A Democrat state lawmaker was caught red-handed hiding Bibles in the Arizona House of Representatives members-only lounge in a bizarre video. 

Rep. Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton, an ordained Presbyterian minister, was filmed inside the exclusive members-only lounge on April 10 grabbing a Bible off a side table and hiding it under two sofas.

It was the third time since mid-March that the pair of Bibles went ‘missing’ from their display place inside the lounge.

They were previously found underneath chair cushions and inside a fridge in a nearby kitchen.

Stahl-Hamilton, who is running for re-election, now says she was hiding the Bibles as ‘a little playful commentary on the separation of church and state.’

‘I am a Presbyterian minister, so I obviously don’t have a problem with the Bible,’ she added.

Stahl-Hamilton completed her Masters of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary, and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church.

The security footage from April 10 clearly shows her entering the dimly-lit lounge, where members of the legislature can go if they need to take a call or meet with other representatives or senior staff members, and greeting her colleagues.

Stahl-Hamilton could be seen speaking with the other members for a moment, before she walks towards the back of the lounge, grabs a Bible sitting on a side table and hides it under the two sofas nearby.

She then goes back to sit and chat with her fellow members, who seemed unaware of Stahl-Hamilton’s deceit.

But that was not the first time the Bibles were removed from their display place in the lounge, an unnamed statehouse source told FOX News. 

He said the Arizona House of Representatives were first alerted about the mysterious disappearance of two Bibles in the members-only lounge on March 23.

When security started to search the lounge for the Bibles in the aftermath, they found the Bibles had been placed underneath two chair cushions in the lounge.

Just about one week later, the source said, another Bible went missing from the lounge — and was later found inside a fridge in a nearby kitchen.

At that point, the security team decided to place a temporary camera inside the normally private lounge to catch the thief.

Now, members of the state legislature are left stunned by Stahl-Hamilton’s actions.

‘For an ordained minister to do that, again, it’s nonsensical,’ Republican Pro-Tempore Speaker Travis Grantham told KKTV. ‘I have no clarity as to why it happened.’

He dismissed the idea that her deception was just supposed to be commentary on the separation of church and state, noting that the state motto is ‘God enriches.’

And leadership at the House have reportedly not received any complaints from Stahl-Hamilton about the Bibles in the past.

The pastor at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Tucson, where she serves as a parish associate, also told DailyMail.com he believes the incident is a ‘distraction’ from the real issues. 

‘As a minister, Rev. Stahl-Hamilton, loves and reveres scripture,’ Rev. Bart Smith told DailyMail.com. ‘And as a representative, she has sworn to uphold the Constitution.’

Smith said she has ‘a lot of integrity’ in upholding both tenets, and said: ‘The incident was ill-advised, of course, but it’s being blown out of proportion to distract from the real problems Arizonans face’ like the ongoing water shortages.