"Were those who died in the ancient city of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by God because of the vices of its inhabitants, innocent vicitms?"

(Genesis xviii-xix)

If you read the story in the bible you will know the answer to your question.



Genesis 18:

Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?"

"If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."

Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?"

He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."

Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?"

He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."

Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"

He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."

Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?"

He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."

I had my first 10 years of education in a private jewish day school, and I am now studying Jewish Studies in university so I might be able to help. The concensus among almost all jews is that God destroyed sodom and gomorah because of their lack of hospitality, not because of their "sexual transgressions". In that region of the world hospitality is/was a very important value. Now when people demand to their neighbor's home and say "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out so we may know them." (19:5). Now whether this refered to actuallt screwing the angles who came to Sodom or just to interogate them it is really inhospitible to demand someone to kick their guests out. Lot even offered his daughters(no matter how sick that seems to us now, patrelinial control was common then) it place of sneding out his guests. That should einforce how strong the value of hospitality is and how much of a violation of a cultural value it was to kick out a guest or to interogate him.

I have found it much easier to interprete the texts using a concept called "historical analysis" in other words, look at the texts and think of what the text meant to the people at the time it was writen. The hisorical analysis is just my idea. oh, whatever.

In the book

The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law,

Alan Dershowitz tackles this topic, among others, in his discussion of

the purpose of the lawless narratives of Genesis as a backdrop to the

development of formal law in later chapters of the Torah/Old

Testament.

I just finished this book last week and found it quite engaging.

Dershowitz isn't the greatest writer, but his arguments are

thought-provoking.