Dr. Dylan Johnson

Exactly. So it's extremely theologically loaded based on the questions of sin and of mercy and of proportional destruction. And the other component is also that it's bound up in this bigger narrative. The Sodom and Gomorrah story that most people would know from chapters 18 and 19 concern Abraham and his wife Sarah. And the catch is also that it's part of this broader narrative.

narrative about Abraham or Abram and his kinsman Lot. And so when we encounter other references to Sodom and Gomorrah and then the five cities of the plains, which we'll get to, it's assume that narrative that I just described, chapters 18 and 19. But we now think that that's a pretty late development. Sodom and Gomorrah is probably an old tradition, folk tradition.

narrative about Abraham or Abram and his kinsman Lot. And so when we encounter other references to Sodom and Gomorrah and then the five cities of the plains, which we'll get to, it's assume that narrative that I just described, chapters 18 and 19. But we now think that that's a pretty late development. Sodom and Gomorrah is probably an old tradition, folk tradition.

narrative about Abraham or Abram and his kinsman Lot. And so when we encounter other references to Sodom and Gomorrah and then the five cities of the plains, which we'll get to, it's assume that narrative that I just described, chapters 18 and 19. But we now think that that's a pretty late development. Sodom and Gomorrah is probably an old tradition, folk tradition.

But that specific story with all the details, with Lot, with the three messengers or the three divine beings, the hospitality theme, the sexual deviancy component, it's only there. No other biblical text seems to be aware that Abraham has anything to do with Sodom and Gomorrah. But the problem is that once you read that story, you kind of can't escape it.

But that specific story with all the details, with Lot, with the three messengers or the three divine beings, the hospitality theme, the sexual deviancy component, it's only there. No other biblical text seems to be aware that Abraham has anything to do with Sodom and Gomorrah. But the problem is that once you read that story, you kind of can't escape it.

But that specific story with all the details, with Lot, with the three messengers or the three divine beings, the hospitality theme, the sexual deviancy component, it's only there. No other biblical text seems to be aware that Abraham has anything to do with Sodom and Gomorrah. But the problem is that once you read that story, you kind of can't escape it.

You always are going to be, with every reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, thinking of that whole story. So what I'm trying to piece apart here is maybe if that's the last piece added, there is to get to some of the, if not the historicity of these events, at least to access what the oldest story was.

You always are going to be, with every reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, thinking of that whole story. So what I'm trying to piece apart here is maybe if that's the last piece added, there is to get to some of the, if not the historicity of these events, at least to access what the oldest story was.

You always are going to be, with every reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, thinking of that whole story. So what I'm trying to piece apart here is maybe if that's the last piece added, there is to get to some of the, if not the historicity of these events, at least to access what the oldest story was.

Right, exactly. It's something that I struggle to teach the students sometimes is that there's a clear narrative trajectory in the Bible from the beginning of time to more or less the Persian period. And at certain points, that intersects with actual chronology. But again, it's a narrative chronology.

Right, exactly. It's something that I struggle to teach the students sometimes is that there's a clear narrative trajectory in the Bible from the beginning of time to more or less the Persian period. And at certain points, that intersects with actual chronology. But again, it's a narrative chronology.

Right, exactly. It's something that I struggle to teach the students sometimes is that there's a clear narrative trajectory in the Bible from the beginning of time to more or less the Persian period. And at certain points, that intersects with actual chronology. But again, it's a narrative chronology.

So when something occurs early in the biblical text or it's based early, it doesn't have much bearing on when that text was actually written. So the best example is the story of creation is probably pretty late, whereas a prophetic text like Hosea is probably much older. So you can't exactly correlate the narrative context with the scribal context, the composition of those texts.

So when something occurs early in the biblical text or it's based early, it doesn't have much bearing on when that text was actually written. So the best example is the story of creation is probably pretty late, whereas a prophetic text like Hosea is probably much older. So you can't exactly correlate the narrative context with the scribal context, the composition of those texts.

So when something occurs early in the biblical text or it's based early, it doesn't have much bearing on when that text was actually written. So the best example is the story of creation is probably pretty late, whereas a prophetic text like Hosea is probably much older. So you can't exactly correlate the narrative context with the scribal context, the composition of those texts.

Right, exactly. So this gets to a completely different, also in Genesis, but it's a completely different chapter in chapter 14. which is a chapter that has long been recognized as one of the strangest chapters in the book of Genesis. It's going all over the place in terms of what it's talking about, its content.

Right, exactly. So this gets to a completely different, also in Genesis, but it's a completely different chapter in chapter 14. which is a chapter that has long been recognized as one of the strangest chapters in the book of Genesis. It's going all over the place in terms of what it's talking about, its content.

Right, exactly. So this gets to a completely different, also in Genesis, but it's a completely different chapter in chapter 14. which is a chapter that has long been recognized as one of the strangest chapters in the book of Genesis. It's going all over the place in terms of what it's talking about, its content.

It concerns international politics, which is completely out of place in the book of Genesis. That's more at home in Kings and Samuel and things like that. It has Abram in this section, essentially as a king with an army that he raises. He encounters a strange priest called Melchizedek, who's the priest of El Elyon in pre-Israelite Jerusalem.