Religion Debate

The stories in the Bible as we know it today were written by men.

What would the stories in the Bible look like if they had been written by women?  What would the tone of the Bible be?  How would it be written differently than men? 

Why must women accept the Bible as it is if its stories were written by only one-half of the human population?  And those stories were demeaning to women, as if they were second-class (or lower) citizens?

Some of the stories of the Bible were written by men, some by women, others by unknown authors. Now then, the editors of both the Jewish and Christian Bibles have largely been men (the rabbis for the Torah, the Council of Niccea, etc, for the Christian Bible) and the translations especially reflect that, but, just like the Quran, many of the stories and laws in the Bible reflect a progressive attitude towards women as compared to the laws and customs of the times/people where they arose. To state a priori that the Bible, in any of its forms, is "demeaning to women" without taking into account the culture in which it arose, the inherent political issues of translation (I'm assuming you likely read the Bible in English, as opposed to ancient Hebrew?), is to take far too shallow an approach to the work, IMHO.

Plus, women aren't obligated to accept the Bible at all in this culture. No one is. For those of us who do choose to accept it, part of the challenge is to take it on its own terms and try to reconcile the vast cultural difference between us, it, and our understanding of what G-d is and what kind of relationship we should have with G-d (who has no gender originally in the Bible) and divinity.

~Didi

Wife to Ron, Mommy to Will




I have a blog!

Well technically no one is forced to accept the bible, if you don't want to accept it then don't. The previous poster makes some excellent posts on taking it in the context of the times it was written in.

No idea what it would be like if it was written only by women. Probably a bunch of the same but in more of a whiney tone. (joking of course. :P)

Terrific points, Didi. I'll just underline the part about the necessity of understanding that we're reading something created in older and different cultures. Those who are apt to decide that the bible must be a literal textbook of rules and behaviors for modern humans are missing a great deal.

As you say, much of what was written was actually pretty progressive *for its time* toward women. We ought to be striving to be equally progressive *for our time*.

I'm definitely a proponent of creating and using a gender-neutral liturgy in my church, for instance. Long past due, IMO.