The Woman's Bible by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

First published: 1895-1898

Type of work: Literary criticism

Form and Content

Struggling for women’s rights in the nineteenth century, the early feminists were constantly told that the Bible ordains woman’s sphere as helper to man and woman’s status as inferior to man. Having heard this throughout her decades of labor in the women’s rights movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton determined in 1895 to investigate the Bible and what it really says about women. She attempted to obtain the assistance of a number of female scholars of Hebrew and Greek, but several turned her down, fearing that their reputations would be compromised. Other women were afraid to critique the Bible for religious reasons. Still others, Stanton notes in her introduction, did not want to bother with a book they felt was antiquated and of little importance.

She finally chose a committee of women she believed would make a valuable contribution, primarily based on her perception of their liberal ideas and ability to make sense out of what they read. This was the “Revising Committee” that shared billing with Stanton for the work. Stanton herself, however, wrote most of the commentary, and it contains her own beliefs and values.

When women struggling for their rights in the nineteenth century were referred to the Bible with the explanation that God ordained their inferior position, Stanton notes that there were a variety of responses. Some glossed over the most antiwoman aspects of the Bible and interpreted the rest liberally, thus maintaining their belief in its divine inspiration. Others noticed that biblical law, church law, and the English common law that was the basis of American jurisprudence in the nineteenth century all had a common theme and dismissed them all as human in origin. Still others simply accepted traditional interpretations and the belief that women’s equality would be antireligious and dangerous to the home, the nation, and the church.

For herself, Stanton accepted that the Bible is a mixture of valuable principles of love, liberty, justice, and equality (as, she says, are the holy books of all religions) which at the same time includes passages that degrade women and make their emancipation impossible. One cannot, she says, accept or reject the Bible as a whole since, although it includes some divine, spiritual truths, it is a human book full of human error. Therefore, her goal was to analyze in detail the 10 percent of the book that she believed relevant to women.

The Woman’s Bible is divided into two volumes. The first deals with the five books of the Pentateuch and the second all the other parts of the Bible upon which Stanton and her committee chose to comment. There are commentaries in the first part on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and in the second part on Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Daniel, Micah, Malachi, and even the Kabbalah, a medieval Jewish mystical writing. This section also includes commentary on the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Timothy, Peter, the letters of John, and Revelation. All of the book is written by women, much of it by Elizabeth Cady Stanton herself.

Context

After the publication of the first volume, one clergyman opined that “It is the work of women, and the devil.” Stanton replied: “This is a grave mistake. His Satanic Majesty was not invited to join the Revising Committee, which consists of women alone.” Stanton’s stand in questioning the religious authority of the Bible and the beliefs about women which were based on it led to ridicule, vitriolic attacks by the clergy, and even a move by her fellow feminists in the suffrage movement. In 1896, against the impassioned advice of Stanton’s friend Susan B. Anthony, even the National American Woman Suffrage Association repudiated any connection with The Woman’s Bible, the official reason being the nonsectarian nature of the association.

The book was controversial by its very nature, since it attacked not only the Bible’s use as an authority on which to base women’s subordination but also its divine inspiration. For many years, Stanton’s work was all but forgotten, existing chiefly in the attics of a few remaining supporters in the early twentieth century. With the revival of feminism in the late 1960’s, however, interest in the book as a historical document was revived. It was reprinted in 1972 by Arno Press and also in 1974 by the Coalition Task Force on Women and Religion.

Although full of inaccuracies and quaint interpretations, the questions that Stanton raised were still important, and the arguments from the Bible for women’s subordination could still be heard. Therefore, Stanton’s interest in the portrayal of women in the Bible was also revived along with the twentieth century feminist movement. The Woman’s Bible presaged a large number of scholarly works. Because more women have had the opportunity to become learned in biblical studies, these works are highly sophisticated and professional biblical scholarship when compared with Stanton’s largely amateurish work. The names of Phyllis Trible, Phyllis Bird, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Alice Laffey, and Carol Meyers represent only a tiny sampling of the most well known of these biblical scholars. Their work stems from a similar concern about what the Bible really says about women.

Bibliography

Banner, Lois W. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Woman’s Rights. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. This biography of Stanton covers the reformer’s long and productive life, from her childhood through her marriage and years as a mother of seven, her organization of the first Women’s Rights Convention of 1848, her association with Susan B. Anthony, and her continuing activism until her death in 1902.

Laffey, Alice L. An Introduction to the Old Testament: A Feminist Perspective. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988. An example of modern biblical study about women. Laffey takes readers through the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible with analyses from a feminist point of view of both the texts and the cultural factors behind them. Although this work deals only with the Old Testament, it illustrates the kind of feminist biblical scholarship being done.

Oakley, Mary Ann B. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1972. Another biography of Stanton, this one is somewhat shorter than Lois Banner’s (above). Written in a narrative style, including many conversational quotations. Takes the reader from Stanton’s childhood in New York through her older years.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Edited by Theodore Stanton and Harriet Stanton Blatch. 2 vols. New York: Arno Press, 1969. This set, compiled by two of her children, is the most complete work about Stanton’s life. The first volume is a revision of her autobiography, published in 1898 under the title Eighty Years and More. The second volume begins with selections of her letters from 1839 to 1850 and ends with her diary from 1880 to her death in 1902.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Jocelyn Gage, and Ida H. Harper, eds. History of Woman Suffrage. 6 vols. New York: Fowler and Wells, 1881-1922. Reprint. New York: Source Book Press, 1970. Originally a three-volume set which was later expanded by other editors to make a total of six. Offers a complete documentation of the struggle for women’s suffrage, from the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention to the final ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the vote in 1920. Speeches, reports, newspaper articles, letters, and other archival information, linked together with a running narrative by the authors.

Waggenspack, Beth Marie. The Search for Self-Sovereignty:The Oratory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. Part of a series on Great American Orators, this book takes readers directly into the work of Stanton as a public speaker. Although her career as an orator for women’s rights was complicated both by the demands of her work in the home as a mother and by the opposition to women as public speakers, she nevertheless made many important speeches. The first part of this book discusses Stanton’s life and work, and the second part reprints seven of her speeches. Complete with notes and an annotated bibliography.