Methodology

The standard before the argument.

The evaluation uses a contextual passage standard. A rating can be supported by immediate narrative, legal, poetic, prophetic, or rhetorical context, not only an isolated verse fragment.

Open NIV evidence browser

Rating levels

Content-based rating reference

Level 0

For Everyone

Content is appropriate for all ages.

Mild inexplicit violence; no hate; no nudity; no profanity; no references to sexuality, gender ideologies, or sexual activities; no drug or alcohol use.

Level 1

Child Guidance

Some content may not be appropriate for very young children.

Mild violence; mild/infrequent hate; mild/infrequent profanity; non-sexual nudity excluding genitalia; no references to sexual activities; no drug or alcohol use; inexplicit sexuality; inexplicit gender ideologies.

Level 2

Teen Guidance

Some content may not be appropriate for children under 13.

Moderate violence; moderate hate; moderate profanity; non-sexual nudity involving genitalia; inexplicit sexual nudity/sexual activities; drug or alcohol use; explicit sexuality; explicit gender ideologies.

Level 3

Minor Restricted

Under 18 requires guidance of a parent or guardian.

Excessive/explicit violence; extreme/frequent hate; excessive/frequent profanity; references to sexual activities not involving penetration, cunnilingus, fellatio, or ejaculation; drug or alcohol abuse.

Level 4

No Minors

Adult content. No child under 18.

Explicit sexual nudity, including depictions of sexual organs in a state of arousal; obscene references to sexual activities involving anal, oral, or vaginal intercourse, fingering, anilingus, or ejaculation.

Level 5

Aberrant Content

Adult only.

Explicit references to aberrant sexual activities, including sexual assault/battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse.

Project reference point

Inspired by BookLooks-style content ratings.

This project is inspired by BookLooks.org and by the use of BookLooks-style content ratings in Moms for Liberty-supported book-review and school-library challenge efforts. It applies that kind of inspectable content-rating framework to scripture references so the standard, evidence, and classification choices can be examined directly.

Scope notes

What gets counted and what stays labeled.

This evaluation uses a contextual passage standard: a rating can be supported by the immediate narrative, legal, poetic, prophetic, or rhetorical context, not only by an isolated verse fragment. The document catalogs content classifications for review purposes and does not promote or endorse the underlying material.

Primary source basis: NIV. Entries should be rechecked before reuse for KJV, ESV, NLT, or NKJV, especially when wording affects nudity, sexual activity, violence, intoxication, body-fluid language, sex-status language, or metaphorical imagery.

Violence

include graphic or aggravated battle deaths, executions, mutilation, child killing, mass death, plague death, supernatural judgment death, cannibalism, torture, suicide, and credible threats of severe bodily harm. Exclude ordinary battle summaries that merely report victory, defeat, or casualties without graphic or aggravated detail.

Sexual vice lists

include brief references to sexual immorality, adultery, orgies, lust, prostitution, and same-sex practice, usually as Level 2 unless the wording names a specific sexual act or explicit adult sexual conduct. Use Level 4 when the passage directly references intercourse, prostitution/sexual access, orgies, incest, same-sex sexual acts, or comparable adult sexual activity.

Sexual metaphor

include sustained, explicit sexual metaphor when the imagery is concrete enough to be content-relevant. Use Level 4 for extended prostitution, adultery, nakedness, or sexual-access imagery; use Level 2 or Level 3 for public exposure or humiliation imagery without explicit sexual activity.

Forced marriage and captive women

treat as Level 4 adult sexual exploitation or coerced marital-sexual context by default. Use Level 5 only when the immediate context supports sexual assault, wartime sexual exploitation, abduction for sexual access, or coercion comparable to assault/battery.

Trafficking and exploitation

treat coercive sexual exploitation of women or girls, enslaved women, daughters made prostitutes, retained virgin captives, or girls sold in abuse contexts as Level 5 when sexual exploitation is context-supported. If a passage shows captivity or labor exploitation without sexual context, classify separately or omit from BookLooks sexual levels.

Body fluids

include semen, emission, and intercourse-related passages at Level 4 when tied directly to sexual activity. Treat menstruation, discharge, childbirth impurity, genital disease, and reproductive-fluid law as policy-dependent Level 2 unless the rubric is expanded.

Excrement and sanitation

exclude from the current rubric unless a separate gross-out or sanitation category is added. Keep coarse bodily-language passages only if treated as profanity or explicit bodily language under a stated policy choice.

Eunuch and sex-status language

exclude neutral eunuch references from Level 2. Include only when the passage discusses castration, sexual incapacity, bodily alteration, or gender/sex-category policy in a way the adopted standard explicitly covers.

Figurative nakedness

exclude birth/death metaphors. Include only visible or contextually depicted nudity, exposure, stripping, or sexual/public humiliation involving nakedness.

Source basis

The primary source basis for the initial evaluation is NIV. Entries should be rechecked before reuse for other translations where wording affects classification.

What this is not

This is not a theological endorsement or rejection and not a claim about religious value. It is a content classification exercise applying a stated rubric.

Review discipline

Every classification should have a reference, level, and rationale. Policy-dependent categories remain labeled. Uncertainty must not be hidden.

Bible BookLooks Methodology