The Metro ran a news item today that looked at the issue of sexual deviance in the Bible. Yes, you read that right. Sexual deviance. The tenor of the story was that the Bible documents a series of sex crimes – and therefore, it’s not such a morally upstanding book after all.

Indian professor Anil Aggrawal took upon himself the thankless job of cataloguing the sexual deviancy referred to in the Bible. Apparently, he found everything from common or garden adultery to Rohypnol-style rape and even necrophilia. He then wrote about his research in the April issue of the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

But does this really mean that the Bible’s moral authority is now in tatters? (Photo: Topic Agnostic)

Not really. What the Professor missed in his extensive trawl is the somewhat obvious point that just because something is mentioned in the Bible, it doesn’t mean that it’s given the thumbs up.

In fact, the Bible repeatedly bangs on about how many of the events that it records are examples of what not to do. For example, the book of Psalms says that many of the stories of the Old Testament are to be retold so that people should “not be like their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation” (Psalm 78:8, NIV).

And the apostle Paul, reviewing some of the seedier things that happened during the Exodus, said: “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” (1 Corinthians 10:6, NIV).

To read the Bible as just a record of saintly deeds is to miss the point. The Bible shows us life as its worst - violent, degrading and selfish. But it also shows us life at its best – tolerant, peaceable and generous.

Paradoxically, the sexual violence mentioned in the Bible actually shows that it deals with life as we know it. That’s not to say it condones such behaviour – it doesn’t - but those who dismiss it as irrelevant to life today might want to think again in the light of the Professor’s findings.