Sodom and Gomorrha, “strange flesh” and “eternal fire” (Jude 1:7)

There are a couple of questions asked about this verse related to what exactly is “going after strange flesh”, and whether the fire of Sodom and Gomorrha was itself “eternal fire”.

However the sentence itself is pretty much self-explanatory. It says what it says and is what it is.

⁷ Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.(KJV)

The first question relating to “strange flesh” is explained by reading the story of Sodom and Gomorrha in Genesis.

The second question relating to whether Jude says that fire on Sodom and Gomorrha was itself the eternal fire or simply an example of eternal fire is illustrated by the way Jude 7 is handled by the Lexham English Bible, among others:

The Greek there is δεῖγμα πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκην ὑπέχουσαι – deigma puros aioniou (example of fire eternal) hypechousai (suffering, undergoing,  present active participle in the nominative plural feminine of hypecho, suffer, undergo). So it is legitimate for the Lexham to say thate the suffering of punishment of eternal fire was the means by which the cities were exhibited as an example, which is there in the KJV and other readings anyway.

Neither the Greek, nor any English translation, dictates that the fire which irrevocably and permanently destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha was itself literally eternal fire, still burning today, but like the future judgment fire Jude refers to, like the Genesis 19:24–25 burning sulphur rained down from heaven, is primarily eternal in effect. Jude is not claiming that the residents of Sodom and Gomorrha were conscious in torment, nor is Jude presenting any torment as an element in the future fire (most famously debated in Matthew 25:41 “eternal fire”, and 46 “eternal punishment”).

So this verse fits in coherently with the rest of Old and New Testament teaching which indicates annihilation as the permanent destiny of the wicked, not eternal torment.