References to the paraphilias and sexual crimes in the Bible

Abstract

While writing a book on paraphilias, the author made a thorough search of early references to paraphilias in literature, especially the Bible. Surprisingly just one published paper was available in the literature having any discussion on the references of paraphilia in the Bible, and that too was in French. [Bieder J. The polymorphous sexual deviant: a reading of Freud and the Bible. Ann Med Psychol (Paris) 1973;2(2):274-81 [in French]]. For the readers in English language, nothing was available on this interesting topic. The author undertook the task of reading the original Bible and finding out instances of paraphilias mentioned therein. Main paraphilias, abnormal sexual behavior and sexual crimes to which explicit allusions were present in the Holy Bible were adultery, incest, sexual harassment, drug facilitated sexual assault, rape, gang rape, homosexuality, transvestism, voyeurism, bestiality, exhibitionism and necrophilia. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine.