Immorality in Bible StoriesA view of Scripture that expects each story to have a “moral” is thwarted by some of the tales
in Genesis. These sometimes seem to present people with little sense of morality, let alone a moral to the story!
Simple narratives like Aesop’s fables present simple messages. Biblical narratives are more complex: the failings of heroes are left visible. In fables, characters are cartoon-like and their “virtue” easily determined. In Dinah’s story, by contrast, God is absent, and no one acts well. Chapter 38 of Genesis, about Tamar and Judah, might be entitled “Men Behaving Badly,” yet it concerns the ancestor of the tribe from which David and Jesus are descended. This does not, however, mean that Bible stories are (as critics suggest) immoral, or even amoral. We read of the people in such rich narratives as if they were real people. In our responses and judgments on their tales we equip ourselves to judge our own stories.