Did Lot or the men of Sodom recognize Lot's visitors as angels?

Question

When the two angels arrive in Sodom in Genesis 19, Lot seems to immediately recognize them as such. He bows down to them, calls them "My lords", and invites them into "your servant's house." When the men of the city surround the house, though, they call out, "Where are the men who came to you tonight?" Of course, angels in the Bible are sometimes ambiguously referred to as men.

Does Lot recognize that they are angels or are his actions just customary hospitality? If he does, do the men of the city also recognize their nature? And if not, why not when Lot identifies them so easily?

Answer 1

Lot may or may not recognize who they are. Remember that Lot moved to S'dom after spending a great deal of time with Avraham; this means that (1) Lot doesn't necessarily behave like the natives (a point they make in 19:9) and (2) he had the chance to absorb some lessons about hospitality from his uncle. So it is entirely possible that as far as Lot was concerned they were just men, but he had not sunk to the level of the town and so did not seek to abuse them. As further evidence, while the city was destroyed, God rescued Lot and his family, so they must have had some merit not present in the general population.

The text does not tell us who the people of the town thought the visitors were. Rabbinic tradition does not exactly hold the people of the town in high regard; according to various midrashim the townsfolk abused visitors, forbade charity with the death penalty, and/or sought to preserve their wealth from outsiders by driving them away. These sound like people who could be blinded by their own urges enough to not take note of who these visitors were, but that is speculation.

Answer 2

I think that the perverted men of Sodom knew nothing about the angels' identity, only that they were strikingly presentable. As for Lot, he understood from the first that they were different from the unrighteous men around him, but at least until the miraculous defense they provided, Lot had no clue as to their identity, I believe. His original hospitality and concern would have originated from his desire to protect worthy strangers against the dangers he realized might befall them had they camped in the open. His actions reflect the character of a righteous man, surrounded by evil and distressed by it.

Answer 3

I cannot believe that Lot did NOT recognize these men to be Angels. After all, how could Lot be so "hospitable" as to offer his own daughters to perverts in place of these men! Would you do that? His uncle Abraham was willing to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice but he KNEW it was to The Lord and NOT to a visitor!