The Semiotics of Destruction: An Exhaustive Philological, Archaeological, and Theological Investigation into the Meaning of 'Sodom'

Introduction: The Topography of Absolute Transgression

In the vast lexicon of human civilization, few words possess the radioactive density of "Sodom." To invoke Sodom is to summon a signifier that has slipped its moorings as a mere geographical coordinate—a Bronze Age city-state in the Jordan Rift Valley—to become a universal category of ultimate negation. It is a word that functions simultaneously on multiple planes of reality: as a disputed archaeological tell buried under layers of ash or meteoric dust; as a philological puzzle that scholars have wrestled with for centuries; as a theological battleground defining the parameters of divine wrath and human sexuality; and as a literary mirror reflecting the darkest anxieties of Dante, Sade, and Proust.

The meaning of "Sodom" is not static; it is a sedimented history of interpretation. For the Hebrew prophets, it was a byword for economic hubris and inhospitality. For the rabbis of the Midrash, it was a legal dystopia where charity was a capital crime. For the Hellenistic philosophers and early Church Fathers, it became the archetype of "unnatural" desire, a classification that would eventually birth the legal and medical category of "sodomy." For the Quranic commentators, it represented the innovation of a new form of indecency, punished by stones of baked clay. And for the modern world, it remains a potent political metaphor, weaponized in debates ranging from LGBTQ+ rights to immigration policy and environmental degradation.

This report undertakes an exhaustive excavation of the term "Sodom" (Hebrew: סְדֹם, Səḏōm). We will traverse the contested etymologies that link the name variously to "burning," "cultivation," and "fortification." We will scrutinize the physical search for the Cities of the Plain, examining the rise and fall of archaeological theories, from the charnel houses of Bab edh-Dhra to the controversial and retracted claims of a cosmic airburst at Tall el-Hammam. We will trace the genealogy of the "Sin of Sodom" through the strata of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thought, and finally, we will analyze its reception in the Western literary imagination, where Sodom ceases to be a place of judgment and becomes a persistent, subterranean state of being.

Part I: Philological Excavations: The Enigma of the Name

The first artifact in our investigation is the name itself. Unlike many biblical toponyms that offer immediate descriptive clarity (e.g., Bethlehem as "House of Bread" or Beersheba as "Well of the Oath"), Səḏōm presents a linguistic opacity that has generated a diverse array of scholarly theories. The etymology is not merely a matter of linguistic curiosity; it often betrays the interpretive bias of the translator, determining whether the city is remembered as a paradise lost or a hell preordained.

1.1 The Geological Hypothesis: The Semantics of Combustion

The most enduring etymological tradition links the name Səḏōm to the geological volatility of the Dead Sea region. This view, famously championed by the lexicographer Wilhelm Gesenius, posits that the root carries the connotation of "burning" or "scorched".1 This hypothesis relies on a comparative analysis with Arabic roots, specifically sadama, which can imply a collision or a striking event, and by extension, the aftermath of a catastrophe.

Under this framework, "Sodom" is likely an exonym or a descriptive epithet applied post-facto. It suggests that the oral tradition preserved the memory of the catastrophe—the "fire and brimstone"—within the very name of the site. The region of the Dead Sea (the "Salt Sea" or Yam HaMelach) has historically been a theater of seismic and geothermal activity. The Bible itself notes the presence of "slime pits" (bitumen/asphalt) in the Valley of Siddim (Genesis 14:10), a detail corroborated by classical geographers like Strabo and Josephus, who referred to the lake as Lacus Asphaltites.3

If Səḏōm means "burning," then the city is linguistically tagged as "The Place of Conflagration." This aligns with the visual reality of the landscape—a desolate, salt-encrusted wasteland that serves as a permanent testimony to the narrative of divine incineration. The name thus functions as a warning label embedded in the map, designating a geography of combustion long before the specific narrative of Lot was codified.

1.2 The Agricultural Hypothesis: The Memory of the "Kikkar"

Diametrically opposed to the "burning" theory is the "Agricultural Hypothesis," which seeks to root the name in the region's pre-catastrophic fertility. Genesis 13:10 describes the "plain of the Jordan" (Kikkar HaYarden) as being "well watered everywhere... like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt." This textual memory of a lush, irrigated paradise challenges the notion that the name implies destruction.

