Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 90 No. 2, 2020.
Original scientific paper
Lot and His Daughters
Karlo Višaticki
orcid.org/0000-0003-4683-4812
; Catholic Faculty of Theology in Djakovo, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Đakovo, Croatia
Abstract
Within the frame of the set topic (Biblical anthropology), this contribution discusses the narrative in Gen 19:30‑38 and its interpretation. After a short introduction, the concept of incest is discussed. In the Biblical tradition, the concept of incest is a taboo, but appears relatively often, as one can see from the Biblical texts mentioned in this part of the article. Although the practice of it is codified and forbidden, in the everyday life of the Biblical human being anomalies take place that are somehow, from the perspective of the agent or a later author of the text, justified. After a short history of Lot who travels with his clan from Ur of the Chaldees, through Haran and until Canaan and Sodom, his residence in Sodom is analysed. In that city, Lot and his family are perceived as foreigners and are, it seems, not very welcomed by the citizens of Sodom. When Sodom was totally destroyed by God’s order, Lot has been saved by God’s extraordinary intervention from certain death and he ran to the vicinity of Soar. His wife has been turned into a pillar of salt because she did not follow instructions of the angel who destroyed Sodom. Lot is left alone with his daughters, who were concerned about the future and in their desperation made Lot drunk in order to engage in sexual relations with him so that their father’s progeny might live on. The question, however, is left open: Can a noble goal justify means that are, in themselves, bad?
Keywords
Biblical anthropology; Lot; Sodom and Gomorrah; Lot’s daughters;
Hrčak ID:
243113
URI
Publication date:
31.8.2020.
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