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Lot (biblical person)

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According to the Bible and the Quran, Lot (Hebrew: לוֹט, Modern: Lowt ("veil"), Tiberian: Loṭ; Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ; "Hidden, covered"[1]) was the nephew of the patriarch, Abraham or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother Haran. (Gen. 11:27) Abraham's brother Nahor became Lot's brother in law by the marriage of Nahor (Abraham's brother) to Milcah (Lot's sister).

Religious literature

The Bible

Genesis

The story of Lot is told in the Book of Genesis. Lot is mentioned in chapters 11-14 and 19.

Lot was the son of Abraham's brother Haran.[2] Lot and his family went with Abraham and his family from Ur of the Chaldees to Egypt. When Abraham traveled to the Land of Canaan at the command of God, Lot accompanied him. (Gen 12:1-5). Abraham had always a great affection for him, and when they could not continue longer together in Canaan because they both had large flocks and their shepherds sometimes quarrelled (Gen 13:6,7) he gave Lot the choice of his abode. Lot went southeast to plains near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, since the land there was well watered. (Gen. 13:10-12).

About eight years after this separation, Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked the kings of Sodom and the neighbouring cities, pillaged Sodom, and took many captives, including Lot. Abraham armed his servants, pursued the confederate kings, and overtook them near the springs of Jordan. He recovered the spoils they had taken and brought back Lot with the other captives. Abraham was offered a reward by the King of Sodom, but refused even a shoelace.

In Gen. 19, when God decided to overturn and destroy the five cities of the plain, he sent angels to rescue Lot and his family. The men of Sodom sought to rape (in some translations, meet) the angels (19:5). Lot offers the men his daughters instead, whom he says are virgins (19:8), but the men were not interested. Consequently, an Arabic expression for homosexuals is derived from the name for the people of Lot or Lut(in Arabic).i.e., Luti.

When the sins of the Sodomites and of the neighboring cities had called down the vengeance of God to punish and destroy them, two angels were sent to Sodom to forewarn Lot of the dreadful catastrophe about to happen. The angels took Lot, his wife, and his daughters by hand and drew them forcibly out of their house, saying, "Save yourselves with all haste. Look not behind you. Get as fast as you are able to the mountain, unless you be involved in the calamity of the city." Lot entreated the angels, who consented that he might retire to Zoar, which was one of the five doomed cities. His wife, looking back on Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot left Zoar and retired with his two daughters to a cave in an adjacent mountain. In Gen. 19:30-38, Lot's daughters incorrectly believed they were the only people to have survived the devastation[citation needed]. They assumed it was their responsibility to bear children and enable the continuation of the human race[citation needed]. On two subsequent nights, according to the plan of the older daughter, they got their father drunk enough to have sexual intercourse with them. By him each became pregnant. The first son was named Moab (Hebrew, lit., "from the father" [meh-Av]). He was the patriarch of the nation known as Moab. The second son was named Ammon or Ben-Ammi (Hebrew, lit., "Son of my people"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon.

New Testament

In Luke 17:28–32 Jesus uses Lot's wife as a warning to those who do not watch for the signs of the Apocalypse, and in 2 Peter 2:7–8 Lot is described as a righteous man surrounded by wickedness.

Quran

Main article: Islamic view of Lot

Jews and Christians do not consider Lot a prophet, but Muslims do. The story of Lot impregnating his daughters while drunk (Genesis 19:30–36) is not mentioned in the Koran and is considered a lie. The Koran does say that the people of Lot insisted on their wickedness of raping men, murder, and robbery while also refusing to stay lawful to their wives. And his people came rushing towards him, and they had been long in the habit of practicing abominations. He said: "O my people! Here are my daughters (my nation's daughters): they are purer for you (if ye marry)! Now fear God, and cover me not with shame about my guests (for wanting to rape them)! Is there not among you a single right-minded man? (a believer in God)" [Quran 11:78].

