My dissertation investigates a wide range of interpretations of Lot’s wife—ancient and modern; Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and secular. For each interpretation, the goal is a sympathetic reading: rather than making value judgments about different ways of reading, I seek to understand how each reading works and what factors (exegetical, theological, socio-historical, etc.) may have contributed to the different choices made by each interpreter. Though I find a dominant trend to interpret Lot’s wife as a disobedient woman who received her just reward, I also identify a modern movement with both ancient precedent and biblical support for challenging this reading. This, in turn, draws attention back to the biblical text and the underlying fact that the Bible can be and is read in multiple ways.

I organize the dissertation roughly chronologically, beginning with the text in Genesis, followed by interpretations from the Second Temple, early rabbinic, and early Christian periods. Then, after a chapter on Islamic interpretations, I consider later Jewish and Christian interpretations before turning to a final chapter on modern engagements, including poetry and film.

However, the dissertation is not merely a catalog of interpretations over time. As a project in reception criticism, it seeks to answer deeper questions about the boundaries of meaning, the transmission of ideas, and how and why people read the way they do. To this end, the project is not a comprehensive treatment of all interpretations of Lot’s wife. Even though some periods (due to a paucity of evidence) are treated comprehensively, most are highly selective, focusing on interpretations that demonstrate the great variety of ways interpreters have read this story. Indeed, as my dissertation shows, the “story” of the reception of Lot’s wife is not one of a narrowing down to consensus, but rather of ever-expanding boundaries of what is possible in terms of interpreting this enigmatic—and, indeed, tragic—figur