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Sodomy (), also called buggery in British English, principally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any sexual activity between a human and another animal (Zoophilia). It may also mean any non-procreative sexual activity (including manual sex). Originally the term sodomy, which is derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis, was commonly restricted to homosexual anal sex. in many countries criminalized the behavior. In the Western world, many of these laws have been overturned or are routinely not enforced. (Or ) A person who practices sodomy is sometimes referred to as a sodomite, a pejorative term.
These laws in the United States have been challenged and have sometimes been found unconstitutional or been replaced with different legislation.
The word , a noun or verb (to "sod off") used as an insult, is derived from sodomite. It is a general-purpose insult term for anyone the speaker dislikes without specific reference to their sexual behaviour. Sod is used as slang in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and is considered mildly offensive. (The word 'sod' also has a meaning of "(clump of) earth" with an unrelated etymology, in which sense it is rare but not offensive.)
In modern German the word Sodomie]] has no connotation of anal or oral sex and specifically refers to zoophilia.See Paragraph 175 StGB, version of June 28, 1935. The same goes for the Polish language sodomia]]. The Norwegian word sodomi]] carries both senses. In Danish language, sodomi]] is rendered as "unnatural carnal knowledge with someone of the same sex or (now) with Zoophilia".
In Arabic and Persian language, the word for sodomy, rtl=yes (Arabic pronunciation: liwāṭ; Persian pronunciation lavât), is derived from the same source as in Western culture, with much the same connotations as English (referring to most sexual acts prohibited by the Qur'an). Its direct reference is to Lot (لوط Lūṭ in Arabic) and a more literal interpretation of the word is "the practice of Lot", but more accurately it means "the practice of Lot's people" (the Sodomites) rather than Lot himself.
In this regard Ian McCormick has argued that
an adequate and imaginative reading involves a series of intertextual interventions in which histories become stories, fabrications and reconstructions in lively debate with, and around, 'dominant' heterosexualities ... Deconstructing what we think we see may well involve reconstructing ourselves in surprising and unanticipated ways.
The first use of the word "buggery" appears in Middle English in 1330 where it is associated with "abominable heresy", though the sexual sense of "bugger" is not recorded until 1555. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology quotes a similar form: "bowgard" (and "bouguer"), but claims that the Bulgarians were heretics "as belonging to the Greek Church, sp. Albigensian". Webster's Third New International Dictionary gives the only meaning of the word "bugger" as a sodomite "from the adherence of the Bulgarians to the Eastern Church considered heretical".
Bugger is still commonly used in modern British English as an exclamation, while "buggery" is synonymous with the act of sodomy.
Many times in the Torah and Prophets, writers use God's destruction of Sodom to demonstrate His awesome power. This happens in Deuteronomy 29; Isaiah 1, 3, and 13; Jeremiah 49 and 50; Lamentations 4; Amos 4.11; and Zephaniah 2.9. Deuteronomy 32, Jeremiah 23.14, and Lamentations 4 reference the sinfulness of Sodom, but do not specify any particular sin.
Specific sins which Sodom is linked to by the prophets of the Hebrew Bible are adultery and lie ().
In Ezekiel 16, a long comparison is made between Sodom and the kingdom of Judah: "Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they." (v. 47, NASB) "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me." (vss. 49–50, NASB) (The Hebrew for the word "thus" is the conjunction "ו" which is usually translated "and", therefore KJV, NIV, and CEV omit the word entirely.)
There is no explicit mention of any sexual sin in Ezekiel's summation and "abomination" is used to describe many sins.
The Authorized King James Version translates as: "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel," but the word corresponding to "sodomite" in the Hebrew original, Qadesh (Hebrew:קדש), does not refer to Sodom, and has been translated in the New International Version as "shrine prostitute"; male shrine prostitutes may have served barren women in fertility rites rather than engaging in homosexual acts; this also applies to other instances of the word sodomite in the King James Version.
The Book of Wisdom, which is included in the Biblical canon by Orthodox and Catholic Christians, makes reference to the story of Sodom, further emphasizing that their sin had been failing to practice hospitality:
The Greek word in the New Testament from which the phrase is translated "giving themselves over to fornication", is ekporneuō ( ek and porneuō). As one word, it is not used elsewhere in the New Testament, but occurs in the Septuagint to denote whoredom (Genesis 38:24 and Exodus 34:15). Some modern translations such as the NIV render it as "sexual immorality".
