilizations, men were held in a much higher regard than women, in Greece women being often seen as little more than property .  Therefore, to demand not only a guest, but a male guest, be violated against his will, would be seen as more of a crime than to allow women to be used to save the guest.

Pandangan Islam 

Menurut tradisi Islam, anak saudara Nabi Ibrahim dikenali sebagai Nabi Luth () dan adalah seorang rasul. Menurut al-Quran, Nabi Luth (atau Nabi Lut) telah dikirimkan sebagai seorang nabi untuk memberi amaran kepada orangnya (iaitu, bandar Sodom dan Gomorrah) untuk mengubah sikap jahat mereka. Cerita ini disebut dalam surah Hud, surah ke-11 dalam al-Quran; fokus utama surah Hud ialah cerita-cerita nabi dikirimkan untuk memberi amaran kepada kaum mereka untuk menyembah hanya Allah, dan Allah menghukum kaum-kaum itu kemudian kerana engkar.

Al-Quran tidak memberikan perincian lebih mengenai kaum Nabi Luth, menganggap bahawa para pembaca mengenali latar belakang cerita. Nabi Luth menawarkan anak perempuannya, tetapi mereka tidak berminat dan mengatakan bahawa Nabi Luth "tahu apa yang kami mahu." Digabungkan dengan keterangan Kitab Bible, Sodom dan Gomorrah dalam Islam juga merujuk kepada kehomoseksualan dan rogol homoseksual. Keterangan penuh boleh didapati dari surah Al-Hud:

Perbezaan utama di antara Nabi Luth menurut pandangan Islam dan versi Kitab Bible adalah bahawa Kitab Bible memasuk cerita hubungan sumbang muhrim Nabi Luth dengan kedua anak perempuannya, yang sangat jelas ditolak dalam Islam. Disebabkan Nabi Luth merupakan seorang nabi Tuhan, dan nabi-nabi Islam dianggap tidak akan melanggar hukum Tuhan, Nabi Luth pasti tidak mempunyai hubungan sumbang muhrim seperti itu.

Sesetengah cendakiawan Islam menganggap penawaran anak perempuan Nabi Luth kepada kaumnya sebagai suatu penawaran wanita kepada lelaki pada umumnya, dan bukan hanya anak perempuannya.

Kesejarahan 
The historical existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is still in dispute by archaeologists. The Bible indicates they were located near the Dead Sea (, , ).

Strabo states that locals living near Moasada (as opposed to Masada) say that "there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis". Strabo identifies a limestone and salt hill at the southwestern tip of the Dead Sea, and Kharbet Usdum ruins nearby as the site of biblical Sodom..

Archibald Sayce translated an Akkadian poem describing cities that were destroyed in a rain of fire, written from the view of a person who escaped the destruction, however the names of the cities are not given.. However, Sayce later mentions that the story more closely resembles the doom of Sennacherib's host.

The name “Sodom” is probably related to the Arabic sadama meaning 'fasten,' 'fortify,' 'strengthen' and Gomorrah is based on the root gh m r which means 'be deep,' 'copious (water)'.

In 1976 Giovanni Pettinato claimed that a cuneiform tablet that had been found in the newly discovered library at Ebla contained the names of all five of the Cities of the Plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela), listed in the same order as in Genesis. The names si-da-mu [TM.76.G.524] and ì-ma-ar [TM.75.G.1570 and TM.75.G.2233] were identified as representing Sodom and Gomorrah, which gained some acceptance at the time. However, Alfonso Archi states that, judging from the surrounding city names in the cuneiform list, si-da-mu lies in northern Syria and not near the Dead Sea, and ì-ma-ar is a variant of ì-mar, known to represent Emar, an ancient city located near Ebla. William Shea points out in 1983 that on the 'Eblaite Geographical Atlas' [TM.75.G.2231], ad-mu-ut and sa-dam are good readings by Pettinato and correspond to Admah and Sodom, and they are contained in a list of cities that traces a route along the shores of, or quite possibly within the Dead Sea, whose position may have since shifted along its fault. Today, the scientific consensus is reported as being that "Ebla has no bearing on ... Sodom and Gomorra"
 

The cities may have been destroyed as the result of a natural cataclysm. Geologists have confirmed that no volcanic activity occurred within the last 4000 years, but it is possible that the towns were destroyed by an earthquake in the region, especially if the towns lie along a major fault, the Jordan Rift Valley, the northernmost extension of the Great Rift Valley of the Red Sea and East Africa.