Philologists advocating for this view look to the Hebrew sadeh (field) or shadmah (cultivated field/terrace). Recent scholarship has also pointed to the Akkadian sadû (mountain/pasture) or sadûm as a potential cognate.1 In this reading, Səḏōm might derive from sadîm (cultivated fields) or a construction like "Good Fields Place."

This interpretation introduces a profound tragic irony to the philology. If the name originally signified abundance, agricultural prowess, and "The Place of Fields," its transformation into a symbol of absolute desolation becomes all the more poignant. It reflects the inversion of the natural order that characterizes the Sodom narrative: the Garden of Eden becomes the burning wasteland; the fertile field becomes the salt flat. The linguistic shift from sadeh (field) to the notorious Səḏōm suggests a cultural memory of the Kikkar as a breadbasket before its salinization, capturing the "Lost Paradise" motif inherent in the story.

1.3 The Structural Hypothesis: Enclosure and Fortification

A third school of thought shifts the focus from the land to the city itself. Some scholars, noting the similarity to the Arabic root sadama (to fasten, to fortify) or the Hebrew sod (secret counsel/assembly) and yesod (foundation), propose that Sodom means "The Fortified Place" or "The Enclosed City".2

This etymology is compelling when viewed through the lens of Bronze Age archaeology. The city-states of this period (Middle Bronze Age Levant) were characterized by massive defensive ramparts, glacis structures, and formidable gates—features prominently found at candidate sites like Tall el-Hammam and Bab edh-Dhra.7 If Sodom means "Fortress," the narrative of its destruction takes on a specific theological valence: it becomes a statement on the fragility of human security systems against divine will. The "Fortified Place" could not keep out the angels of judgment, nor could its walls withstand the fire from heaven.

Furthermore, the connection to sod (secret assembly) might hint at the insular, conspiratorial nature of the city's inhabitants—a theme echoed in later Rabbinic literature which portrays the Sodomites as having a perverted legal system designed to exclude outsiders.9 The "enclosure" is thus both physical (walls) and social (xenophobia).

1.4 "Sodomy": The Semantic Drift from Toponym to Legal Category

The journey of the word "Sodom" did not end with the destruction of the city. It underwent one of the most significant semantic shifts in linguistic history, evolving from a proper noun (a place) to a common noun (an act). The English "sodomy" enters the language via Old French sodomie and Medieval Latin peccatum Sodomiticum ("the sin of Sodom").10

It is critical to understand that for centuries, this derived term was a chaotic and expansive legal container. In medieval and early modern British law, the term often used was "buggery"—a word with its own complex etymology derived from the Bougres (Bulgarians), associated with the Bogomil heresy.11 "Sodomy" did not exclusively refer to homosexual acts between men; it functioned as a catch-all for non-procreative behaviors that threatened the social or divine order. This "grab-bag" of offenses could include bestiality, heresy, and even sexual acts with "Turks and Saracens" or Jews, reflecting a conflation of sexual deviance with religious and racial otherness.12

The linguistic history reveals that "Sodom" became the ultimate signifier for the "unnatural." It was a flexible accusation, a way to label behavior—or entire groups of people—as fundamentally disorderly and deserving of erasure. The word traveled from the maps of the Bronze Age directly into the penal codes of empires, carrying with it the smoky residue of divine judgment.

Part II: The Archaeological Quest: Locating the 'Cities of the Plain'

The search for the historical Sodom is one of the most contentious chapters in biblical archaeology. It is driven by a persistent desire to ground the theological myth in geological reality—to find the layer of ash that proves the story true. Over the last century, two primary theories have emerged, dividing scholars into "Southern" and "Northern" camps, each citing distinct geographical clues and excavation data.

2.1 The Southern Theory: Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira

For the majority of the 20th century, the consensus among biblical archaeologists located Sodom and Gomorrah at the southeastern edge of the Dead Sea. This theory was pioneered by the giants of the field, William F. Albright and later Paul Lapp and Walter Rast, who conducted extensive surveys and excavations in the region.13

2.1.1 The Site Profile: Cities of the Dead

The "Southern Theory" identifies the site of Bab edh-Dhra as Sodom and the nearby site of Numeira as Gomorrah. These settlements date to the Early Bronze Age (EB III), roughly 2350–2000 BC.7

• Fortifications and Gates: Bab edh-Dhra was a substantial town, covering 9-10 acres, enclosed by a massive stone and mudbrick wall up to 7 meters thick.14 This aligns with the biblical description of Lot sitting in the "gate" of Sodom (Genesis 19:1), implying a fortified urban center rather than a village.

• The Charnel Houses: One of the most striking findings at Bab edh-Dhra was the discovery of "charnel houses"—rectangular mudbrick buildings used for communal burials. Excavators noted a peculiar destruction pattern: these buildings had been destroyed by intense fires that started from the roof and spread inward to the interior.7 For proponents of the biblical connection, this "roof-down" burning was interpreted as physical evidence of "fire from heaven."

• Geological Context: The location sits directly on the eastern fault line of the Dead Sea Rift. The area is rich in subterranean bitumen and sulfur. The theory posits that an earthquake could have ruptured these pockets, releasing natural gas and petroleum which then ignited, raining down burning hydrocarbons on the cities—a naturalistic explanation for the "brimstone and fire".14

2.1.2 The Chronological Problem

Despite the compelling physical evidence of destruction, the Southern Theory faces a significant hurdle: chronology. The destruction of Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira is firmly dated to the end of the Early Bronze Age (c. 2350 BC). Most biblical chronologies place Abraham and Lot in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1900–1700 BC).7 This gap of several centuries is difficult to reconcile without radically altering the biblical timeline. Furthermore, subsequent analysis suggested that Numeira and Bab edh-Dhra were likely destroyed at different times (separated by up to 250 years), undermining the narrative of a simultaneous, single-day catastrophe.16

2.2 The Northern Theory: Tall el-Hammam and the "Airburst" Controversy

In the 21st century, the focus of the search shifted north. Dr. Steven Collins proposed a new location based on a close reading of the geographical clues in Genesis 13, which describes Lot looking across the "Kikkar" (disk/plain) of the Jordan—a term Collins argues refers specifically to the circular alluvial plain north of the Dead Sea.3

2.2.1 The Case for Tall el-Hammam

The site identified by Collins is Tall el-Hammam, a massive archaeological tell located in Jordan, northeast of the Dead Sea.

• Urban Scale: Tall el-Hammam is enormous, covering approximately 36 hectares. It was the dominant urban center in the southern Levant during the Middle Bronze Age, far larger than Jerusalem or Jericho at the time. Collins argues this scale fits the biblical description of Sodom as a major city-state and the head of a pentapolis.8

• The Destruction Matrix: The site shows evidence of a catastrophic termination event around 1650 BC (Middle Bronze Age II), which aligns much better with the Abrahamic chronology than the Southern sites. Excavators have described a massive destruction layer, up to 1.5 meters thick, characterized by extreme heat. They report finding melted pottery ("shard melt"), bubbled mudbricks, and a layer of ash that blanketed the city.5

2.2.2 The Scientific Reports Retraction: Anatomy of a Controversy

The Northern Theory exploded into the global media spotlight in 2021 with the publication of a paper in Scientific Reports titled "A Tunguska-sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam." The authors (Bunch et al.) claimed to have found definitive scientific evidence of a cosmic airburst—a meteor exploding in the atmosphere with the force of a nuclear weapon.18 The paper cited the presence of "shocked quartz," diamond-like carbon (diamondoids), and spherules of melted minerals (platinum, iridium) as proof of temperatures exceeding 2000°C—heat that no ordinary fire or warfare could generate.17

However, this apparent triumph of "scientific proof" for the Bible quickly unraveled. Independent experts and data sleuths began to scrutinize the paper's data.

• Image Manipulation: Critics identified instances where photographic data appeared to have been altered or duplicated (e.g., photoshopping of sediment layers) to fit the airburst model.20

• Misidentification of Evidence: Geologists pointed out that the "shocked quartz" identified in the paper was actually consistent with lower-pressure tectonic features common in the rift valley, not high-pressure cosmic impacts.20

• Model Flaws: The comparison to the Tunguska event (1908 Siberia) was found to be flawed, relying on exaggerated estimates of the Tunguska blast's thermal effects.22

In 2024/2025, Scientific Reports formally retracted the paper, citing a lack of confidence in the conclusions and the data integrity.23 This retraction serves as a cautionary tale in the field of biblical archaeology. The intense desire to validate the Sodom narrative can lead to confirmation bias, where anomalous data is aggressively fitted to a theological conclusion. While Tall el-Hammam remains a significant Bronze Age city that was destroyed and abandoned for centuries, the "cosmic airburst" theory is currently scientifically discredited. The destruction may well have been caused by more terrestrial means—earthquake, warfare, or a combination thereof—that were later mythologized.

