Difference between revisions of "Lot" - New World Encyclopedia
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In the [[Bible]], '''Lot''' ([[Arabic language|Arabic]]: '''لوط''', ''{{unicode|[[Lut|Lūṭ]]|}}'' ; {{Hebrew Name|לוֹט|Lot|Loṭ}} ; "Hidden, covered") was the [[nephew]] of the patriarch, [[Abraham]] or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother [[Haran]]. (Gen. 11:27) | In the [[Bible]], '''Lot''' ([[Arabic language|Arabic]]: '''لوط''', ''{{unicode|[[Lut|Lūṭ]]|}}'' ; {{Hebrew Name|לוֹט|Lot|Loṭ}} ; "Hidden, covered") was the [[nephew]] of the patriarch, [[Abraham]] or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother [[Haran]]. (Gen. 11:27) | ||
| − | == | + | ==Biblical account== |
| − | The story of Lot is told in the [[Book of Genesis]] | + | The story of Lot is told in the [[Book of Genesis]], chapters 11-14 and 19. |
| − | Lot | + | Lot was the son of Haran, the brother of Abraham. Lot's father died while the clan was living in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. He then accompanied his grandfather, Terah, and his uncle Abraham on a journey northwest from Ur to settle at a location apparently named for his father, Haran. (Gen 12:1-5) After an indeterminate period, Lot travelled further west with Abraham, who migrated with his clan to Canaan. There, Lot apparently settled with Abraham in the town of [[Shechem]]. It is likely that Lot assisted Abraham in the contruction of ancient religious altars at both Shechem and [[Bethel]]. |
| − | + | After a famine threatend, Lot also accompanied Abraham's clan on a journey to [[Egypt]]. By the time they returned to Canaan, both Lot and Abraham had developed large flocks of sheep and goats. Grazing disputes soon developed between the two clan leaders' herdsmen. Abraham gave Lot the choice of his abode. Lot made a fateful decision to head southeast toward the well-watered plains of the Jordan River, while Abraham remained in the hill country near the altars he had constructed in honor of his God. Lot pitched his tents near the town of Sodom. (Gen. 13:6-12) | |
| + | |||
| + | About about eight years, a war devleoped among the kings of the region's several towns. When Sodom fell, Lot was taken captive. Abraham heard of Lot's ill-fortune and came to his rescue with a force of 318 armed men. He recovered the spoils they had taken and liberated Lot with the other captives. | ||
[[Image:Lot and his Daughters.jpg |thumb|400px|right|Hendrik Goltzius' 1616 painting ''Lot and his daughters'' shows Lot being seduced by his two daughters.]] | [[Image:Lot and his Daughters.jpg |thumb|400px|right|Hendrik Goltzius' 1616 painting ''Lot and his daughters'' shows Lot being seduced by his two daughters.]] | ||
| − | + | Several years intervene here, and by the time Gen. 19 opens, Lot is no longer living in tents tended his flocks, but has settled in Sodom with his wife and two daughters, none of whom is named. Two angels arrive in Sodom on a mission from God to destroy the town for it's wickedness. However, they will first warn the righteous Lot and give him and his family a chance to escape. Lot offers the angels — here called "men" — hospitality. However, the wicked men of Sodom demand the visitors be brought out to them to [[rape]] to rape them (19:5). Horrified out this outrage, Lot offered the men his virgin daughters instead (19:8), but the would-be attackers only threaten to break down the door in order to have their way with Lot's guests. | |
| + | |||
| + | The angels immediately strike the townsmen with blindness and warn Lot of the impending doom that God has pronounced on Sodom. At their suggestion, Lot attempts to warn his sons-in-law — who were legally pledged but not yet married to his daughters — of the catastrophe, but they do not take him seriously. | ||
| + | |||
| + | At dawn, the angels led Lot and his family out of the city, taking each of them by the hand when Lot hesitated. "Flee for your lives!" one of them commanded. "Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" | ||
| + | |||
| + | Lot fears to flee to the isolation of the mountains and asks instead to find shelter in the small town of Zoar. The angels agree not to destroy this town, on the grounds that it is only a small village and therefore not very wicked. | ||
| − | + | ||
| + | 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 (Genesis)|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 females to have survived the devastation. They assumed it was their responsibility to bear children and enable the continuation of the human race. On two subsequent nights, according to the plan of the older daughter, they got their father drunk enough to have sexual intercourse with them, drunk enough that he is described as being unaware of what was happening. 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., "from our nation"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon. | 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 females to have survived the devastation. They assumed it was their responsibility to bear children and enable the continuation of the human race. On two subsequent nights, according to the plan of the older daughter, they got their father drunk enough to have sexual intercourse with them, drunk enough that he is described as being unaware of what was happening. 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., "from our nation"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon. | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09366a.htm | ||
==Lot's wife and the pillar of salt== | ==Lot's wife and the pillar of salt== | ||
Revision as of 20:53, 12 February 2007
In the Bible, Lot (Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ ; Hebrew: לוֹט, Standard Lot Tiberian Loṭ ; "Hidden, covered") was the nephew of the patriarch, Abraham or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother Haran. (Gen. 11:27)
Biblical account
The story of Lot is told in the Book of Genesis, chapters 11-14 and 19.
