Alice Bach (ed). Women in the Hebrew Bible: A Reader. New York and London: Routledge, 1999. Pp. xxvi + 539. No Price Listed.

Abstract

"In this single volume Alice Bach has brought together 33 previous published essays (and one essay published here for the first time), demonstrating the best of feminist interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Each of the essays challenges its reader to read the text of the Hebrew Bible with attention beyond its dominant (male) interests, and so examine the text's attitudes toward women and their status in Israelite society. "Any time any reader reads against the grain of the text, reads with a suspicious eye towards how the narrator wants you to read, you are performing a feminist reading" (xxvi). Although many of the essays are widely and easily accessible in their original publication, and thus the scholar of feminist biblical interpretation might find this collection superfluous, their collection in this single volume Reader provides a splendid introduction to the approaches and insights of feminist interpretation especially for students and those new to the academic field. [2] Although all Readers inevitably omit what some regard as significant or even essential essays, Bach has collected a fair cross-section of current feminist scholarship. All the essays are by prominent scholars in the field. Most of the essays were originally published in the 1990s. Both social-historical and literary approaches are well-represented. To compensate for the necessarily limited selection of essays, two extensive bibliographies - on feminist interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and on feminist, womanist, and mujerista theologies - are included at the end of the volume. [3] Bach provides the essays with an introduction that places feminist biblical interpretation within its hermeneutical context. Particularly helpful for the student and the newcomer, Bach includes a series of questions and guidelines for "jump-starting" a feminist reading of the biblical texts. Bach has attempted to arrange the essays into groups focusing on a similar approach or theme. Although heuristically useful, the groupings are not completely successful for several of the essays defy a simple classification. One group of essays that deserves note is the final group in which Bach has assembled five essays to form a "case history" on the interpretation of Numbers 5:11-31. Each of the essays provides a different (not always feminist) reading of the passage, and together they provide an example of what is gained and lost through feminist interpretation."(pg 1)