2.3 The Ebla Tablets: A False Lead?

In the mid-1970s, another potential breakthrough occurred with the discovery of the Ebla Tablets in Syria. Early reports by epigrapher Giovanni Pettinato claimed that the tablets contained a list of the five Cities of the Plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Zoar) in the exact biblical order.25 This generated immense excitement as a potential extra-biblical confirmation of the city's existence.

However, subsequent scholarship, led by Alfonso Archi, dismantled these readings. It was determined that Pettinato had misread common Sumerian logograms or unrelated toponyms. The name identified as "Sodom" (si-da-mu) likely referred to a different location in Syria, and the other names evaporated under closer scrutiny.26 Today, the consensus is that the Ebla archive offers no definitive reference to the biblical Sodom, serving as another reminder of the elusiveness of the city in the historical record.

Part III: The "Sin of Sodom": A Theological Evolution

If the location of Sodom is hard to pin down, the definition of its "sin" is even more slippery. The transgression of Sodom is not a static legal charge; it evolves radically across the centuries, shifting from a critique of economic injustice to a condemnation of sexual perversion. This evolution reflects the changing anxieties of the communities reading the text.

3.1 The Prophetic Definition: Inhospitality and Pride

The earliest commentary on Sodom, found within the Hebrew Bible itself, focuses almost exclusively on social ethics. The prophets, writing centuries after the Genesis narrative was crystallized, used Sodom as a mirror for the Kingdom of Judah's own moral failures—failures that had nothing to do with sex.

The prophet Ezekiel provides the most explicit and startling definition of the sin. In Ezekiel 16:49-50, he writes:

"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me." 28

Here, the "abomination" (to'evah) is framed entirely within a context of materialism and social apathy. Sodom is condemned for hoarding wealth and refusing to share its surplus. This aligns with the "Agricultural Hypothesis" of the name—Sodom was too rich, too comfortable ("prosperous ease"), and this abundance bred a fatal arrogance.

This view is amplified in Jewish oral tradition (Midrash). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 109b) recounts elaborate stories of Sodom's cruelty. The Sodomites are depicted as creating laws to prohibit charity. One famous story tells of a young girl ("Plotit") who was caught feeding bread to a beggar. Her punishment was to be stripped naked, covered in honey, and stung to death by bees on the city walls.9 In this Rabbinic worldview, the mob's attempt to assault Lot's guests (Genesis 19) is a manifestation of extreme xenophobia and a violent enforcement of their anti-stranger laws, rather than simple lust.

3.2 The Shift to Sexual Deviance: Second Temple Literature

The interpretation of the sin as primarily sexual—and specifically homosexual—begins to take hold during the Second Temple period (c. 200 BC – 70 AD). As Jewish thinkers encountered Hellenistic culture, they began to recode the Sodom narrative through the lens of Greek philosophical concerns about "nature" (physis).

Philo of Alexandria (1st Century AD) is a pivotal figure in this shift. Philo explicitly interprets the sin as "unnatural" sexual acts. He writes of the Sodomites: "Men mounted males without respect for the sex nature which the active partner shares with the passive... not blushing to train their youth for the patient endurance of the passive part".31 For Philo, the destruction of the city was a necessary purging of a behavior that violated the fundamental laws of nature and procreation.

Similarly, the Book of Jubilees (2nd Century BC) describes the Sodomites as "polluting themselves" and "fornicating in their flesh".33 This literature moves the focus from the social violation of the guest to the bodily violation of the natural order.

3.3 The New Testament and Christian Codification

The New Testament writers cemented this sexual interpretation, ensuring it would become the dominant reading in Western Christendom.

• Jude 1:7: The epistle states that Sodom and Gomorrah "indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust" (literally "strange flesh" or sarkos heteras).28 This phrase "strange flesh" implies a transgression of boundaries—human men seeking angels, or men seeking men (a "strange" object of desire in the heteronormative framework).