Lot was the son of Haran, the brother of Abraham. Lot's father died while the clan was living in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. He then accompanied his grandfather, Terah, and his uncle Abraham on a journey northwest from Ur to settle at a location apparently named for his father, Haran. (Gen 12:1-5) After an indeterminate period, Lot travelled further west with Abraham, who migrated with his clan to Canaan. There, Lot apparently settled with Abraham in the town of Shechem. It is likely that Lot assisted Abraham in the contruction of ancient religious altars at both Shechem and Bethel.
After a famine threatend, Lot also accompanied Abraham's clan on a journey to Egypt. By the time they returned to Canaan, both Lot and Abraham had developed large flocks of sheep and goats. Grazing disputes soon developed between the two clan leaders' herdsmen. Abraham gave Lot the choice of his abode. Lot made a fateful decision to head southeast toward the well-watered plains of the Jordan River, while Abraham remained in the hill country near the altars he had constructed in honor of his God. Lot pitched his tents near the town of Sodom. (Gen. 13:6-12)
About about eight years, a war devleoped among the kings of the region's several towns. When Sodom fell, Lot was taken captive. Abraham heard of Lot's ill-fortune and came to his rescue with a force of 318 armed men. He recovered the spoils they had taken and liberated Lot with the other captives.
Several years intervene here, and by the time Gen. 19 opens, Lot is no longer living in tents tended his flocks, but has settled in Sodom with his wife and two daughters, none of whom is named. Two angels arrive in Sodom on a mission from God to destroy the town for it's wickedness. However, they will first warn the righteous Lot and give him and his family a chance to escape. Lot offers the angels — here called "men" — hospitality. However, the wicked men of Sodom demand the visitors be brought out to them to rape to rape them (19:5). Horrified out this outrage, Lot offered the men his virgin daughters instead (19:8), but the would-be attackers only threaten to break down the door in order to have their way with Lot's guests.
The angels immediately strike the townsmen with blindness and warn Lot of the impending doom that God has pronounced on Sodom. At their suggestion, Lot attempts to warn his sons-in-law — who were legally pledged but not yet married to his daughters — of the catastrophe, but they do not take him seriously.
At dawn, the angels led Lot and his family out of the city, taking each of them by the hand when Lot hesitated. "Flee for your lives!" one of them commanded. "Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
Lot fears to flee to the isolation of the mountains and asks instead to find shelter in the small town of Zoar. The angels agree not to destroy this town, on the grounds that it is only a small village and therefore not very wicked.
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 females to have survived the devastation. They assumed it was their responsibility to bear children and enable the continuation of the human race. On two subsequent nights, according to the plan of the older daughter, they got their father drunk enough to have sexual intercourse with them, drunk enough that he is described as being unaware of what was happening. 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., "from our nation"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09366a.htm
Lot's wife and the pillar of salt
Jewish tradition names Lot's wife Edith or Ildeth and several questions are proposed concerning Lot's wife being changed into a pillar of salt. Some suggest that being surprised and suffocated with fire and smoke, she remained in place, as immovable as a rock of salt, as is the case with those in Pompeii. Others say that a column or monument of salt stone was erected on her grave, or that she was stifled in the flame and became a monument of salt to posterity; that is, a permanent and durable monument of her impudence. Yet another interpretation is that during the cataclysm that destroyed the city, which might have occurred in the form of an earthquake or meteor strike, large blocks of salt that form in the hypersaline Dead Sea may have beached themselves, creating the impression that missing persons had been turned into "pillars" of salt. Finally, it has been suggested this is a metaphor meaning she was made barren, in allusion to salting fields making them infertile.[citation needed]
The common literal interpretation is that she was suddenly and miraculously petrified and changed into a statue of rock salt, which is a soft rock or a halite.
Islamic view
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.
Criticism
Some have described the Biblical narration as Lot offering his daughters for gang-rape [1], adding "so much for Lot being a righteous man!" [2][3]
The Islamic view denounces [4]the Biblical account of Lot offering his daughters to be gang-raped (Genesis 19:8)[5] and later impregnating both of them due to excessive alcohol consumption (Genesis 19:30-36)[4].
Notes
- ↑ http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibg.htm
- ↑ http://www.atheistresource.co.uk/sexandsexism.html
- ↑ http://www.jesus21.com/content/sex/index.php?s=bible_homosexuality_1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.quranicstudies.com/article22.html
- ↑ http://www.answering-christianity.com/bassam_zawadi/prophet_lots_offering.htm
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Calmet, Augustin (1837). Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. LCC BS440.C3.
See also
- Abraham
- Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an
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