We tend to think that Old Testament women lived in a suppressive environment, under a patriarchy in which they had few rights. But many of them made significant choices - leading people to freedom, daring to believe God for deliverance, taking real initiative - that changed history. Sarah, Miriam, Ruth, Rahab, Naomi, Abigail... here are studies on ordinary yet remarkable women whose lives demonstrate real courage and faithfulness.

“This splendid reference describes every woman in Jewish and Christian scripture . . . monumental” (Library Journal). In recent decades, many biblical scholars have studied the holy text with a new focus on gender. Women in Scripture is a groundbreaking work that provides Jews, Christians, or anyone fascinated by a body of literature that has exerted a singular influence on Western civilization a thorough look at every woman and group of women mentioned in the Bible, whether named or unnamed, well known or heretofore not known at all. 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 females who in the scriptures do not even have names. Combining rigorous research with engaging prose, 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 collected histories create a volume that takes the study of women in the Bible to a new level.

Much of the history of women, in religion as in other fields, is lost because it was overlooked or considered unimportant. It is therefore surprising that so many fragments of women's stories survive in the New Testament texts composed by men. Why did they include so many references to women and why are women, as a group, treated so positively by the male New Testament writers? Women in the New Testament shows how the stories of women are an integral part of the Gospel and its meaning for us. It also relays how we can respond to the challenge these women represent, whether we are men trying to understand or women trying to find our voices within the tradition of faith found in the New Testament. Chapter one discusses three women of expectant faith. Chapters two and three deal with women who are changed by Jesus. Chapter four focuses on New Testament women of influence. Chapters five and six show how women disciples spread and gave shape to the gospel message. Chapters are "Women of Expectant Faith," “Women Changed by Jesus,” “More Women Changed by Jesus,” “Women of Prominence,” “Women and Discipleship,” and “More Women and Discipleship.” Mary Ann Getty-Sullivan, PhD, teaches at St. Vincent College and St. Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, Pennsylvania. She is the author of First and Second Corinthians from the Collegeville Bible Commentary series, author of the God Speaks to Us series of children's books, and editor of the Zacchaeus Studies: New Testament series published by The Liturgical Press. "

Meet the faithful women God sent to serve alongside His patriarchs. We may recognize their names, but there is so much more to discover about Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, Ruth, and the seventy other Old Testament women profiled in this book. Filled with stunning photography that brings their stories to life, this book is an ideal companion to your study of the Old Testament.

A beautifully illustrated book focusing on forty women from the Old Testament. Designed to be used as a devotional journey, with a practical reflection and prayer each day.

Volume 2 of Women in the Biblical World: A Survey of Old and New Testament Perspectives encompasses the latest research in feminist biblical scholarship. New angles of interpretation and fresh perspectives regarding often overlooked biblical women will be gained from the pages of this volume. This volume focuses on such women as Tamar, Deborah, Manoah's wife, Queen Vashti, and Job's wife. Attention is also given to socio-historical backgrounds lurking behind the biblical text (such as women in Greco-Roman education and syncretism in Ephesus), demonstrating how these backgrounds directly influenced the writings about women. Some emphasis on contemporary application is also stressed regarding problematic passages, such as 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. This multi-faceted approach to women in the Bible will prove to be invigorating, refreshing, and enlightening for all to read.

"First published by Claretian Publications ... Quezon City 1101 Philippines"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-225).

If you could spend a few minutes with biblical heroines Ruth, Sarah, Mary, and others, what valuable lessons would they share with you? In the tradition of Running with the Giants and Learning from the Giants, John Maxwell shares wisdom on life and leadership inspired by the Bible-this time focusing solely on the stories of nine incredible women. Learn how God blesses the promises you keep to Him, why you should follow your heart to find your hope, and how not to miss your moment with God. Read on your own or study with a group using the provided faith-building questions. You'll enjoy the journey with Maxwell as he imagines what it would be like to visit heaven and meet giants of the faith who had their lives transformed by God. You'll gain insights from: Ruth...for when you must make a decision but don't know what to do. Sarah...for when you can't understand God and impatience threatens to overwhelm you. Mary. . .for when God asks you to do something outside of your comfort zone. The women who influenced Maxwell inspired this book, and he includes the perspectives of those closest to him in this volume. They and the giants of the faith who continue to inspire them will encourage you to fulfill your destiny and leave a lasting, positive impression on your family and the world.