• 2 Peter 2:6-10: Peter links the city's destruction to "filthy conduct" and the "lust of defiling passion," reinforcing the link between the city and sexual impurity.29

By the time of the Church Fathers, such as Augustine, the "Ezekielian" definition of economic injustice had been largely eclipsed. Sodom became the archetype for sexual transgression, a legacy that would eventually be encoded in canon law and secular "Sodomy Laws," which persisted in the British Empire and its colonies well into the 20th century.12

Part IV: The Islamic Perspective: The People of Lut and the Stones of Clay

In the Islamic tradition, the city is rarely called "Sodom" explicitly, but is referred to as the city of the "People of Lut" (Qawm Lut) or Al-Mu'tafikat (The Overturned Cities).34 The Quranic narrative shares the core catastrophe with the Bible but offers distinct theological emphases and details regarding the punishment.

4.1 The Innovation of Fahisha

The Quranic indictment of the People of Lut is severe and explicitly sexual. However, it frames the sin as a historical innovation. Prophet Lut admonishes his people:

"Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people." (Quran 7:80-81).35

In Islamic theology (Tafsir), the People of Lut are often viewed as the inventors of homosexuality. Before them, this form of "fahisha" (indecency) did not exist. This framing posits the sin not just as a violation of existing law, but as a rupture in human history—a new corruption introduced into the world.37

However, the Quran retains the theme of highway robbery and public vice alongside sexual transgression. Surah Al-Ankabut (29:29) quotes Lut asking: "Do you indeed approach men, and cut off the highway, and commit evil deeds in your assemblies?".38 This preserves the "inhospitality/violence" aspect found in Jewish tradition—the Sodomites were dangerous to travelers not just sexually, but socially and physically.

4.2 The Punishment: Sijjil

The mechanism of destruction in the Quran is distinct from the biblical "fire and brimstone." The Quran describes the city being "turned upside down" (ja'alna 'aliyahu safilaha - "We made the highest part the lowest") and rained upon with "stones of baked clay" (hijara min sijjil).30

The term sijjil implies stones that have been inscribed or marked for a specific purpose, or hardened clay. This imagery suggests a solid, crushing bombardment rather than just combustion. It reinforces the idea of "burial"—the sin was buried under the earth. Some modern commentators have attempted to link this description to volcanic ejecta or even the meteoritic debris mentioned in the (now retracted) airburst theories, seeing a parallel between "stones of baked clay" and the vitrified pottery shards found at archaeological sites.38

Part V: Sodom in the Western Imagination: From Inferno to Inverts

As the word "Sodom" traveled through history, it detached from its scriptural moorings to become a potent literary symbol. In the hands of Western writers, it became a landscape to explore the boundaries of nature, power, and desire.

5.1 Dante's Inferno: The Burning Sands

In the Divine Comedy, Dante places the Sodomites in the Seventh Circle of Hell (Violence), specifically in the ring of "Violence Against Nature".39 Their punishment is to run eternally across a plain of burning sand while a rain of fire falls slowly from above—a direct inversion of the fertile rain that should water the earth.

Crucially, Dante's conception of "Sodom" is inextricably linked to Usury. He places the Usurers (Violence Against Art/Industry) in the same circle. For Dante, both Sodomy and Usury represent sterility. Sodomy is sex that produces no life; Usury is money that produces money (interest) without labor (which Dante viewed as "unnatural"). The "burning sand" is a landscape where nothing can grow—a nature that refuses to be fruitful.40

Dante's treatment of the Sodomites is complex. He encounters his beloved mentor, Brunetto Latini, among them. He treats Latini with immense respect, using the formal "Ser Brunetto".41 This suggests a nuanced view: one can be culturally great, intellectually gifted, and personally beloved, yet still be spiritually damned by this specific "violence." Sodom here is not a den of monsters, but a tragic flaw of the elite.

5.2 The Marquis de Sade: 120 Days of Sodom

For the Marquis de Sade, writing in secret from his cell in the Bastille in 1785, Sodom is no longer a place of divine judgment but a utopia of absolute libertinage. In his unfinished novel The 120 Days of Sodom, the "Château of Silling" serves as a new Sodom—a sealed, remote space where four wealthy libertines enact absolute power over their victims.42

Sade strips the word of its moral warning. For him, "Sodom" signifies the total deregulation of human impulse. It is the place where the strong prove their sovereignty by violating every law of God, nature, and society. The manuscript itself has a legendary history: Sade hid the 39-foot-long scroll in the walls of his cell. When he was transferred before the storming of the Bastille, he believed it lost and wept "tears of blood".43 The survival of the manuscript—and its eventual publication in the 20th century—allowed "Sodom" to re-enter the modern consciousness as a symbol of the dark, unfettered id.

