God and Sex
book by Michael Coogan
God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says is a non-fiction book written by Michael Coogan, a biblical scholar and professor. The book was first published in 2010 by Twelve Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It explores the relationship between religion, specifically Judeo-Christian texts, and sexuality, drawing primarily from the Bible and ancient religious traditions.
Content
Coogan says that in the Hebrew Bible, there is no prohibition of premarital or extramarital sex for men, except for adultery, i.e. having sex with the wife of another man.
Further, he states that premarital sex for women was "discouraged". The Bible has a word for the sons of unmarried women, and their sons were relegated to an inferior social status. He also claims that Paul the Apostle condemned extramarital sex out of apocalyptic fears (he thought that the world was going to end soon) and that Jesus does not say anything about this, except regulating divorce between a man and one of his wives. Coogan uses the singular ("wife"), but does not say that a man could have only one wife, since Jesus was discussing the Law of Moses, which allowed for polygamy.
Interviewed by Time magazine about this book, he also says that words often translated in the Bible as "sodomy" have often nothing to do with anal intercourse between men, and that according to sola scriptura, the Mormons were right about polygamy.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5576000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010.
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This entry incorporates text from “God and Sex” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.