The daughters of the biblical patriarch Lot appear in chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis, in two connected stories. In the first, Lot offers his daughters to a Sodomite mob; in the second, his daughters have sex with Lot without his knowledge to bear him children.
Only two daughters are explicitly mentioned in Genesis, both unnamed. However, the Hebrew midrash (interpretation) The Book of Jasher describes another daughter by the name of Paltith, who is burned to death by the Sodomites for breaking their law against giving charity to foreigners. [1]
The story of Lot offering his daughters to the Sodomites is also found in surahs 11 and 15 of the Quran, although there is no mention of the rape of Lot.
In Genesis 19, Lot shows hospitality to two angels appearing as men who arrive in Sodom, and invites them to stay the night at his house. However, the men of the city gather around the house and demand that Lot hand over the men so they can "know them". Lot admonishes them for their wickedness, and offers the mob his two virgin daughters instead. When the mob refuses Lot's offer, the angels strike them with blindness, and then warn Lot to leave the city before it is destroyed. [2]
Verse 14 states that Lot has sons-in-law, "which married his daughters". [3] This seems to contradict the earlier statement that his daughters were virgins. According to the NIV translation, these men were only "pledged to marry" his daughters. Robert Alter suggests that the reference in verse 15 to "your two daughters who remain with you" indicates that Lot's two virgin daughters left the city with him, but that he had other, married daughters who stayed behind with the sons-in-law. [4]
The King James Version (KJV) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) describe the older surviving daughter as "the firstborn", while the Contemporary English Version (CEV) uses "the older". [5]
During the escape from Sodom, Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters take shelter in Zoar, but afterwards go up into the mountains to live in a cave. Concerned for their father having descendants, one evening, Lot's eldest daughter gets Lot drunk and has sex with him without his knowledge. The following night, the younger daughter does the same. They both become pregnant; the older daughter gives birth to Moab, while the younger daughter gives birth to Ammon. [6]
According to Jewish tradition, Lot's daughters believed that the entire world had been destroyed, and that they were the only survivors. They therefore resorted to incest in order to preserve the human race. [7] This was also the general opinion of the Early Church Fathers, such as Augustine, [8] Chrysostom [9] and Irenaeus. [10] The basis of this idea is the comment of the elder daughter that "there is not a man in the earth" to give them children. [11] However, commentators such as John Calvin have pointed out that the family had only recently dwelt in Zoar, so they must have known they were not the only people left alive. Calvin therefore concludes that the elder daughter's remark refers not to the whole earth, but only to the region in which they were living. [12]
Many scholars have drawn a connection between the two episodes of Lot's daughters. According to Robert Alter, this final episode "suggests measure-for-measure justice meted out for his rash offer." [13]
A number of commentators describe the actions of Lot's daughters as rape. According to Esther Fuchs, the text presents Lot's daughters as the "initiators and perpetrators of the incestuous 'rape'". [14] Alter agrees, adding that when the elder daughter says "let us lie with him", the meaning of the Hebrew verb in this context "seems close to 'rape'". [15] It is also one of three accounts of "sperm stealing" in the Bible, in which a woman seduces a male relative under false pretenses in order to become pregnant. [16]
According to a footnote in the New English Bible this is an unflattering origin story of the Ammonites and the Moabites, the two traditional enemies of Israel.
The story of Lot offering his daughters to the Sodomites is also found in surahs 11 and 15 of the Quran. [17] Islamic commentators generally interpret these passages to mean that Lot offered his daughters in lawful marriage. [18] The Sodomites' refusal of the offer is explained in various ways, such as that Lot insisted that anyone who married his daughters must first convert to his religion; or that the Sodomites had been refused permission to marry his daughters in the past, and therefore had no legal right to them now. [19]
A variation on the marriage theory holds that the phrase "my daughters" should be taken in a metaphorical sense. Lot, as a prophet, is considered a father to his people; he is therefore inviting the Sodomites to intermarry with the women of his nation. [20]
The story of Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters is not alluded to in the Quran. [21]
Lot's sexual relationship with his daughters was a theme seldom explored in medieval art. [22] [23] In the sixteenth century, however, the story became popular with European artists, primarily due to its erotic potential. Depictions of Lot and his daughters in this era were generally charged with sexuality; the daughters would often be painted as nudes, and Lot would be portrayed (in contradiction to the Bible narrative) as "either a happily compliant figure or an aggressive seducer". [24]
Abraham is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews and God; in Christianity, he is the spiritual progenitor of all believers, whether Jewish or non-Jewish; and in Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that begins with Adam and culminates in Muhammad.
Benjamin was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was also the progenitor of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. Unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan according to biblical narrative.
