Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd. ed.
Overview
The Women's Bible Commentary is a trusted, classic resource for biblical scholarship, written by some of the best feminist scholars in the field today. This twentieth anniversary edition features brand new or thoroughly revised essays to reflect newer thinking in feminist interpretation and hermeneutics. It comprises commentaries on every book of the Bible, including the apocryphal books; essays on the reception history of women in the Bible; and essays on feminist critical method. The contributors raise important questions and explore the implications of how women and other marginalized people are portrayed in biblical texts, looking specifically at gender roles, sexuality, political power, and family life, while challenging long-held assumptions. This commentary brings modern critical methods to bear on the history, sociology, anthropology, and literature of the relevant time periods to illuminate the context of these biblical portrayals and challenges readers to new understandings.
- Provides a female perspective on the Bible's characters, contexts, and principles
- Contains two chapters on the everyday life of women during the Hebrew Bible and New Testament periods
- Includes an extensive bibliography
Top Highlights
“The fact that the author spends so much time and effort to enjoin silence on Christian women suggests that the actual and accepted practice of women was active and vocal and that the author was attempting to change this behavior.” (Page 598)
“Jesus speaks to Mary, repeating the angels’ question about her weeping and asking an additional question, ‘Whom are you looking for?’ (20:15). These questions are the first words spoken by the risen Jesus. His question, ‘Whom are you looking for?’ mirrors the first words he spoke in his ministry. When the followers of John the Baptist approached Jesus, he asked them, ‘What are you looking for?’ (1:38). This question is an invitation that introduces one of the marks of discipleship in John: to look for Jesus. The repetition of that question in chapter 20 establishes continuity between Mary and the first disciples of Jesus.” (Page 528)
“Ritual purification is not for health or sanitary reasons but, rather, marks the difference between the sacred and the profane, and psychologically prepares the individual to interact with holiness.” (Page 73)
“ To be meek is to restrain one’s privilege for the sake of others.” (Page 469)
“To the narrator, and presumably his audience, childlessness was not understood as a physical phenomenon, but as a decision of God—and, indeed, in some instances as a punishment from God (see Gen. 20).” (Page 154)
A remarkable volume that is fresh, provocative, and faithful. It is as faithful as Jacob is faithful in wrestling with the angel. Sometimes you can only know the truth by fighting back.
—Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Professor of Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary
This welcome and daring book has much to teach us that we cannot safely ignore. . . . A landmark in interpretation.
—Walter Brueggemann, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
With the Women's Bible Commentary, careful and critical feminist biblical interpretation is made accessible for preaching, study groups, and seminary courses.
—Letty M. Russell (1929–2007), Professor of Theology, The Divinity School, Yale University
- Title: Women’s Bible Commentary (3rd Edition)
- Authors: Carol A. Newsom, Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Sharon H. Ringe
- Edition: Revised and Updated
- Publisher: Westminster John Knox
- Print Publication Date: 2012
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible › Commentaries; Women › Middle East--History; Women › Rome--History
- Resource ID: LLS:WOMBBLCOMMWJK
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-11-15T20:47:44Z
Carol A Newsom is Professor of Old Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta. She is on the editorial advisory board of The Old Testament Library series.
Sharon H. Ringe is Professor of New Testament, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C. She is the author of Luke (Westminster Bible Companion).
Reviews
21 ratings
Jeremy Byrd
3/4/2024
To be fair, I haven't read an extensive amount of this commentary. I used it mainly in a study of the book of Jude. The scholar who wrote the section on Jude, Leticia Guardiola-Saenz of Seattle University, dismissed the central topic of sexual immorality by claiming that "A more careful reading, however, shows that the heart of the problem seems to be the unnatural desire for a human union with angelic beings, and not a union between human beings." (Jude, 626) Guardiola-Saenz never circles back or elucidates what this "careful reading" is, leaving readers with a mere assertion and very little evidence. This interpretation of v.7 makes little sense contextually, and does not address the sexual immorality brought up in v.4 or v.11. I would guess, unfortunately, that this sort of wholesale dismissal of any points which don't fit the postmodern hermeneutic is par of the course. Why two stars, then? Because this is one of the few resources I own that provides a progressive/feminist reading, and I like to know how the Scriptures are twisted, so that, perhaps, I can help untwist them when dialoguing with progressive Christian friends. Read wisely.
Tyler Coquillard
3/20/2023
Michael Boone
3/19/2023
An example of the standards and focus of this book is an anti-biblical interpretation of Jezebel with an emphasis on "reclaiming" the spirit of Jezebel for Christians today in the name of tolerance. "And, as both of these authors point out, if the story were told from a Phoenician perspective, [a Baal worshipper] Jezebel’s character would be portrayed quite differently." "The Deuteronomist has chosen the former in each case, and the interpretive tradition has often done the same, but are we limited by this tradition? Even more, are we confined by the dichotomy it suggests? Can we reclaim Jezebel without demonizing Elijah? Can we celebrate the female without denigrating the male? Can we reject intolerance without becoming intolerant ourselves?" Snyder, J. B. (2012). Jezebel and Her Interpreters. In C. A. Newsom, J. E. Lapsley, & S. H. Ringe (Eds.), Women’s Bible Commentary (Revised and Updated, p. 183). Westminster John Knox Press.Ron Behrens
9/27/2022
I had no idea that I got this resource in some package and definitely cannot recommend it for truth. However, it will provide you with a thoroughly Woke perspective. It can be valuable to read a radical counter-perspective for your communication to a broader audience by understanding underlying assumptions some persons might have. It is sad though to read how thoroughly a commitment to a radical philosophy can rob one of a basic reading and understanding of God's word.
Jeffry Lewis
8/4/2021
This commentary describes the story of the early church in the book of Acts as "the exportation of a nonnative imperial political religion to 'Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to land’s end.'" That should tells you everything you need to know about this commentary.Toma Gabriel
6/8/2021
Jo Ann Powell, Ph.D.
5/19/2021
An excellent resource by a diversity of top-notch Biblical scholars. Well worth adding to one's collection of commentaries.
Elizabeth Parker
11/7/2016
Carol Bevis
2/15/2016
The write up says it's for and about women and doesn't tell the whole truth about this resource. It is written by women who are hostile to the Bible, who are true feminists and refuse to use BC and AD for dates which you would expect believers to use. It is written by academics who know nothing about what women actually want to know about in the Bible - ie what does it look like to be a godly woman, how do women show the world their part of the image of God (as both individuals and as wives and mothers) and what God thinks about us. If this is what you, like me, are looking for you'd be better off either looking elsewhere or using your Logos library to create your own commentary to answer those questions.
