The Women's Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective

I was not here during the feminists revolution and all that. I was also brought up a christian and although devout, have costantly had this battles going on about my place in christianity. This book had the "balls" to ask those questions I've always been afraid to even think about. It's funny to see the date when this book was published and to know that after all those years, women still have to battle to be heard. But then, women have come a long way too. I'm glad this book was written. I'm even more glad that I read it. Every woman worth her salt should read it. Because with the questions comes the answers and with the answers comes true freedom. "The truth shall make you free".

Susan B. Anthony said of Stanton, that if she had been a man, she might have been on the Supreme Court - which would have certainly helped us avoid much painful history in my opinion. These two women were the backbone of the movement that won women the vote. And now for the bible, and Stanton's take on it. At the age of 19, I was challenged by a Protestant acquaintance to read the bible - he knew, that as a former Catholic, I probably was not as familiar with the 'good' book as he, and he was right, so I did. And found it appalling in most details and insulting toward women in the extreme (and this was before the feminist revival of the 60s!) Although I had long left organized religion, I became convinced, reading it, that in addition to mind control and acquisition of the 'flock's' resources and obedience, organized religion has another, unspoken agenda: the control and distribution of the available females, to put it as nicely as possible. 'Feminist' religionists strive mightily to prove that religion honors and frees women, and have done much violence to the truth in that process. The bible - both old and new testaments - could be fairly described as a very long diatribe against women, and every right we have earned has been in opposition to biblical doctrine. (I believe the same thing can be said of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and all the patriarchal religions.) The bible's treatment of women provides very good grounds for the early church fathers' debates on whether women had souls. Elizabeth Cady Stanton - besides being a right-on sister in pressing for the vote and the abolition of slavery - understood that the bible was one of the foundations of women's subservience and men's dominance and that to change that, the bible had to be dissected fearlessly and challenged. One writer here opined that she should have 'gone to the source' and not based her criticism on an English translation. Well whatever is said in that Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic ideal version (and I would not hold out much hope of it being the feminist document that might have defied her analysis) It was the common, English translation of the time which was used to deny women property, freedom, and equality in every field - and that is the one she very rightly critiqued.

This book isn't what it seems- it isn't anything like a new translation of the Bible with women's perspectives in mind. It is a collection of varied and insightful early feminist Biblical criticism. Groundbreaking and a must-read for anyone interested in women's studies or open-minded Christians.

This is the book that got Elizabeth Cady Stanton booted out of the official women's movement of her time. Woman Suffrage was by no means the only work left undone at the time of her death. Stanton knew how damaging the Bible was to women. What most people do not realize is that her co-authors also knew about the Goddess and the fact that she preceeded male gods by thousands of years. They stuck to the "scriptures" as the best ammunition and they also cleared ground for women who wish to move beyond. This book is an excellent foundation for any intellegent woman who is also interested in religion. Still radical after all these years.