Texts in Conversation
Jude presents Sodom’s destruction as a warning for later generations, echoing a theme also found in 3 Maccabees, which includes Sodom among a series of past judgments meant to display divine power to future generations.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
3 Maccabees 2:5
Deuterocanon
4 It was you who destroyed the former workers of unrighteousness, among whom were the giants, who trusted in their strength and daring, by covering them with a measureless flood. 5 It was you who made the Sodomites, those workers of exceeding iniquity, men notorious for their vices, an example to later generations, when you covered them with fire and brimstone. 6 You made known your power when you caused the bold Pharaoh, the enslaver of your holy people Israel, to pass through the ordeal of many and diverse inflictions.
Jude 1:7
New Testament
6 You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day. 7 So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire in a way similar to these angels, are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet these men, as a result of their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and insult the glorious ones.
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Notes and References
"... there was another way of understanding the punishment of Lot's wife, one that was connected to a still larger question in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The inhabitants of this region had sinned; they should have been punished, by all means. But was that a reason for God to blight the landscape forever, turning what once was a flourishing and rich valley into a smoldering wasteland? The biblical narrative offered no explanation, but it was not hard for interpreters to come up with one. If the land itself had been destroyed forever, was this not so that the area would stand as a visible token, a vivid reminder for later generations of what can befall those who defy God's word? ..."
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