5.3 Proust: Sodome et Gomorrhe

Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (specifically Volume 4, Sodome et Gomorrhe) executes perhaps the most sophisticated modern reinvention of the term. Proust uses Sodom to describe the world of the male homosexual ("inverts"), but he strips away the fire and replaces it with botany.44

In the famous opening scene, the narrator observes the meeting of the Baron de Charlus and the tailor Jupien. He compares their courtship to the fertilization of an orchid by a bee. Proust creates a taxonomy of "Sodomites," describing them as "a race on which a malediction weighs," yet he treats them with clinical observation mixed with profound empathy.45

For Proust, Sodom is not a place of destruction but a secret society. It exists within the visible world, visible only to initiates. He explores the theme of sterility—a common trope—but inverts it: this "sterile" race produces the rich fruit of art, sensitivity, and culture. Sodom becomes a metaphor for the hidden, psychological exile of the "invert," who must live in a state of constant translation between his true nature and society's expectations.

Part VI: Modern Echoes and Political Theology

In the 20th and 21st centuries, "Sodom" has returned to the public square, weaponized in political discourse to define the boundaries of the nation-state.

6.1 The Political Slur and the "Xenophobia" Rebuttal

"Sodom" is frequently invoked by religious conservatives to describe perceived societal decay, often linking LGBTQ+ rights with national collapse.46 This usage draws directly from the Jude/Philo tradition of sexual deviance as a harbinger of doom.

However, a robust counter-narrative has emerged that reclaims the "Ezekiel option." Progressive theologians and political commentators cite the Sodom mob's hostility to the "foreign" angels as a parallel to nativist political movements that reject refugees and immigrants.9 In this reading, a nation that closes its borders, separates families, or refuses aid to the needy is the true spiritual heir to Sodom. The "Sin of Sodom" thus becomes a battleground for defining national morality: is the nation threatened by what happens in the bedroom, or by what happens at the border?

6.2 The "Corporate Sodom": Industrializing the Wasteland

Finally, Sodom exists today as a literal industrial site. The Dead Sea Works in Israel (located at Sedom) extracts potash and minerals from the hyper-saline waters of the Dead Sea.48 The biblical "Valley of Siddim," once full of bitumen pits, is now a landscape of evaporation ponds and chemical factories.

Artists and environmental critics have used this site as a metaphor for a modern "Sodom"—not of sexual sin, but of environmental sterility. The extraction industries are viewed as "burning" the land for profit, accelerating the evaporation of the Dead Sea (which is shrinking annually). Here, the ancient name returns to its possible etymological roots of "burning" and "salt," symbolizing a capitalistic exhaustion of the earth's resources.50

Conclusion: The Sedimentation of Meaning

The meaning of "Sodom" cannot be reduced to a single definition. It is a sedimentation of 4,000 years of human anxiety, layer upon layer of interpretation calcified into a single word.

• Etymologically, it wavers between the tragic memory of "cultivated fields" and the descriptive reality of "burning."

• Archaeologically, it remains a ghost. It haunts the ruins of Bab edh-Dhra and the controversial strata of Tall el-Hammam, resisting definitive scientific capture. The retraction of the "airburst" paper serves as a stark reminder that the desire to prove the myth often outpaces the evidence.

• Theologically, it has shifted from a warning against the hoarding of wealth and social cruelty (Ezekiel) to a warning against the misdirection of desire (Philo/Augustine/Quran).

• Literarily, it has served as Dante's sterile desert, Sade's theater of absolute power, and Proust's secret botanical garden.

Ultimately, Sodom is less a place than a limit-concept. It marks the boundary where a society—through violence, greed, lust, or hubris—exhausts the patience of the cosmos. Whether interpreted as a blast of divine fire, a rain of hardened clay, or a metaphor for social collapse, Sodom remains the ultimate signifier of the point of no return. It is the burning city that burns in every age, illuminated by the specific fears of the culture that looks back at it.

Works cited

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