Introduction
The title “Women Reading the Scriptures” seems to imply that women read the scriptures differently than men. Why would this be? Could it have anything to do with the reality that most, if not all, the Scriptures were written by men for men? We need to recall that prior to the 1970’s almost all acceptable theology and biblical exegesis came from male scholars. There was little hint given that this was at all inadequate. Didn’t the scriptures mean the same for everyone? Why would anyone question this?

But lo and behold, as the 1970’s progressed, women who had attained doctoral degrees in biblical studies began to question this. And thus was born a whole new area of biblical studies: feminist interpretation. And in the decades that followed other new interpretations began to emerge out of the African American Womanist tradition, the Latina and Mujerista traditions, the Asian women’s tradition. Today, there’s no turning back these pages. Women have arrived in the field of biblical studies and we need to listen to their voices.

An article in Biblical Archeology Review, November/December 2011 by Jane Schaberg asks the question “Are Feminists Biased About the Bible?” She points out that the word “bias” means the angle on which a piece of cloth has been cut diagonally across the grain.  She concludes that “Some feminists judged religion and the Bible as major obstacles to human rights.” These feminists tended to disregard the biblical texts as meaningful to them. But, she says, “Other feminists found in them great power to be unleashed in the struggle for human rights.”[1] (Schaberg n.d.)

Why Women Reading the Bible?
As we consider whether a feminine interpretation of the Bible is necessary, we must raise a question: have these Scriptures and the ways in which they have been interpreted for us, been the source of freedom and liberation for women, or have they been part of the violence and oppression inflicted upon women?

Our interpretations of all literature – even Scripture – are determined in large measure by the questions we bring to the text.[2] Most of the questions brought to the texts in the long tradition of biblical interpretation have been brought by men for men in the interests of men. Indeed, much of the Bible has been written in favor of the “ruling class” or those in power (with few exceptions, those were men). This adds to the difficulty of “finding women” in a book probably written exclusively by men.[3]

If we are to look at the texts in a way sensitive to women, we must bring new questions that uncover that which has often been hidden. Sometimes we discover that women’s names have been altered or omitted in various early codices.[4] Many women in the Scriptures get mentioned briefly, usually in relation to someone else, and get remembered because of some “accidental” information.[5] What is known about these women must get “pieced together.”[6]

The questions brought to the biblical texts by women are not “disinterested.” As Kathryn Darr points out, this “method” of questioning the texts is somewhat similar to that of the ancient rabbis – “whose …interpretations of scripture had a purpose…” [7] Women, too, have an agenda – to interpret the texts in the interests of women who have often been “marginalized and constricted by the sacred texts. Just as all of us carry “biases,” and these “biases’ provide the lens through which we view all that we encounter, we must admit, from the beginning, that “women’s reading of the bible” is done through specific lenses.

Today there are numerous works written by women scholars that would fit into this challenge. Here are just a few of the authors that might appear on this list:                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Sheri Adams, Cheryl Anne Brown, Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, Florence M. Gillman, Hisako Kinukawa, Rose Shepard Kraemer,
         Mary Rose D’Angelo, Alice Laffey,  Megan McKenna, Cao; Meyers, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, 
         Janice Nunnally-Cox, Carol Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, Carolyn Osiek, Margaret Y. MacDonald, Elaine Pagels, Pheme Perkins,
         Susan Praeder, Ivone Richter Reiner, Letty Russell, Jane Schaberg, Sandra Schneiders, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza,
         Nancy Sylvester, Elisabeth M. Tetlow, Savina J. Teubal, Phyllis Trible, Rachel Conrad Wahlberg, Renita Weems.

[1] Jane Schaberg, “Are Feminists Biased About the Bible? BAR (Vol. 37, No. 6) pp. 26+.

[2] Kathryn Darr, Far More Precious Than Jewels, p. 12.

[3] Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p. x.

[4] Florence M. Gillman, Women Who Knew Paul (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1992), p. 27.

[5] Gillman, p. 21.

[6] Gillman, p. 22.

[7] Darr, p. 35.