Now Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; so he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night; and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. On the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger rose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab; he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and named him Ben-ammi; he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.
—Genesis 19.30.38
Wow, the ancestral origins of Christ are incredibly odd.
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the long way home 
I thought you don’t believe that stuff?
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Maybe this is part of the misunderstanding. I’m sorry if I’ve communicated myself poorly, but my thoughts (and the thoughts of many people that take critical scholarship seriously) are a lot more complicated than that.
I know that as Conservative Evangelicals, we were sold this all-or-nothing perspective on the Bible, but it’s not true. Here are some random thoughts on this verse particularly:
– I (and most people that try and follow what critical scholarship seems to tell us) don’t just believe that all this stuff was made out of thin air. The historical evidence seems to tell us that either in the time of the monarchy or after the exile, Jewish leaders and priests decided they would gather their collected stories that had been passed down for millennia and set down authoritative versions of those stories (or rather authoritative-“ish”, we know that even at the time of Jesus there were several different versions of books like Joshua, Psalms, Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, floating around). What this means is that these stories are stories that had been told in the community for years.
– It’s also commonly believed that most of these stories have some sort of historical “core” or “strands” to them. Maybe the character “Abraham” represents a tribe that was wondering around at this time, for example. Maybe it was a small group of escaped slaves from Egypt (slaves were escaping Egypt all the time) that told the stories that became Exodus. So, I read these verses above, and I can still think that they might have some reflection of history somewhere along the way.
– And at the VERY least, even IF these verses have absolutely no basis in any history whatsoever, the ethnic people that Jesus came out of chose this story as being worthy enough for their Scriptures. And so, I can still say that Jesus comes from the odd stock of people that would choose to keep this story in their Scriptures and pass it down for thousands of years.
– And this leads to my next point. These stories are still our “family stories”. George Washington did not have the whole cherry tree thing happen where he said “I cannot tell a lie”. But that’s still part of our nation’s stories. I can read that story, and even though it has little to no basis in history, I can look at all of us and say, “wow, we come from some odd stock”. Does that make sense? Just because a story might not have a literal, exact basis in history, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have power, meaning, and importance to who we are.
– And this leads to my last point. I know you weren’t being super picky with the language you were using, but I would like to say this: I DO “believe in this story”, even if I didn’t believe it happened in history. I may “believe” that evolution is how our God created the world, but I don’t believe IN evolution. My faith and trust and belief are not IN evolution, even if it’s how things played out. Similarly, even if I don’t “believe” this story happened in history, I can still believe IN this story. It still gives me meaning and insight into our God and his people. And more importantly, it points to our Savior Jesus Christ.
Thanks for commenting.
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