Genesis 19 - Introduction

Genesis 18-19. Abraham's Hospitality Rewarded by Promise of a Son; his Intercession for Sodom; the Vileness of the Sodomites and the Deliverance of Lot when Sodom is Destroyed? the Desperate Strategy of Lot's Daughters. This long and admirably-told narrative belongs to J, apart from Genesis 19:29 (P). But it presents complicated critical problems. Genesis 18:22 b - Genesis 18:33 a seems to be a later insertion. In Genesis 18:22 a the men go on toward Sodom, presumably including Yahweh, who has just said He will go, and who seems from Genesis 19:17 to be in Sodom. In Genesis 18:22 b - Genesis 18:33 a He stays behind with Abraham. In Genesis 18:20 f. He is going to investigate on the spot the guilt of Sodom, in Genesis 18:22 b - Genesis 18:33 a its guilt has become clear enough for judgment to be passed upon it (similarly in Genesis 18:17, which accordingly seems to be an insertion). In the main story the conception of Yahweh is intensely anthropomorphic. He even eats the meal prepared for Him, and has to learn by personal inquiry on the spot whether Sodom deserves what He has heard about it; in the episode of Abraham's intercession, He is the judge of the whole earth. We have also a perplexing interchange of the singular and plural, sometimes they or the men, sometimes he. This may point to the origin of the main narrative by combination of two sources; or perhaps the original story spoke of three gods, and the necessary transformation has not been carried through so thoroughly as to obliterate all traces of its polytheistic origin. The story has not a few parallels, and it may be a variant of a widely-diffused account of a visit paid to earth by celestial beings, who rewarded with a child those who had hospitably entertained them, but destroyed those who were churlish and their homes with them. It does not follow, however, that our story is simply the application to this district of a legend originally located elsewhere. The overthrow was probably not wrought by volcanic eruption, but by an explosion in the bituminous soil, the matter flung skyward by the explosion falling back on the cities as a fiery rain (brimstone and fire). An earthquake may have taken place at the same time. The phenomena are quite suitable to the district (p. 33). The conduct of the Sodomites has a parallel in the hideous story of Judges 19.