Sex and Violence in the Bible: A Survey of Explicit Content in the Holy Book

“Some people have a rather rosy picture of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. They may think that the Bible is a collection of sayings that include only encouragements, promises, and high–sounding sentiments. Readers can only come to that conclusion if they haven’t actually read the Bible, or have done so only selectively. Joseph W. Smith III wants us to come to terms with the Bible as it is—filled with stories and images of sex and violence. His purpose is to shock us, but not gratuitously. He wants to shock us into reckoning with the real Bible and the real God to which it points.”

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“The Bible is not for the squeamish. It is full bodies, and with bodies come fluids and emissions, sex and seductions, battles and blood. Joseph W. Smith’s Sex and Violence in the Bible is an unexpurgated reminder us that nothing human is alien to God’s word. If you are a Victorian prude, read this book at your peril.”

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“Brutally blunt, delicately discreet, strongly Scriptural. An excellent resource for the Christian who wants to understand the Bible’s revelation of the more base aspects of human nature and sinful reality. Smith thoroughly catalogues and examines Biblical passages about sex and violence with an evenhanded fairness and respect for the Bible and his readers. This book should be a challenge to both Christian prudes and religious libertines.”

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“All regular readers of the Bible have a vague grasp that there are references to sex and violence in the Bible, but they do not know how many references there are, nor how explicit the references are. This book serves the very useful purpose of showing us exactly how much sex and violence there is in the Bible, as well as the precise nature of the references to the human body. It is a work of painstaking research and scholarship. If the concentration of examples makes for uncomfortable reading, it is nonetheless important that we confront the subject. We need to know what kind of book the Bible is, and additionally we can assume that the references to sex and violence in the Bible tell us something that God wants us to know.”

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