Old Testament women were often as tough-minded and strong-willed as their male counterparts, and many were able to work the religious and secular law to their advantage. Baker unravels the labyrinth of Aramean, Assyrian, Babylonian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Hittite, Sumerian, and Hebrew culture and interprets arcane biblical narratives in light of legal custom. He considers women in business; surrogate sexual partners and slave-husband counterparts to men's slaves and concubines; inheritance rights of daughters; and metronomic marriage in which the wife provided land, occupation, and family for a less well situated husband. In doing so he makes many of the Old Testament stories understandable for the first time. Along the way Baker also renders obsolete many simplistic, however well meaning object lessons that one can hear at times in Sunday school, while nevertheless bolstering other common-sense, plain readings of scripture. His research provides readers with grist for discussion on a variety of timely themes and points the way for future investigation into what has proven to be a fruitful field.

w OMEN in the OLD TESTAMENT Jwenty Psychological Portraits BY NORAH LOFTS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY New york i949 Dear, dead women, with such hair, too Browning foreword There was once, in the journalistic world, a slogan which ran Women are always news and even now, in the nineteen-forties it does not seem to be quite outworn. The very existence of the series to which this book belongs, Women in . . . pre-supposes that there is something automatically in teresting, almost automatically romantic, in merely belonging to the female sex, and that when any woman engages in any spe cific activity outside strictly functional ones, more people are in terested in the process and in the result than they would be if the same process were followed, the same result achieved, by a man. The only valid reason that I can see for this focussing of interest upon the female is that in any assembly attention is always directed if only for a moment towards the latest arrival and Woman arrived late upon the outer, public scene, just as she ar rived late if we believe the story of the Creation upon the ac tual planet. Men have done and thought and achieved things un til doing and thinking and achieving have become commonplace then some woman does, thinks, achieves, and interest immediately revives. It is not entirely flattering to Woman a little reminiscent of Dr. Johnsons comment upon the performing dog. How ever, that cannot be helped and the author of Women in the Old Testament together with those of Women in Art and Women in Crime and all the other exploiters of this curious interest in the female, must be grateful that the general, if un acknowledged, opinion of women is so low that the words Woman SweepsChimney would make an arresting headline even in these days of paper shortage. So here is a book, written by a woman, about a group of people who have nothing in common save their sex and the fact that their names or their stories happen to be included in what is one ix x foreword of the most magnificent pieces of history in the whole of litera tureif not the most magnificent. There are twenty of them and they differ from one another far more sharply than would the next twenty women you would meet in the busiest London street different as they would be, could you know their stories They range from simple nomadic desert women to palace-bred princesses here are women of sound good practical sense and mystics prudes and harlots women who have attained immor tality because some man once looked upon them with love, and women who by their own actions influenced the history and thought of their times. I have never, during the long time in which I have been writ ing this book, been blind to the fact a rather terrible fact that, compared with the Old Testament, dynamite is a harmless sub stance, lightly to be handled. More blood has been shed, more venom exuded, over this one volume than over any other book in the world. The Old Testament founded Salt Lake City the Old Testament justified the Puritans and the Covenanters. With a single simple sentence, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, it set a monstrous machinery in motion, both in Europe and America. I am inclined to think that no one is entirely responsible for his or her attitude towards the Old Testament. It is one of the fundamentals like sex or money to which we are conditioned in our childhood and subsequently are bound to accepteither as Holy Writ, a bogey outgrown, or an interesting, curious piece of literature. For those in whose childhood it loomed large, something remains until the end, even it be only a faint, yearning nostalgia for the time when we did believe that the earth was created and populated with every living thing in the space of six days, and that cheeky children were in danger of being im mediately devoured by bears...