The pillar-of-salt thing is really weird, even for a deity as capricious as Yahweh. He doesn’t strike her dead. He turns her into salt. There must be something that got lost in translation there.
I think that area where the story was supposed to have happened is known for having salt pillars, so maybe it was like a warning, “look at all those that got punished”
No, Sodom & Gomorrah were where the Dead Sea is. Very very salty & unique sea. So wife to pillar of salt follows the theme of violent, quick, salty death.
As HAL 9 TRILLION had numerous examples, there are more like John the Baptist’s father & Abraham’s wife Sarah, etc etc etc. All are related by a general rule: do not question the religion/authority figures of the religion, do not talk back or doubt the religious authority, do as you are told & nothing more, nothing less. The Bible calls for blind, unquestioning obedience in all things. I guess it could also be called ‘faith’.
In the story, Lot’s wife had gone around to neighbors asking to borrow salt, which alerted them to the strangers’ presence. Hence the irony of the punishment. Still, cruel and bizarre and more befitting a medieval fairytale than… well, a bronze-age one.
The pillar-of-salt thing is really weird, even for a deity as capricious as Yahweh. He doesn’t strike her dead. He turns her into salt. There must be something that got lost in translation there.
I think that area where the story was supposed to have happened is known for having salt pillars, so maybe it was like a warning, “look at all those that got punished”
No, Sodom & Gomorrah were where the Dead Sea is. Very very salty & unique sea. So wife to pillar of salt follows the theme of violent, quick, salty death.
As HAL 9 TRILLION had numerous examples, there are more like John the Baptist’s father & Abraham’s wife Sarah, etc etc etc. All are related by a general rule: do not question the religion/authority figures of the religion, do not talk back or doubt the religious authority, do as you are told & nothing more, nothing less. The Bible calls for blind, unquestioning obedience in all things. I guess it could also be called ‘faith’.
In the story, Lot’s wife had gone around to neighbors asking to borrow salt, which alerted them to the strangers’ presence. Hence the irony of the punishment. Still, cruel and bizarre and more befitting a medieval fairytale than… well, a bronze-age one.
Maybe Yahweh was hungry and wanted some salt to add to his dinner?