The Greek words for "strange flesh" are heteros, which almost always basically denotes "another/other", and sarx, a common word for "flesh", and usually refers to the physical body or the nature of man or of an ordinance.
In the Christian expansion of the prophets, they further linked Sodom to the sins of impenitence (), careless living (), fornication ( KJV), and an overall "filthy" lifestyle (), which word ( aselgeiais) elsewhere is rendered in the KJV as lasciviousness (; ; ; ; ) or wantonness (; ).
One theory is that it is just a reference to the "strange flesh" of the intended rape victims, who were angels, not men.Boswell, p. 97 Countering this is traditional interpretation, which notes that the angels were sent to investigate an ongoing regional problem (Gn. 18) of fornication, and extraordinarily so, that of a homosexual nature,Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible Vincent's Word Studies "out of the order of nature".Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments "Strange" is understood to mean "outside the moral law",Word pictures in the New Testament, Archibald Thomas Robertson (; ) while it is doubted that either Lot or the men of Sodom understood that the strangers were angels at the time.Gill, Gn. 19
Justinian's usage of the term was taken up around 850 CE by the Pseudo-Isidore fabrications. Three Carolingian capitularies, fabricated under the pseudonym Benedictus Levita, referred to sodomy:
Benedictus Levita prescribed capital punishment for sodomy. Burning had been part of the standard penalty for homosexual behavior, particularly common in Germanic protohistory (as according to Germanic folklore, sexual deviance and especially same-sex desire were caused by a form of malevolence or spiritual evil called nith, rendering those people characterized by it as non-human fiends, as nithings). Benedictus Levita's rationale was that the punishment of such acts was to protect all Christendom from divine punishments, such as natural disasters for carnal sins committed by individuals, but also for heresy, superstition, and paganism. Because his crucial demands for capital punishment had been so unheard of in ecclesiastical history previously, based upon the humane Christian concept of forgiveness and mercy, it took several centuries before Benedictus Levita's demands for legal reform began to take tangible shape within larger ecclesiastical initiatives.
During the Medieval Inquisition, sects like the Cathars and Waldensians were not only persecuted for their heterodox beliefs, but were increasingly accused of fornication and sodomy. In 1307, accusations of sodomy and homosexuality were major charges levelled during the Trial of the Knights Templar. Some of these charges were specifically directed at the Grand Master of the order, Jacques de Molay. The Adamites were a libertine sect also accused of sodomy.
The early-modern witch hunts were also largely connoted with sodomy.
Persecution of Cathars and the Bogomiles in Bulgaria led to the use of a term closely related to sodomy: buggery derives from French bouggerie, meaning "of Bulgaria". Oxford English Dictionary The association of sodomy with hereticism, satanism, and witchcraft was supported by the Inquisition trials.See The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (2010), p. 809
In 18th century France, sodomy was still theoretically a capital crime, and there are a handful of cases where sodomites were executed. However, in several of these, other crimes were involved as well. Records from the Bastille and the police lieutenant d'Argenson, as well as other sources, show that many who were arrested were exiled, sent to a regiment, or imprisoned in places (generally the hospital) associated with moral crimes (such as prostitution). Of these, a number were involved in prostitution or had approached children, or otherwise gone beyond merely having homosexual relations. Ravaisson (a 19th-century writer who edited the Bastille records) suggested that the authorities preferred to handle these cases discreetly, lest public punishments in effect publicize "this vice".
Periodicals of the time sometimes casually named known sodomites, and at one point, even suggested that sodomy was increasingly popular. This does not imply that sodomites necessarily lived in securityspecific police agents, for instance, watched the Tuileries, even then a known "cruising area". But, as with much sexual behaviour under the Old Regime, discretion was a key concern on all sides (especially since members of prominent families were sometimes implicated); the law seemed most concerned with those who were the least discreet.
In 1730, there was a wave of sodomy trials in the Netherlands; some 250 men were summoned before the authorities; 91 faced decrees of exile for not appearing. At least 60 men were sentenced to death.Rictor Norton, "The Dutch Purge of Homosexuals 1730".
The last two Englishmen that were hanged for sodomy were executed in 1835. James Pratt and John Smith died in front of Newgate Prison in London on 27 November 1835 or 8 April 1835. They had been prosecuted under the Offences against the Person Act 1828, which had replaced the 1533 Buggery Act.
