Two Yahwehs in the Sodom Story?
Yahweh, the God of Israel
We all know the story about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, right?
Abraham’s nephew Lot takes residence east of Canaan around the city of Sodom. Unfortunately, the people there were vicious sinners. God is resolved to destroy the place. The angels rescue Lot, and God eventually destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. All good, but is it all there is?
Yahweh יהוה is the personal name of the God of Israel. In our English bibles, it is written in small caps, “Lᴏʀᴅ.” It has been a practice not to pronounce the name for religious reasons. In Israel today, one of the ways people refer to God is ha’shem, “the Name.” The practice of not writing the divine name was carried on to the early Greek translations and eventually into English. For purposes of this article, I have transliterated the personal name “Yahweh” instead of Lᴏʀᴅ as is written in our English bibles.
Yahweh Appears to Abraham
We start with the story in Genesis 18.
And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.
The text in Genesis 18 says that Yahweh appeared to Abraham. The Hebrew is emphatic, God was seen among the oaks of Mamre באלני ממרא, b’eloney mamre. Mamre is a place in the vicinity of Hebron in Canaan. In order to visualize an oak tree (or terebinth) I added a picture below:
The next verse, however, says that when Abraham lifted his eyes he saw three men. This is the author’s way of unfolding the story, and as we will see later, there is a reason as to why three men appeared to Abraham at this point.
He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. (Genesis 18:2–3)
In verse 3 we are told that Abraham runs toward them, and asks “him” a favor. The English doesn’t specify whether Abraham was talking to the three of them, or just one. The English “you” and “your” can be either singular or plural. But the underlying Hebrew is clear, and it shifts from the singular to the plural, variably, although not randomly.
In verse 3 the pronoun is singular. Abraham is talking to one of them. He calls him אדני adonai, or, “my Lord,” as a title of respect — well at least that’s how modern translation render it. The Masoretic scribes, our source for the vowel pointing in the Hebrew text, actually point it as “Lord” (אֲדֹנָ֗י)— a title exclusively used for Yahweh.
In verse 4 the pronoun is plural. Abraham asks that their feet be washed, that they take some rest, and that they eat some food. Abraham felt he should do service to these honorable travelers as they were on their way to Sodom. He treated them as his guests.
Afterwards, they looked for Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and a conversation between them ensues.
They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” Yahweh said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. (Genesis 18:9–10)
As the story unfolds, it is clear that the author of Genesis intends the reader to see that Yahweh was one of the three guests of Abraham. The fact that Yahweh, who is speaking here, is not in residing heaven (as many would think) but on earth speaking with Abraham and Sarah, is reinforced by the statement that he will “return…about this time next year” (v. 14).
Yahweh Stays with Abraham (for a while)
In verse 16 they continue on their journey:
Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way.
They are now walking towards Sodom, which, as we see later, is meant to be destroyed. Yahweh was one of them, the other two are later revealed to be angels (cf. Genesis 19:1).
As they were walking, Yahweh talks with Abraham,
Yahweh said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17)
And he reveals to Abraham the plan all along,
Then Yahweh said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” (Genesis 18:20–21)
“Go down” refers to the topology of Hebron vis-à-vis Sodom, which is lowly elevated (cf. Genesis 13:12). Verse 22 says the two men resumed walking towards Sodom while Abraham and Yahweh remained as they continued their conversation:
So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before Yahweh. (Genesis 18:22)
When Abraham knew about the plan, he was obviously distressed. His nephew Lot lives in Sodom! He believes that Lot is righteous, so he bargains with Yahweh about not destroying the city. Yahweh reassures him that even if there were “ten,” he “will not destroy it” (v. 32). And so,
Yahweh went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. (Genesis 18:33)
Readers of the story are aware of what happens next as is narrated in chapter 19. If we pay attention to the story, we could outline these sequence of events: (1) the two men/angels arrive at the city, (2) they take Lot, his wife, and his daughters with them to a safe spot, (3) Yahweh arrives at the city, and (4) he calls on “fire and sulfur” from heaven.
Yahweh Rained Down Fire
We are well aware of the details of 1 and 2, but it is 3 and 4 that is mostly missed. What happens after Yahweh talks with Abraham? How exactly was Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed?
For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Yahweh, and the Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.” (Genesis 19:13)
The “Yahweh” referred to here by the angels seems to be him who is in heaven. He sent them to earth (to Sodom) to destroy it. But remember, a while back we spoke of Yahweh conversing with Abraham — on earth!
