We often come across the expression "Sodom and Gomorrah", but few people know about its meaning and origin. In fact, these are two cities that the biblical story tells about. According to history, they burned down due to the sins of the people who lived there. What sins are we talking about? Did these cities really exist? We will try to answer these and many other questions in this article. So, Sodom and Gomorrah: the meaning of phraseological units, biblical legend and history..
Biblical legend
For the first time, Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned as the southeastern tip of Canaan, located east of Gaza, while the land here is called the eastern bank of the Jordan River. Lot, Abraham's nephew, came here. The Bible even says that Jerusalem borders Sodom on the south and southeast sides. The inhabitants of Sodom were called the Philistines or Hanakayas in the Jewish manner, and the king of the city was a monarch named Ber. Sodom and Gomorrah According to the Bible, the war that took place between the army of Kedorlaomer and the army of Sodom, which was subsequently defeated, and Abraham's nephew Lot was captured by enemies, also belongs to the time of Abraham's life.
The biblical legends say that Sodom was a rich and developed city, but the Lord God decided to punish the inhabitants for the fact that they were extremely sinful and evil, had many vices that righteous people would not accept. Tradition tells that God shed sulfur and fire on these cities in order to destroy both the lands themselves and their inhabitants for their transgressions. In addition, according to the Bible, Adma and Sevoim were also destroyed, although today there is no evidence that they actually existed. After the fire, the land of Sodom was inhabited by the descendants of Lot, the only ones who managed to escape the fire, and it was called Moab.
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Attempts to find cities
Since Sodom and Gomorrah are widely known even to non-religious people, numerous attempts have been made to find out more about their location and finally find evidence that they existed. So, not far from the Dead Sea, on its southwestern coast, there are mountains, which consist mainly of rock salt and are called Sodomites. It would seem that this should have something to do with the biblical city, but in reality there is no reliable data on why this name was chosen. Sodom and Gomorrah meaning of phraseological unit. The interest in the biblical legend is so wide that in the period from 1965 to 1979, five attempts were made to find the city that perished because of the sins of its inhabitants, but they were unsuccessful. The history of Sodom and Gomorrah did not leave indifferent Russian scientists either,who, together with the Jordanians, tried to discover what was left of the ancient city.
Michael Sanders Expedition In 2000, British scientist Michael Sanders became the leader of an archaeological expedition aimed at finding destroyed cities. Their work was based on images taken from the US Space Shuttle. According to these pictures, the city could be located northeast of the Dead Sea, contrary to all the information 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. Jordan Valley Some scholars also believe that the ancient ruins located in Tell el-Hammam in Jordan may be the biblical city of sinners. Therefore, it was decided to undertake research in this area in order to confirm or refute the hypothesis. Excavation led by Stephen Collins,American scientist, who relied on the data of the books of Genesis, reinforce the assumption that Sodom was located in the southern region of the Jordan Valley, which is surrounded on all sides by depressions.
"Sodom and Gomorrah": the meaning of phraseological unit
This expression is rather widely interpreted, but most often it denotes a place of debauchery, in which the moral foundations 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 the Russian language, the term "sodomy" appeared, 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. history of sodom and gomorrah.
The meaning of phraseological units can also imply any non-traditional sexual encounter that is considered immoral in modern society. Such acts include oral, anal sex or any perversion. The Lord, according to the legend, having destroyed the cities, punished sinners in order to show the whole world what awaits those who resort to non-traditional sexual practices and disobey him.
Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah
According to the text of the Bible, city dwellers were punished not only for sexual debauchery, but also for other sins, including selfishness, idleness, pride and others, but homosexuality was still recognized as the main one. Why this particular sin is recognized as the most terrible is not known for certain, but in the Bible it is called an "abomination" before the Lord, and the legend calls on people "not to lie down with a man as with a woman." what is sodom and gomorrah.
Oddly enough, among such an ancient people as the Philistines, homosexuality was a generally accepted phenomenon, and no one condemned it. Probably, this happened because their ancestors were pagan tribes and peoples living in Canaan, far from monotheistic religion. According to legend, the Lord, fearing that the Jewish people could also switch 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 across the globe. There are even lines in Genesis that say that debauchery was so widespread in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that it crossed all boundaries, so they had to be destroyed.
Reflection in art
Like many other myths and legends, the story of the two cities of sinners has been embodied in art. This biblical story is reflected in the work of the great Russian writer Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, who wrote the poem "Lot's wife". In 1962, a film was even filmed, which, in fact, is a fairly loose interpretation of the biblical legend about the city of the fallen. So, in his famous cycle "In Search of Lost Time", Marcel Proust has a novel of the same name, which tells about the morally decayed bourgeoisie - "Sodom and Gomorrah". Sodom and Gomorrah what it is.
Pictures depicting debauchery and other sins also often remind of the inhabitants of these cities, which the Lord himself decided to burn. There are no less than a dozen paintings depicting Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his daughter, with whom, according to legend, he had sexual relations. Oddly enough, according to the legend, the daughters themselves, who were left without husbands, who wanted to continue the family, became the initiators of incest. Lot, Abraham's nephew The oldest surviving canvases is the work of Albrecht Durer, which bears the name
Lot's Flight. Here is depicted an old man, who is accompanied by two daughters, and his wife is visible in the distance, and everything looks pretty decent. However, in the later works of masters of various eras and trends, one can find a radically different interpretation. So, for example, the work of Simon Vouet entitled "Lot and His Daughters" shows us an already elderly man, 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 a number of 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 everyday laws. How is the legend being interpreted 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 have become so accustomed to what is disgusting to the Lord that all these perversions and vices have become habitual. They believe that we are actually on the road to destruction, accepting everything that is happening around.
So, for example, one of the Russian scientists, Doctor of Technical Sciences V. Plykin writes in his book that, not knowing the laws of the Universe, modern people created their own laws, which, in fact, are artificial and, not being a righteous life, lead society to death … sodom and gomorrah The same scientist believes that scientific and technological progress, which only aggravates everything and brings people closer to the world of vice, negatively affects the moral foundations of mankind. What are Sodom and Gomorrah in the modern world? Some also believe that due to the fact that people only care about how to take everything out of life, not caring about the consequences, humanity produces negative energy. Believe it or not in this approach is, of course, everyone's business. Maybe you shouldn't pass on ancient laws to modern society.
True or Fiction?
The biblical story of the cities of sinners is known all over the world. Vices such as sodomy, idleness, pride, selfishness caused the death of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The legend tells of the Philistine people who were mired in sin so much that they became unworthy to walk on the land of the Lord God. The cities of sodom and gomorrah Now, after so many centuries after the events described, it is impossible to say whether these cities actually existed, and whether they were burned " rain of brimstone and fire "for the misdeeds of its inhabitants.
A huge number of attempts have been made to find the remains of these settlements, but in reality, none of them were successful. Conclusion According to the legend, when two angels came to the city to find at least ten righteous people, they saw only vice and depravity there. And then the Lord, being angry, decided to burn the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. That this happened exactly like this is written in the book of Genesis, but the legend remains a legend, and no archaeological evidence has been found that could prove it. However, whether this actually happened or whether 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 mired in the same vice and debauchery and be punished in the same way as the ancient Philistineswhich caused the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah - two cities overflowing with sinners.
Author: Dmitry Polskikh
