Woman's Bible

'The Woman's Bible' was published by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of other women in 1895. 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 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 and others were afraid to critique the Bible for religious reasons. Stanton 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. The Woman s Bible failed to be accepted as a major work of biblical scholarship, though it became a best-seller.