The Biblical story of Lot is actually kind of a strange one. As mentioned in my previous post, at the center of it is a sort of wager between God and Abraham that if ten “righteous” men can be found dwelling in the city, then God will spare these cities from destruction.

Various theories exist as to why God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gammorah. Christians generally believe that it was because of the rampant practice of homosexuality in these two cities. Jack Chick has a fantastically bigoted comic book tract about this which should focus as an excellent introduction to this classical Christian interpretation. In it, the men of the city try to “rape” the angels who are sent by God to rescue Lot (which prompts Lot to offer a bizarre compromise, which will be discussed later).

Interestingly, classical Jewish interpretation of this Old Testament story does not focus on homosexuality as the source of God’s displeasure with these cities. Some scholars argue that Jewish tradition doesn’t even mention it, and that it’s a later Christian misrepresentation and mistranslation. Instead, Jewish interpretation held that the denizens of these doomed cities were consumed with excessive greed, violence and injustice, and for breaking the law of hospitality.

A popular theory among Biblical scholars says that the crimes of Sodom & Gammorah were mythological inventions created after the fact to explain the destruction of these cities by natural forces. One theory suggests that an earthquake occurred which ruptured a pocket of natural gas, which ignited the cities into a cataclysmic firestorm. Significantly more crazy interpretations of this story actually go so far as to say that Sodom & Gammorah were destroyed by ancient nuclear weapons or similarly advanced technology.

The other weird part of this story is that Lot is referred to as a “righteous” or a “just” man. This is especially hard to swallow in light of the actions of Lot. First, when the angry mob descends on Lot’s house, demanding that he let them “rape” the angels, Lot refuses. What does he offer instead? He offers to let the crowd fuck his two virginal daughters! This certainly doesn’t seem especially righteous. Actually, it sounds totally fucked up.

Although, it makes a little bit more sense according to the Jewish view that these cities had violated important laws, ie hospitality. According to ancient law, when a visitor was in your house, you were required to protect him at all costs. So for Lot to try and protect his visitors (the angels) makes sense from that angle. Although, whether he needed to sacrifice his daughters to do so is questionable.

The other weird part is that later on, Lot actually fucks his daughters himself. Yeah, no joke. After he and his family are lead out of the city by the angels, and after his wife turns to a pillar of salt, he and his two daughters take refuge in a cave. His daughters grow worried that all the men have been killed in the firestorm. So they get Lot drunk off his ass two nights in a row (so much that he “doesn’t know what he’s doing”), and each one becomes pregnant by him. The sons they bear by their father then become the leaders of great tribes.

Supporters of the ancient nuclear war interpretation explain this incestuous incident by saying that literally all people in the region had been killed, and that for the survival of the race, they had to procreate this way. And that, supposedly their “cave” was some kind of subterranean fallout shelter.

Also, apparently the same story exists in the Koran, except without any mention of this whole thing where Lot gets it on with his daughters. In any event, it’s certainly a weird story.

[Also check out the follow-up to this post]