Jacob, later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, and Islam. Jacob first appears in the Book of Genesis, originating from the Hebrew tradition in the Torah. Described as the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandson of Abraham, Sarah, and Bethuel, Jacob is presented as the second-born among Isaac's children. His fraternal twin brother is the elder, named Esau, according to the biblical account. Jacob is said to have bought Esau's birthright and, with his mother's help, deceived his aging father to bless him instead of Esau. Later in the narrative, following a severe drought in his homeland of Canaan, Jacob and his descendants, with the help of his son Joseph, moved to Egypt where Jacob died at the age of 147. He is supposed to have been buried in the Cave of Machpelah.
Methuselah was a biblical patriarch and a figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He had the longest lifespan of all those given in the Bible, having died at the age of 969. According to the Book of Genesis, Methuselah was the son of Enoch, the father of Lamech, and the grandfather of Noah. Elsewhere in the Bible, Methuselah is mentioned in genealogies in 1 Chronicles and the Gospel of Luke.
Sefer haYashar is a medieval Hebrew midrash, also known as the Toledot Adam and Divrei haYamim heArukh. The Hebrew title "Sefer haYashar" might be translated as the "Book of the Correct Record", but it is known in English translation mostly as The Book of Jasher following English tradition. Its author is unknown.
Joseph is an important Hebrew figure in the Bible's Book of Genesis and in the Quran. He was the first of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel. He is the founder of the Tribe of Joseph among the Israelites. His story functions as an explanation for Israel's residence in Egypt. He is the favourite son of the patriarch Jacob, and his jealous brothers sell him into slavery in Biblical Egypt, where he eventually ends up incarcerated. After correctly interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh, however, he rises to second-in-command in Egypt and saves Egypt during a famine. Jacob's family travels to Egypt to escape the famine, and it is through him that they are given leave to settle in the Land of Goshen.
Judah was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah and the founder of the Tribe of Judah of the Israelites. By extension, he is indirectly the eponym of the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea, and the word Jew.
Midian is a geographical region in West Asia mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and Quran. William G. Dever states that biblical Midian was in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea", an area which contained at least 14 inhabited sites during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages.
Lot was a man mentioned in the biblical Book of Genesis, chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable events in his life recorded in Genesis include his journey with his uncle Abraham; his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which his wife became a pillar of salt, and being intoxicated by his daughters so they could have incestuous intercourse with him to continue their family line.
Lut, also known as Lot in the Old Testament, is a prophet and messenger of God in the Quran. According to Islamic tradition, Lut was born to Haran and spent his younger years in Ur, later migrating to Canaan with his uncle Abraham. He was sent to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as a prophet, and was commanded to preach to their inhabitants on monotheism.
Haran or Aran is a man in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. He died in Ur of the Chaldees, was a son of Terah, and brother of Abraham. Through his son Lot, Haran was the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites.
Bethuel, in the Hebrew Bible, was an Aramean man, the youngest son of Nahor and Milcah, the nephew of Abraham, and the father of Laban and Rebecca.
Simeon was the second of the six sons of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite tribe, The Tribe of Simeon, according to the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. Biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been part of the original Israelite confederation. The tribe is absent from the parts of the Bible. Some scholars think that Simeon was not originally regarded as a distinct tribe. However, many Biblical scholars believe that Simeon isn't regarded as a distinct tribe due to the scandal involving Zimri. The Blessing of Moses before his death had omitted the Tribe of Simeon because Jacob had castigated him Genesis 49:5-7, and because of the terrible affair of Baal-peor.
Aram is a son of Shem, according to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 of the Hebrew Bible, and the father of Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash or Meshech. The Book of Chronicles lists Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech as descendants of Shem, although without stating explicitly that Aram is the father of the other four.
The Quran contains references to more than fifty people and events also found in the Bible. While the stories told in each book are generally comparable, there are also some notable differences.
In the Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities destroyed by God for their wickedness. Their story parallels the Genesis flood narrative in its theme of God's anger provoked by man's sin. They are mentioned frequently in the prophets and the New Testament as symbols of human wickedness and divine retribution, and the Quran also contains a version of the story about the two cities.
Sodomy, also called buggery in British English, generally refers to either anal sex between people, or any sexual activity between a human and another animal (bestiality). It may also mean any non-procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term sodomy, which is derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis, was commonly restricted to homosexual anal sex. Sodomy laws in many countries criminalized the behavior. In the Western world, many of these laws have been overturned or are routinely not enforced. A person who practices sodomy is sometimes referred to as a sodomite, a pejorative term.
There are a number of passages in the Hebrew Bible that have been interpreted as involving same-sex sexual acts, desires, and relationships. The passages about homosexual individuals and sexual relations in the Hebrew Bible are found primarily in the Torah and have been interpreted as referring primarily to male homosexual individuals and sexual practices.
In the Bible, Lot's wife is a figure first mentioned in Genesis 19. The Book of Genesis describes how she became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom. She is not named in the Bible, but is called Ado or Edith in some Jewish traditions. She is also referred to in the deuterocanonical books at the Book of Wisdom and the New Testament at Luke 17:32.
The Hebrew Bible contains a number of references to rape and other forms of sexual violence, both in the Law of Moses, its historical narratives and its prophetic poetry.