The Bible Stories That Christians Hope You Never Read
Incest, sacrifice, and baby-killing verses the pulpit skips
Christians like to talk about the Bible as if it’s a sweet book of love and hope, something that teaches children to be kind and families to be strong. They tell you about Jesus feeding the poor, Moses parting the sea, and Noah saving animals two by two. What they don’t tell you is that the same book is packed with sex scandals, incest, slavery, and mass murder—all done with God’s stamp of approval.
Preachers know these stories are there, but they rarely read them out loud on Sunday. They don’t look good in a children’s Bible. They don’t inspire cheerful songs. These are the stories Christians hope you never read, because if you did, you’d start asking questions about what kind of “holy” book this really is.
Let’s take a tour.
Lot and His Daughters - Bible Incest Porn
Everyone knows the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Christians love to use it as proof that God hates gay people. But they skip the part right after the fire and brimstone, when Lot and his daughters hide in a cave.
The daughters look around and say, “There are no men left for us. Let’s get Dad drunk and sleep with him.” And they do. Twice. Both daughters get pregnant from their own father.
That’s not me twisting things. That’s Genesis 19:30–38. It’s right there. No judgment from God, no punishment, nothing. The story is just dropped in casually, like a weather report. Preachers never bring this one up because it shows the Bible isn’t some clean moral guide. It’s messy, it’s gross, and sometimes it sounds like something ripped out of a bad soap opera.
Judah and Tamar - The Disguise Trick
Genesis has another story pastors avoid. Judah promises his son to Tamar as a husband but never delivers. So Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and waits by the road. Judah comes by, doesn’t recognize her, and hires her for sex. She gets pregnant by her father-in-law, and when Judah finds out, he tries to have her burned alive—until she proves it was him.
The kicker? Tamar gives birth to twins, and one of them is an ancestor of King David. So according to the Bible, the royal line of Israel came from a roadside prostitute scam and incest-by-in-law. Not exactly a shining family tree.
The Levite’s Concubine - Cut into Pieces
This one almost never shows up in sermons because it’s pure horror. In Judges 19, a Levite and his concubine stop in a city for the night. The townsmen come banging on the door demanding sex, like a biblical version of a gang rape scene. The Levite pushes his concubine outside, and she’s abused all night until she collapses dead at the door.
The next morning, the Levite cuts her body into twelve pieces and sends them to all the tribes of Israel. Imagine UPS delivering a severed leg to your doorstep. This sparks a bloody civil war.
And again, no outrage from God in the text. Just silence. Christians steer clear of this story because it makes the Bible look like a horror novel.
Jephthah’s Daughter - A Human Sacrifice
In Judges 11, Jephthah makes a vow to God: “If I win this battle, I’ll sacrifice whatever comes out of my house first.” He wins, and who comes out of the house? His daughter. His only child.
And what does Jephthah do? He sacrifices her to God. Burns her alive. The Bible just shrugs and says, yep, that’s what happened. Some scholars twist themselves into knots to say maybe she wasn’t actually killed, maybe she just stayed a virgin. But the plain text says sacrifice. The “Good Book” contains a story of a father murdering his own daughter as an offering to God, and Christians quietly pretend it’s not there.
Psalm 137 - Killing Babies as a Blessing
Christians love quoting Psalms because they sound poetic and comforting. But they don’t quote Psalm 137:9, where the writer declares, “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”
Read that again. The Bible literally says blessed is the man who smashes babies’ heads open. This isn’t hidden in some obscure book nobody reads. It’s right there in the Psalms. Preachers ignore it because they know how vile it sounds.
The “Beautiful Captive Woman” Law
In Deuteronomy 21, God gives laws about what to do with women captured in war. If you see a beautiful captive, you can take her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and keep her as your wife. She doesn’t get a say. That’s divine-approved sex slavery.
Christians love to claim the Bible elevated women. Really? Because here it turns war rape into marriage. This passage makes it clear: the Bible isn’t some timeless guide to morality. It’s a record of tribal men justifying their cruelty with God’s name attached.
Why You’ve Never Heard These Stories
You’ve probably been in a church service where the pastor tells you to “read your Bible every day.” But the truth is, they don’t want you to read all of it. They want you to stick to the “safe” parts: the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the parables of Jesus.
Why? Because if you actually read the whole thing, you’d start to see cracks. You’d start to notice that the so-called Word of God includes incest, human sacrifice, rape, genocide, and slavery. You’d see that much of it looks nothing like love, justice, or wisdom.
The Bible isn’t a pure moral guide. It’s a messy collection of ancient stories—some inspiring, many disturbing. Christians hope you never notice the bad ones because it would blow up the whole “perfect Word of God” sales pitch.
Before You Go
If you’re told the Bible is holy, flawless, and God’s direct word, then stories like these are devastating. Because what does it say about God if he’s okay with incest, slavery, or child sacrifice? What does it say about preachers who hide these verses while insisting the book is perfect?
The reality is simple: the Bible is a human book. Humans wrote it, humans edited it, and humans picked which stories made the cut. That’s why it reads like a mix of history, myth, poetry, and crime scenes.
Christians love to cherry-pick the uplifting verses. But the real test of any sacred book isn’t in the sweet bits. It’s in the ugly parts. And the Bible has plenty of those.
So if you really want to know what’s in the Good Book, don’t just take your pastor’s word for it. Read the whole thing. You’ll find the stories they hope you never see—and then you’ll understand why they’d rather keep them buried.
It’s your turn now. Drop a comment, subscribe, and tell me which Bible story shocked you most.
Sources and Further Reading
Biblical References
Lot and His Daughters — Genesis 19:30–38
Judah and Tamar — Genesis 38
The Levite’s Concubine — Judges 19
Jephthah’s Daughter — Judges 11:29–40
Psalm 137:9
The “Beautiful Captive Woman” Law — Deuteronomy 21:10–14
Scholarly and Contextual Sources
Bart D. Ehrman, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017)
John J. Collins, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Fortress Press, 2014)
Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the Old Testament (Anchor Bible Reference Library, 1997)
Hector Avalos, The End of Biblical Studies (Prometheus Books, 2007)