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Genesis' account of Lot's daughters may rework Ugaritic stories of a god fathering children with two women, turning divine family relationships into an explanation of Israel's neighboring peoples.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.23:50
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
the wives of El, and forever. He stooped: their lips he kissed. O, how sweet were their lips, as sweet as pomegranates; from kissing came conception, from embracing, impregnation. He sat and counted five months for growth, ten for the full completion. Both of them crouched and gave birth to Shahar and Shalim. Word was brought to El: The two wives of El have given birth! What have they borne? Shahar and Shalim have been born. Raise up an offering to Shapshu, the Great Lady, and to the stars who have been begotten. He stooped: their lips he kissed. Lo, their lips were sweet, sweet as pomegranates. From kissing came conception, from embracing, impregnation. He sat and counted five months for growth, ten for the full completion.
Genesis 19:36
Hebrew Bible
34 So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I went to bed with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go in and go to bed with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and went to bed with him. But he was not aware of when she lay down with him or when she got up. 36 In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.
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Notes and References
“... The significance of the entire story is perhaps also made clearer when
it is recognized that the theme of the aged and childless patriarch who
miraculously begets a son is a direct echo of the hierogamic tradition of
the Ugaritic text KTU 1.23. J.R. Porter has shown how the story of Lot and
his daughters in Genesis 19.30-38 is related to the Canaanite tradition
(Porter 1978). The present context and its variant in the Ishmael cycle
(Genesis 16.1ff., 21.8ff.) is also derived from the same milieu (KTU 1.12:
Astour 1967: 86; on this material see also Wyatt 1996b: 219-91). The youth-
fulness of the child circumcised, so soon after birth, relates directly to his
birth as the renewal of the community, and at the same time, being removed
from the more overtly sexual context of marriage, makes the passage one
of spiritual transformation, from the profane and natural world into the
sacred, hieratic one of the confessing people of God. ...”
Wyatt, Nick
The Mythic Mind: Essays on Cosmology and Religion in Ugaritic and Old Testament Literature
(p. 64) Equinox, 2005
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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