Possible candidates for Sodom or Gomorrah are the sites discovered or visited by Walter E. Rast and R. Thomas Schaub in 1973, including Bab edh-Dhra, which was originally excavated in 1965 by archaeologist Paul Lapp, only to have his work continued by Rast and Schaub following his death by accidental drowning in the waters off of Cyprus in 1970. Other possibilities also include Numeira, es-Safi, Feifeh and Khanazir, which were also visited by Schaub and Rast. All sites were located near the Dead Sea, with evidence of burning and traces of sulfur 
on many of the stones and a sudden stop of inhabitation towards the end of the Early Bronze Age. Archaeological remains excavated from Bab edh-Dhra are currently displayed in Karak Archaeological Museum (Karak Castle) and Amman Citadel Museum.

Sodom Moden 
Tapak ininya Karya Laut Mati, suatu operasi besar untuk pencabutan mineral Laut Mati, digelar "Sdom" (סדום) menurut nama adat Arabnya, Khirbet as-sudūm (lihat di atas Kesejarahan). Berhampiran adalah Gunung Sdom (הר סדום) yang unik, atau Jabal alsudūm dalam bahasa Bahasa Arab, terdiri dari kebanyakannya garam. Di Plain Sdom (מישור סדום) ke selatan adalah sedikit mata air dan dua kampung pertanian.

Lihat pula 
 Agama dan kehomoseksualan
 Vine of Sodom
 Vayeira, Torah portion mengandungi cerita Sodom dan Gomorrah
 epal-epal Sodom

Rujukan 

 Ark Discovery International Brimstone(unique, pure sulphur)and white ashen formations, gypsum, cremated bone near the Dead Sea. 
 Wyatt Archaeological Research Ashen city-shaped remains in the vicinity of Masada, that stretch for miles, with deposits of sulphur in 'ball' shapes (i.e. brimstone), a type of sulphur found nowhere else on planet earth. Ron Wyatt's account of his supposed re-discovery of this ancient city.
 Harvard University The 1975–1981 Excavations At The Town Site Of Bab edh-Dhra
 University of Melbourne "Bab edh-Dhra is located on the South-East edge of the Dead Sea in Jordan, not far from Numeira (identified with Gomorroh)."
 University of Notre Dame Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain. "One of the most important transitions in human history involved the establishment of the world's first cities approximately 5,000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. In the eastern Mediterranean region (Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), people built the first walled cities during a period archaeologists call the Early Bronze Age (EBA, c.3500–2000 BC). In the EBA on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain (Map 1), people began burying their dead in extensive cemeteries, creating a landscape of the dead. Interestingly, they soon built two walled towns next to the cemeteries that they had used for a few centuries. In these settlements, called Bab edh-Dhra' (pronounced "bob-ed-draw") and Numeira (pronounced "new-mere-a"), people established the way of life that we read about in the Bible. In fact, for the writers of the Bible, the desolate nature of this stretch of shore along the Dead Sea and the visible ruins of Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira may have helped them to identify this area with the stories of the ill-fated sites of Sodom and Gomorrah."
 Atlantic Baptist University Sodom and Gomorrah
  Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance  This site has an extensive coverage of both the liberal and conservative Christian views of the story of Sodom and Gomorra.
 Sodom and Gomorrah at the Catholic Encyclopedia
 "Commentary on Genesis 19" by Robert Jameison, D.D. 1871
 "Commentary on Genesis 19" by Theodore Beza

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