"Of the Incomparable Treasure
of the Holy Scriptures"

12. The Woman's Bible
Woman's Bible
The Woman's Bible. New York, European Publishing Company, 1895-98. 2 v. 23 cm. [R.B.R. HQ1395.W8]

On display: Cover of vol. 1.
Additional views:
   Title page of. v.1
   Members of the revising committee
   Preface to v. 1: p. 1, p. 2


The Woman's Bible is a collection of essays and commentaries on the Bible compiled in 1895 by a committee chaired by Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention (the first Woman's Rights Convention held in 1848) and a founder of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Stanton's purpose was to initiate a critical study of biblical texts that are used to degrade and subject women in order to demonstrate that it is not divine will that humiliates women, but human desire for domination. In "denying divine inspiration for demoralizing ideas," Stanton's committee hoped to exemplify a reverence for a higher Christian "Spirit of all Good."

The Woman's Bible was recently cited in an article by John Updike in The New Yorker ["Can Eve be Reprieved? Feminist Scholars Take on the Good Book," Sept. 14, 1998, pp. 93-97].


Sources of information:
Boles, Janet K., Diane Long Hoeveler, and Rebecca Bardwell. Historical Dictionary of Feminism. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, c1996.
Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.


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This online exhibit was prepared in 1998.
Copyright ©1998-2005 by the President & Fellows of Harvard College
Address corrections or comments to Clifford Wunderlich.

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