Hard passagesDraft · awaiting advisor review
Why does the Bible include stories like Lot and his daughters?
In short
The Bible often records what people did without approving of it. Lot’s story shows a man who chose Sodom’s comforts and ended in drunkenness and shame, and it explains the origins of Israel’s neighbours Moab and Ammon. Yet Ruth, a Moabite, became an ancestor of David and Jesus, so the story also points to grace reaching people born of a broken family.
The Objection
If the Bible is God’s word, why does it tell of a father sleeping with his daughters without a word of condemnation, and later call that man righteous (2 Peter 2:7)? Many critical scholars add that the tale looks like ethnic mockery: Israel explaining its rival neighbours Moab and Ammon as born of incest. Either way, it seems unworthy of a holy book.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
The episode ends a downward arc. Lot chose the plain near Sodom, offered his daughters to a violent mob, and lingered when told to flee. His drunken shame in a cave echoes Noah’s drunkenness after the Flood. Genesis describes this collapse; it does not hold it up as a model.
- Historical evidence
Ancient readers did not need a verdict spelled out. The Laws of Hammurabi (§154) punished a man who slept with his daughter by banishment, and Israel’s own law forbade sexual relations with close relatives. The secrecy and drunkenness in the story signal shame.
- Philosophical argument
A record written to flatter its heroes would leave this out. Scripture also tells of Abraham passing off his wife as his sister and David’s adultery and murder. Including such failures fits a book that is honest about human sin and points to God’s mercy rather than human merit, though that alone does not show the record is true.
- Scripture
The story does not leave Moab and Ammon under contempt. God gives them land “for the children of Lot”, and Ruth the Moabite becomes the great-grandmother of David and is named in Jesus’ genealogy. Children of a shameful beginning are drawn into God’s purposes.
- Christians differ
Christians differ over 2 Peter calling Lot “just”. Some say he was righteous by faith and grieved by Sodom despite grave failures; others think Peter drew on a Jewish tradition kinder to Lot and was stressing rescue, not his conduct. They also differ on blame: some stress the daughters’ scheming, others their desperation, believing no men survived.
- Historical evidence
The Qur’an honours Lut as a messenger (6:86; 37:133) and does not contain this episode. Many Muslims believe prophets are protected from grave sin and see the Genesis account as a later distortion. Christians, who do not count Lot as a prophet, read the Bible as showing even its heroes as deeply flawed.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
Genesis never states a verdict on the episode; the case that it disapproves rests on context, law elsewhere and literary echoes, which readers weigh differently. The critical view that the story partly served as polemic against Moab and Ammon is not easily dismissed, and the events cannot be checked historically. The tension with 2 Peter calling Lot righteous is real and is not settled by a quick answer.
Arguments to Avoid
- Saying the Bible approves of whatever it records.
- Blaming only the daughters, or only Lot, as if the text made one of them wholly innocent.
- Using the story to brand a whole people as shameful, which Ruth’s place in Jesus’ family line contradicts.
- Telling Muslim friends the Qur’an “hides” Lot’s sin; their different belief about prophets deserves a respectful hearing.
Read for Yourself
Genesis 13:10–13
10And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. 11Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. 12Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. 13But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
Genesis 19:30–38
30And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 33And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 35And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 36Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. 37And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 38And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-ammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
Ruth 4:13–17
13So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son. 14And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. 15And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. 16And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. 17And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
2 Peter 2:6–9
6And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Further Reading
- The Art of Biblical Narrative · Robert Alter (1981)A Jewish literary scholar on how Hebrew stories judge by showing rather than telling.
- Genesis 16–50 · Gordon J. Wenham (1994)Word Biblical Commentary; detailed evangelical treatment of Genesis 19.
- Genesis · Walter Brueggemann (1982)Interpretation commentary series.
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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