Book Description:
Since the 1960s many biblical scholars have studied the Bible with a focus on gender. Yet such research is only slowly reaching a wide audience beyond the academy. Seven years in the making, centuries overdue, Women in Scripture is the groundbreaking work that will finally open this field to readers of all backgrounds Jews, Christians, and everyone fascinated by a body of literature that has exerted a singular influence on Western civilization. The editors have taken on the ambitious task of identifying every woman and group of women mentioned in the Bible, whether named or unnamed, well known or heretofore not known at all. The result is more than eight hundred articles, written by the finest scholars in the field, that examine the numerous women who have often been obscured by the androcentric nature of the biblical record and by centuries of translation and interpretation that have paid little or no attention to them. At last, Women in Scripture gives these women their due. They are remarkably varied from prophets to prostitutes, military heroines to musicians, deacons to dancers, widows to wet nurses, rulers to slaves. There are familiar faces, such as Eve, Judith, and Mary, seen anew with the full benefit of the most up to date results of biblical scholarship. But the most innovative aspect of this book is the section devoted to the many women who in the scriptures do not even have names. Both in scope and accessibility, Women in Scripture is an exceptional work. Combining rigorous scholarship with engaging prose, each of these articles on women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament will inform, delight, and challenge readers interested in the Bible, scholars and laypeople alike. Together, these articles create a volume that takes the study of women in the Bible to a new level.
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