Soft Sunday Sounds: Lot was not a jerky dad.

So for the past couple of months I have been reading the Old Testament. Now I have read the Old Testament before at least twice, but I have never actually enjoyed it. And to be honest, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it this time either, but I had a goal.

I do this scripture study thing these days where I read a verse, then read all the footnotes associated with it. Yes, it's time-consuming and sometimes fairly exhausting. However, for all those lame footnotes that are just referencing every time they reference a specific location or person, there are some really great ones and some that will completely open my eyes or change my perspective. Suffice it to say, even before beginning this project a few years ago I was passionate about footnotes (history nerd) but now I have gotten so into them I have begun making my own.

Back to the story. Some of these footnotes will reference the JST or Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. There are two kinds of these, there is the JST where just a few words are changed and are then inserted into the footnotes, and then there are changes which are very long and are put as endnotes in the back of the Bible. The difficulty with the endnote versions are that they are a little annoying to look up. And I must admit that sometimes I don't want to go to the trouble of doing it. See I really do have passionate opinions on footnotes versus endnotes. However, those endnotes can often totally change the narrative. Today I want to write about a narrative changing JST in Genesis.

In Genesis 19, we read of Lot entertaining and housing 3 holy men. A group of men from Sodom come to Lot's house. They then ask for the holy men to come out so that they may know them, a euphemism for sex. Obviously, Lot refuses.

Now here is where things change drastically if you read the JST. In the King James Translation version, Lot offers his daughters to the men as an alternative to the holy men. Now, I am a historian and think it is important to read things in context, and the Old Testament is very different from our times as regards to views on many things, one of them being women. However, not as different as this story suggests.

In the JST we see two important changes in this story that I would like to point out.

1. In verse 11, the crowd, after being denied the holy men, asks for both the men and the daughters of Lot
2. In verse 13, Lot expressly pleads that his daughters are not released to the crowd, being more fervent in that plea than he was about the holy men. And rightly so, they are his daughters!

There are two important ramifications of this major narrative shift. The first is simple: Lot was not a jerky dad. He cared deeply about his daughters and their safety. He did not hand them over as prizes to this sex-craved group of Sodomites. 

The second ramification is a little more complex, and I think, much more important. It is so often cited that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality. And this story is cited as an example of that. And in the footnotes that is reflected, as when the crowd asks for the holy men, the footnote takes you to the topical guide entry on homosexuality. And I don't want to talk about the doctrinal ideas of the Gospel and homosexuality because I am intensely undecided and extremely cautious when it comes to that. In addition I don't want to talk about that because it is the very fact that we focus on that in this story that we fail to realize something. 

This story is about rape. 

Think about, a crowd (by the way, though it says men in the beginning of the verse, the ending of it "all the people from every quarter" suggests to me that this crowd is in fact men and women) of people come to this house, demanding for people to have sex with. This is a story of a failed attempt of gang rape, in every sense of the word. There is no way around that. A group of people who want to have sex with individuals who do not want it. And when we make this story about homosexuality, not only is that argument tenuous, but it completely diverts from a matter that is far more important. A matter that concerns that spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, and other types of safety of everyone involved. A matter that is still incredibly problematic today, hurting so many people in so many different situations. 

This is especially clear when you read the JST verses 11 and 12. My emphasis is added.

11. Wherefore they said unto the man, We will have the men, and thy 

daughters also; and we will do with them as seemeth us good. 

12. Now this was after the wickedness of Sodom. 

This, doing whatever they wanted sexually with unwilling people, this is the sin of Gomorrah. 

Realizing this has made me even more grateful for the Joseph Smith Translation than I ever have been. I read this a couple of weeks ago, and have recently been reading a lot of things of the rape culture in our society (one of them this great one by Shannon Hale), both in the Mormon society and in the society at large. And with this narrative shift I greatly appreciate the vision that Joseph Smith must have had of the Gospel. An issue that was not a public issue at his time is addressed in this change, and I find that to have such foresight, to show such a broad vision of what eternity should look like. 

So today I am grateful for JST, for Joseph Smith's insights, for narrative changing moments.