Flood, Salt, and Sacrifice
Applies the modern clinical concept of post-traumatic stress disorder to Noah, Lot's wife, and Isaac, reading Noah's post-Flood drunkenness, Lot's wife's catatonic transformation into a pillar of salt, and Isaac's apparent withdrawal after the Akedah and his mother's death as three different biblical responses to severe psychological trauma, with only Isaac's story showing a path toward eventual recovery.
Luger applies the modern clinical concept of post-traumatic stress disorder to three figures in Genesis: Noah, whose descent into drunkenness after witnessing the Flood’s devastation goes unexplained in the text; Lot’s wife, whose catatonic transformation into a pillar of salt follows her forbidden glance back at Sodom; and Isaac, whose apparent withdrawal after the Akedah and his mother’s death eventually resolves through his marriage to Rebekah. He suggests only Isaac’s story models a path toward recovery.
Steven Luger, M.D., is the medical director of the Hartford Medical Group and a board-certified family physician.
Cite this article
Steven Luger. "Flood, Salt, and Sacrifice." Jewish Bible Quarterly 38, no. 2 (April – June 2010): 124–126.
Steven Luger. "Flood, Salt, and Sacrifice." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, 2010, pp. 124–126.