The Women's Bible Commentary

This is my go-to commentary for all of my seminary work. As a man who has been steeped in a tradition of male-dominated interpretation of scripture this is volume is a breath of fresh air. One is remiss to deny the scholarship of this collection. With contributors like Amy-Jill Levine, Jouette Bassler, Mary Ann Tolbert, and the editor Carol Newsom you are presented with some of the greatest feminist theologians alive. The contributors skillfully employ literary, historical, and redaction criticism in studying the texts to help flesh out the place and role of women in the story of God's people. This should be in the library of any real student of the bible. PAX E

Contrary to what some may believe from the title, the Women's Bible Commentary does not show favoritism. It simply addresses individual needs/issues and/or individual audiences -- and it does so in a manner that is at least as fair, honest, and genuinely scholarly as most other one-volume Bible commentaries. Of hundreds of Bible commentaries that we have in the BibleTexts Online Commentary library, not one is so absolutely exhaustive that it includes everything that all of the other commentaries have. Each commentary includes material that its editors consider to be most important within the commentary's intended own scope and within their own editorial perspective -- whether that commentary is a one volume commentary of the entire Bible, a multi-volume commentary of a single book of the Bible, or a multi-volume commentary of the entire Bible. The Women's Bible Commentary not only includes much of the same basic information found in other high quality one-volume commentaries, but it also provides valid information and valuable insights that are not found in other commentaries. It is an excellent biblical commentary worthy of inclusion in any Bible student's library.

Since most commentaries are written by men, it was a pleasure to read women's views. This has been needed for a long time. The book was written for a laywoman to understand and to learn from.