And Lot, who said to his nation: 'Do you commit such indecency (sodomy) in a way that no one has preceded you in the worlds? You approach men lustfully instead of women. Truly, you are a nation who exceed (in sin).' The only answer of his nation was: 'Expel them from your village. They are people who keep themselves purified.' We saved him and all his family, except his wife, who was made to remain, and We rained down upon them a rain. So look how was the end of the evildoers.

— Qur'an 7:80-84

Today, the meaning of "sodomites" is used after the 'evil' acts of people of Sodom.

Midrash

Jewish midrash records a number of additional stories about Lot, not present in the Tanakh. These include:

  • Abraham took care of Lot after Haran was burned in a gigantic fire in which Nimrod, King of Babylon, tried to kill Abraham.
  • While in Egypt, the midrash gives Lot much credit because, despite his desire for wealth, he did not inform Pharaoh of the secret of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Geography

Main article: Mount Sodom

There currently stands a geological formation overlooking the Dead Sea which is called "Lot's Wife" because of the shape and location of the feature.

Critical viewpoints

Homosexuality

Defenders of homosexuality view the story of Lot in the Bible as supporting rape and homophobia They point to the following:

  • Lot offers his daughters to the men of Sodom. Lot seems to value his male guests more highly than his daughters. Some also see in the text a suggestion that raping women is a cure for homosexuality, and that homosexuality is a worse sin than the rape of women. This does not apply to either the Islamic or Latter-day Saint account, and is also a subject of contention and discussion amongst the classical Jewish commentators. It would also suggest that Lot is not the innocent he is often depicted as.[3]
Hendrik Goltzius' 1616 painting Lot and his daughters shows Lot being seduced by his two daughters.
  • The story that Lot was seduced by his daughters seems highly implausible in this view. From a feminist perspective, this is in line with patriarchal society which seeks to make victims of rape and incest responsible for their abuse, rather than the perpetrators. It should be emphasized that a plain reading of the text would seem to give little immediate support to this viewpoint. Islam meanwhile denies the incest occurred.[3]
  • However, these views regarding incest can be argued as being incorrect, as the nation of Moab, a cursed tribe in the context of the Bible, was founded by two daughters who committed incest with their father; the nation being cursed because of their incestuous relations with him.

Scholarship

The Biblical Book of Judges 19-21 seems to offer a story very similar to Lot's ordeal in Sodom and Gomorrah. This has led many critical scholars to surmise that both tales stem from a similar legend and not from a historical account. Such issues have also called into question whether Lot was an actual person or simply a fictional character in a cautionary fable (101 Myths of the Bible, Greenberg, 2000).

Later international relations

In modern historical research, legendary accounts (in the Bible as elsewhere) of the eponymous ancestors of tribes or nations are interpreted as reflecting the actual relationships between these tribes or nations. Thus, the legend of Lot's incest with his daughters should be considered as reflecting the historical Hebrews' view of the historical Moabites and Ammonites - their direct neighbours to the east.

As such, the story indicates an acknowlegement of these neighbours being "cousins" (Lot being Abraham's nephew) but also a rather unflattering and unrespectful attitude in ascribing to them such an origin. This accords well with the account given in later parts of the Bible, and supported by surviving Moabite inscriptions, which indicates that Moabites and Ammonites were closely related to the Hebrews in culture and language, but nevertheless were on many occasions involved in bloody wars with them.

Science fiction

In the science fiction stories "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) by Ward Moore, the Bibilical story of Lot and his daughters' survival from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is reinterpreted as the story of the survival of a modern American family in the aftermath of nuclear war.[citation needed]

See also

Look up Lot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ Strong's Hebrew Bible Dictionary - SpeedBible by johnhurt.com
  2. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lot" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^ a b http://eaglewoman.rscsites.org/essays/karnan.htm ; http://www.iwgonline.org/pulpit/ ; http://www.baptistwatch.org/content/biblegay.html ;http://incestabuse.about.com/od/strangerrape/a/Sodom.htm
  4. ^ http://www.metrolyrics.com/viva-la-vida-lyrics-coldplay.html
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