大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger

Women鈥檚 Bible

Good Morning.

On this day back in 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman ever to testify before the US Congress, on the issue of votes for women. She was an abolitionist and an ardent campaigner for women鈥檚 rights, - and a harsh critic of how the Bible was interpreted by men, so much so that she published the Women鈥檚 Bible in 1895! She believed the Bible had been written- and interpreted- to subordinate women, and that it was a product of its time. Her views shocked many people. Nevertheless, the Woman鈥檚 Bible was hugely popular, running to seven editions in six months! It caused a storm - but her methodology, using textual and historical criticism, was already gaining traction amongst academics. She read the Bible through feminist eyes, convinced that its- to her- most offensive passages had been written by men in a less enlightened age!

Nowadays, few people, other than fundamentalists who regard the Bible as being literally the word of God, would turn a hair. Academic biblical criticism has flourished for well over a hundred and fifty years. Historical analysis is commonplace. Different versions of the same text, such as the 10 Commandments, demonstrate that attitudes changed and developed - the later version suggests a wife is more valuable than a house!

Stanton established the foundations for modern feminism, alongside critical religious thinking. She wanted slavery abolished, votes for women, girls to be educated like boys and marriage to be between equals, with no one partner obeying the other. Through her campaigns, over a hundred and fifty years ago, she changed social attitudes, for women and men alike. And that led to progress. She deserves memorialising. God, let us remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all others who changed our world for the better, however hard it was for them to do so.