robg@mmintl.UUCP (Robert Goldman) (03/22/85)
I consulted my copy of the Anchor Genesis about this. Speiser translates this section of XIX as follows: . . .the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old--all the people to the last man--closed in on the house. They called out to Lot and said to him "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may get familiar with them." Lot met them outside at the entrance, having shut the door behind him. He said, "I beg you, my friends, don't be wicked. Look, I have two daughters who never consorted with a man. Let me bring them out to you and you may do to them as you please. But please don't do anything to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof."(4-8) Speiser comments: ". . .true to the unwritten code, Lot will stop at nothing in his effort to protect his guests." A number of comments about the application of this chapter to the present: 1) For those who wish to argue that the Bible does not proscribe homosexuality: a. It seems to me that the phrase "all the people to the last man," probably includes the last WOMAN as well. This lends support to an interpretation as follows: b. Anyway, the injunction seems to be against sexual assault, not homosexuality. It seems to me that one would have to have quite a pair of tinted sunglasses on, in order to see the Old Testament as accepting homosexuality. However, it doesn't seem to me that THIS PASSAGE necessarily condemns it. 2) Anyway, we no longer cut the hands off thieves, stone adulterers, and most people in America -- and certainly most Christians -- eat `unclean meat.' Why should you pick on gays to apply the Old Testament to, when you ignore so many of its other proscriptions? keep 'em flying, r P.S. Heaven forfend that my opinions should be taken for those of my employers.