Jude Series: Jude 7-The Lord Judged Sodom and Gomorrah for Practicing Homosexuality

Jude 5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. (NIV)

Jude 7 is composed of three assertions.

The first asserts that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them in a manner like the fallen angels mentioned in Jude 6 caused themselves to be publicly set forth as an example.

The second presents the reason for the first and asserts that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them are experiencing a righteous punishment, namely, they are experiencing eternal fire.

The third also presents the reason for the first and asserts that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them committed immorality and specifically, they pursued after homosexual activity.

Jude 7 is built around the first assertion.

This declarative statement is modified by two causal participial clauses, which present two assertions.

Two of these causal participles form the figure of hendiadys, which means that they are expressing one idea, with one advancing upon and intensifying the other.

Thus, two of these causal participial clauses are expressing one idea and thus one assertion and one reason.

The first states that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them are experiencing a righteous punishment, namely, they are experiencing eternal fire.

The second expressed by two of these causal participial clauses asserts that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them committed immorality and specifically, they pursued after homosexual activity.

These three causal participial clauses also present two reasons why the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them in a manner like the fallen angels mentioned in Jude 6 caused themselves to be publicly set forth as an example.

Therefore, the first reason is that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them are experiencing a righteous punishment, namely, they are experiencing eternal fire.

The second reason is that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them committed immorality and specifically, they pursued after homosexual activity.

Now, these three causal participial clauses are also presenting two reasons why the rebellion of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them is similar to the rebellion of the fallen angels during the antediluvian period.

The first reason is that both groups are experiencing eternal condemnation in Hades, which of course is the consequence of their rebellions.

The fallen angels are experiencing it in Tartarus while the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities around them are experiencing it in Torments.

Eventually, both will experience eternal condemnation in the eternal lake of fire (cf. Rev. 20:10-15).

The second reason is that both groups committed gross sexual immorality.

The fallen angels possessed the bodies of unregenerate men in order to have sex and procreate with unregenerate women in order to prevent the incarnation of the Son of God.

On the other hand, the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities around them were pursuing homosexual relations with each other.

The verb hypechō (ὑπέχω), “suffer” speaks of experiencing eternal condemnation in torments and then eventually in the eternal lake of fire.

The noun dikē (δίκη), “punishment” speaks of punishment God inflicts upon an unregenerate, unrepentant sinner, which is justified.

The noun pur (πῦρ), “fire” speaks of torments and the lake of fire and contains the figure of metonymy which means that eternal fire or eternal condemnation is put for experiencing it.

This word is modified by the adjective aiōnios (αἰώνιος), “eternal” which is ascribing eternality to this fire which is experienced by the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities which were around them in the days of Abraham.

The participle conjugation of the verb hypechō (ὑπέχω) functions as a participle of cause which indicates that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them are publicly set forth in human history by the Lord as an example “because” they are experiencing eternal fire.

As we noted, the third assertion, which appears in Jude 7, states that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities around them committed immorality, which is then identified as pursuing after homosexual activity.

As we noted, this assertion presents the second reason for the declarative statement in this verse.

Therefore, this would indicate that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities around them are publicly set forth as an example of those who are experiencing eternal condemnation “because” they committed sexual immorality and specifically “because” they pursued after homosexual relations.

In this third assertion, the verb ekporneuō (ἐκπορνεύω), “sexual immorality” pertains to performing sexual acts which are forbidden either by custom or by law.

This verb functions as a participle of cause which indicates that the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the citizens of the cities around them are set forth in human history as an example for the human race by suffering the punishment of eternal fire “because” they engaged in sexual immorality.

The verb aperchomai (ἀπέρχομαι), which is not translated by the NIV is an idiom which pertains to being engaged in unnatural sexual intercourse, thus it pertains to having homosexual sexual intercourse and so therefore, it means “to pursue homosexual intercourse” or “to pursue homosexual relations.”

The noun sarx (σάρξ) literally means “flesh” and pertains to the physical aspect of a human being in distinction to the immaterial soul and in context, it speaks of the human body of the same sex.

Therefore, this word indicates that the people in which the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities around them sought to have sex with, had the same body as them, i.e., they were of the same sex.

This word sarx (σάρξ), “flesh”is modified by the genitive feminine singular form of the adjective heteros(ἕτερος), which pertains to something which is different from the norm or different from that which has been ordained by God for members of the human race.

The norm or that which has been ordained by God for members of the human race is to have sex with the opposite sex.

Therefore, this word indicates that the people in which the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah and the citizens of the cities around them sought to have sex with, had the same body, which was different from that which God ordained for members of the human race.

Therefore, Jude 7 is teaching that at this present time, the unrepentant, unregenerate citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the cities of Admah and Zeboiim are presently suffering eternal fire, i.e., eternal condemnation because of their unrepentant pursuit of homosexual relations.

This verse is also teaching that they are set forth publicly by the Lord as an example for members of the human race not to follow because they are presently experiencing a righteous punishment, which is experiencing eternal fire, or in other words, eternal condemnation.

Also, this verse teaches that this rebellion corresponds to the rebellion of the fallen angels of the antediluvian period because both groups indulged in gross sexual immorality.