interpretation.
3. Lot and Sodom Community
The whole scene in Genesis 19 takes on near-comic proportions if Lot, on hearing the demand of the crowd that they wished to “get acquainted with” the men in his house, said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you and do to them as is good in your sight, only do nothing to these men . . .” (author’s translation). In verse 8 the same verb, “yada” with the negative particle is used to describe Lot’s daughters as having “not known” a man. The verb here obviously means “have intercourse with.” It could hardly mean simply “be acquainted with.” In narrative literature of this sort it would be very unlikely to use one verb with two different meanings so close together unless the author made the difference quite obvious. In both verses 5 and 8 “yada” should be translated “to have sexual intercourse with.” The context does not lend itself to any other credible interpretation.
4. Historian Josephus’ View
Jude 7 gives a commentary on the same passage mentioned above. It clearly states that the sin of Sodom involved gross immorality and going after strange or different flesh “sarkikos heteras (Greek). It is no accident that Jude describes their actions by using “ekpornusasai” (Greek). The verb “pornuo definitely refers to sexual immorality and the preposition “ek” explains that it means that “they gave themselves up fully, without reserve, thoroughly, out and out, utterly. The term “strange flesh” could imply unnatural acts between men or even of human beings with animals. The inhabitants of Canaan were guilty of both of these sins (Lev 18:23-29). This