I haven't seen the SAB, but I can say that actually reading the Bible can be a surprising and unsettling experience. A few years ago, I set out to just read the thing, from beginning to end, along with a good companion (Asimov's Guide to the Bible).
I was shocked in Genesis 19 when Lot offered up his virgin daughters to a crowd to "do to them whatever you like" if only they would leave his guests alone. This sort of thing isn't supposed to be in the Bible.
Towards the end of Hosea, I was flabbergasted see to God's prophet say:
Samaria Will be held guilty,
For she has rebelled against her God.
The will fall by the sword,
Their little ones will be dashed in pieces,
And their pregnant women will be ripped open.
God? On the side that rips open pregnant women? Abortion and murder?
Then, there's the famous passage (which I had never heard before reading the Bible for myself) in 2 Kings where Elisha, that holy prophet, curses a group of kids who have been making fun of his bald head. God sends in some bears who "tear up" forty-two (yes, forty-two) of them (2 Kings 2:23).
It certainly wasn't the Bible I had heard read in church. All I could say after reading the Old Testament for myself was, whew!