Either he was in heaven, or he was on earth, right? Or let’s just say, Yahweh eventually descended from heaven, along with the angels, to earth, and talked with Abraham. That would be a convenient explanation, wouldn’t it be? It resolves the seemingly messed up story we have here…or does it?
Well, the story is not messed up. The author carefully and deliberately penned the details of this plot. The author presents to us two, yes, two persons whom he identifies as Yahweh — one who is in heaven, and one who is on earth.
But we’re not done yet. After taking Lot’s family into a safe place, we read:
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of heaven (Genesis 19:23–24)
Grammar Style or Much More?
I guess you’ve already noticed something weird about the text. If you didn’t, look again. It says that Yahweh rained fire “from Yahweh out of heaven.” This grammatical syntax has confused many, and led others to conclude that the author here uses a literary form called “illeism.”
An illeism happens when someone uses the third person instead of the first person when actually just referring to oneself. For example, if I say, “I don’t want anyone to eat Jonah’s food,” when I actually mean “my” food, I am utilizing an illeism. Although this kind of literary structure might appear in some portions of scripture (albeit very rarely), an illeism should only be last resort when a plain reading of the text doesn’t make sense. In the example above, if I meant “my food,” it is unreasonable to argue that I referred to another Jonah besides myself. Context will dictate our reading of the text.
In the case of Genesis 19:24, the implication of the narrative we’ve read up to this point indicates that the first Yahweh mentioned is the one who previously conversed with Abraham and who eventually arrived at Sodom. Remember, Genesis 18:33 says that Yahweh “went his way,” that is, he continued his journey towards Sodom.
In short, verse 24 says that Yahweh (on earth) called down fire from Yahweh (in heaven). This is not an illeism, nor is it a syntactic mistake. It is a deliberate wording on the part of the author to adequately convey the idea that the Yahweh whom Abraham previously met on the oaks of Mamre was distinct from the Yahweh who is in heaven.
It is not surprising then, that in the two other allusions to this event, Amos (8th century) and Jeremiah (late 7th century B.C.), the same concept is expressed:
“I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares Yahweh. (Amos 4:11)
Amos the prophet, speaking on behalf of God, says in the first person, “I overthrew… as when God overthrew.” It could have been written, “I overthrew… as I overthrew,” but the shift to the third person “God” implies that, just like the Genesis text, two entities were involved in the event. The speaker (Yahweh) through Amos calls “God” him who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares Yahweh, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her (Jeremiah 50:40).
Similarly, Jeremiah, speaking on behalf of Yahweh, says “God,” when he could have said “I.” That God was speaking through Jeremiah is clear by the use of the phrase, “declares Yahweh,” a statement commonly uttered after speaking in the first person. But he refers to “God” in the third person, as though the one who overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah was an entity distinct from him.
This is no error. This is no coincidence. This is no mere grammar style. This is an intentional phrasing of a text in order to fully communicate the fact that in the story concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah there was another Yahweh, distinct from Yahweh seated in heaven, who called down fire and effectively destroyed the sinful nation.
So Now What?
What this has to do with our “theology” is enormous. It makes us rethink our deeply held assumptions about Jewish monotheism, especially the kind of monotheism observed in the first century A.D. We assume that Jews during the days of Christ and the apostles also knew about texts like this, laying down the conceptual framework of subsequent Jesus-worship.
Maybe texts like this help us understand why the early Christians (who were mostly Jews) did not find worshiping Jesus and elevating him a status equal to God a problem. In fact, questions about the divinity of Christ appeared much later, down to the 3rd century.
Maybe 1st century Jews allowed the concept of a “multiple unity,” to put it bluntly, in their theology of the Godhead. Genesis 18 and 19 portrays an entity distinct from God and yet one with him, since they both share the same name. Hence, they are not two gods but one — a second entity identified with the one God of Israel because he shares ha’shem, “the Name.”
In the ancient world, Yahweh was elevated above all the other gods of the surrounding nations. No one is like him; not Baal, not Dagon, not Marduk, not even Bel. This distinctiveness of Yahweh is proclaimed throughout Scripture. Apart from Yahweh there is no other God (Isaiah 44:6). But does the Jewish Scripture allow for an entity distinct from, but altogether united with him? Genesis 18 and 19 sure does, as does other passages as well.
Maybe the concept of a divine figure distinguished from God and yet one with him isn’t novel to Christianity after all. Maybe this idea is actually embedded into the very heart of the Israelite religion all along— even into the Torah itself.
Jesus said,
