The traditional Christian narrative states that Sodom and Gomorrah’s great sin is sex between men. Genesis 19:5 bears multiple translations to this effect. The New International Version says that Lot’s neighbors “called to Lot, ‘[w]here are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them’” (NIV), while the King James Version says, “[b]ring them out unto us, that we may know them.” The New King James translates the verse as: “Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” So great is the offense in this verse that Lot tries offering his own daughters to the assembled crowd instead of the angels disguised as men. This is the last straw for God, and He informs Lot that He will destroy the towns due to “wickedness.” So prevalent is this interpretation that the words “sodomy” and “sodomite” derive from the so-called actions of Sodom.

Some contemporary scholarship holds that the great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, the so-called wickedness, isn’t sex between men but inhospitality. Before visiting Lot, the angels visited Abraham and received due hospitality. Lot also offered his hospitality when they visited him next, but Lot’s neighbors did not.