As of February 2024, 66 countries as well as three sub-national jurisdictions have laws criminalizing homosexuality. In 2006 that number was 92. Among these 66 countries, 44 of them criminalize not only male homosexuality but also female homosexuality. In 11 of them, homosexuality is punished with the death penalty.
The verb "know" is understood to be Carnal knowledge (see discussion in the section below), which some translations (e.g. the New International Version) make more explicit.
Some scholars, such as Per-Axel Sverker, align this passage with the traditional interpretation, claiming that the word "abomination" refers to sexual misconduct, and that while homosexual acts were not the only reason Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned, it was a significant part of the picture.
Others, the earliest of whom was Derrick Sherwin Bailey, claim that this passage contradicts the traditional interpretation altogether. In their view, the sins of Sodom were related more to violation of hospitality laws than sexual sins.Derrick Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition (Hamden: Connecticut: Archon, 1975 reprint from 1955), 4–5 This also coincides with traditional Jewish interpretations of these texts.
The primary word in contention is the Hebrew word yâda, used for know in the Hebrew Bible. Biblical scholars disagree on what "know" in this instance refers to, but most of conservative Christianity interprets it to mean "sexual intercourse",Greg Bahnsen, Homosexuality: A Biblical View (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1978), p. 32. A Reformed Response to Daniel Helminiak's Gay Theology, by Derrick K. Olliff and Dewey H. Hodges while the opposing position interprets it to mean "interrogate".John J. McNeil, The Church and the Homosexual, p. 50 Lot's offering of his two virgins has been interpreted to mean that Lot is offering a compromise to assure the crowd that the two men have no untoward intentions in town, or that he is offering his virgins as a substitute for the men to "know" by sexual intercourse.
Those who oppose the interpretation of sexual intent toward Lot's guests point out that there are over 930 occurrences of the Hebrew word ( yâda‛) for "know" in the Hebrew Bible, and its use to denote sexual intercourse only occurs about a dozen times, and in the Septuagint it is not rendered sexually. Countering this is the argument that most of the uses of yâda‛ denoting sex is in Genesis Homosexuality and the Old Testament, P. Michael Ukleja (including once for premarital sex: Genesis 38:26), and in verse 8, sex is the obvious meaning. Its use in the parallel story in Judges 19 is also invoked in support of this meaning,Dave Miller, Sodom: Inhospitality or Homosexuality?, Apologetics PressJames B. DeYoung, Homosexuality, pp. 118–122 with it otherwise providing the only instance of "knowing" someone by violence.
Thomas Aquinas gave a definition of the word "sodomy" in his Summa Theologica. He wrote: Summa Theologica, II–II, Question 164, Article 11 – via newadvent.org.
Most exegetes hold that these verses refer to illicit heterosexual relationships, although a minority view attributed to the Mu'tazilite scholar, Abu Muslim al-Isfahani, interpreted them as referring to homosexual relations. This view was widely rejected by medieval scholars, but has found some acceptance in modern times.
Hadith (reports of Muhammad's sayings and deeds from those close to him in his lifetime) on the subject are inconsistent, with different writers interpreting the Prophet in different ways.Wafer, p. 89 Shariah (Islamic law) defines sodomy outside marriage as adultery or fornication or both, and it thus attracts the same penalties as those crimes (flogging or death), although the exact punishment varies with schools and scholars.Jivraj & de Jong, p. 2 In practice, few modern Muslim countries have legal systems based fully on Shariah, and an increasing number of Muslims do not look to shariah but to the Quran itself for moral guidance. For sodomy within marriage, the majority of Shia Islam interpreters hold that: (1) anal intercourse, while strongly disliked, is not haram (forbidden) provided the wife agrees; and (2) if the wife does not agree, then it is preferable to refrain.
Despite the formal disapproval of religious authority, gender segregation in Muslim societies and the strong emphasis on virility leads some adolescents and unmarried young men to seek alternative sexual outlets to women, especially with males younger than themselves.Schmitt & Sofer, p. 36 Not all sodomy is homosexualfor some young men, heterosexual sodomy is considered better than vaginal penetration, and female prostitutes report demand for anal penetration from their male clients.Dialmy, pp. 32, 35, footnote 34
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