My granddaughters in a Christmas pageant, 2008.
An unprecedented activity for Estonia took place in the spring when the Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre (ENUT) organized the seminar “Three religions from a gender perspective” at Tallinn University. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were analyzed.
I opened the seminar with the following text:
The intention of today’s seminar is to move along with the times and to contribute to the national dialogue on religion. Starting in the fall, Estonia’s school system will introduce, in the interest of promoting ethics and tolerance, the study of religion as an elective in the curriculum. We believe that tolerance and ethics can be taught successfully when stereotypes and myths are subjected to critical analysis. That’s one of the aims of today’s seminar.
It is in the above spirit that I introduce „The Woman’s Bible“ which can be regarded as a book belonging among Bibles that have appeared throughout history, such as John Wycliffe’s translation into English in 1382, Martin Luther’s translation for the Germans in 1534, and the appearance of the Bible for Estonians in our native tongue in 1739. We have reached the point in history where feminist theology embraces many religions and „The Woman’s Bible“ has played a significant role in this.
In 2010 a writer-friend in New York sent me a biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. While studying history in the US, I had learned about the women’s movement, but it was not my topic of interest and, consequently, I was not very familiar with Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s story. Reading the book, I learned that Elizabeth and other women who were called collectively „The Revising Committee“, which included Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg in Finland, compiled „The Woman’s Bible“ at the end of the 19th century.
I bought the book and learned that it is unknown in Estonia. We added it to ENUT’s library. We’ve noticed at ENUT that since Estonia joined the European Union in 2004, the number of books borrowed in the religion category has increased. Last fall I spoke with Raili Maling, a fellow member of ENUT Board and a member of Tartu University’s faculty, about The Woman’s Bible and since she was also interested in the topic of religion, we decided to organize a seminar that looks at three major religions from a gender perspective.
Who was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, what was her role in America’s history, and why did she author the book „The Woman’s Bible“? She was born in 1815 and died in 1902. Her father was an esteemed lawyer and judge in the State of New York. Into the family were born five girls and six boys of whom five died in childhood. The only surviving son came home to die in 1826 after graduating from college. Elizabeth entered her brother’s room where her „pale and immovable“ father sat by his dying son’s bed. She climbed into her father’s lap and at length he said, „Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!“ She threw her arms around his neck and replied, „I will try to be all my brother was.“ She took her promise seriously: she studied Latin and Greek, mathematics, horseback riding and other subjects meant for boys. She was a superb student. She applied for admission to the same college her brother had attended, but was rejected because she was a female. She went to Troy Female Seminary and obtained as great an education as was possible for a young woman at that time.
The Abolitionist Movement was strong in the northeastern part of the US and Elizabeth’s great interest in justice and legal systems (after graduating from the Seminary, she read her father’s legal literature for several years and wanted to become a lawyer, but New York statutes did not allow a woman to practice law in the State) brought her into contact with people fighting against slavery, including the young man she married. The marriage lasted almost half century and the couple had seven children.
Elizabeth had been raised in a Calvinist family and throughout her life she believed in God and an afterlife, but as an adult she began to look critically at the Bible. In the Introduction to „The Woman’s Bible“ she wrote: „The canon and civil law; church and state; priests and legislators; all political parties and religious denominations have alike taught that woman was made after man, of man, and for man, an inferior being, subject to man. Creeds, codes, Scriptures and statutes, are all based on this idea. The fashions, forms, ceremonies and customs of society, church ordinances and discipline all grow out of this idea.“
Not agreeing with the text of the Revised Bible issued by the Anglican Church, she began to have the idea in 1886 to establish a committee for critical analysis of the Bible. She succeeded in assembling 26 women who were not biblical scholars, but highly educated and deeply interested in the interpretation of the Bible’s texts. The aim of the committee was to bring attention to that small section of the Bible that includes women and to correct slanted interpretation. The work took some time, but the first part of the book appeared already in 1895. It was a „best seller“, resulting in six reprints in six months, but it was also widely criticized in editorials and pulpits. The second part of "The Woman's Bible" was published in 1898.
The committee analyzed the Creation story. In the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 27, woman and man area created: „God created man in his own image ... male and female.“
In the Book of Genesis, Chapter 2, verses 21-23: „And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.“
The two versions contradict each other and, therefore, both cannot be true. How to explain the contradiction? The compilers of „The Woman’s Bible“ assert that the first version is closer to truth than the second. They suggest that in this instance one should follow St. Paul’s opinion that it is beneficial to verify everything and to accept that which is good.
And why is the simultaneous creation of the two sexes in the image of God good? Stanton argues that “masculine and feminine elements, exactly equal and balancing each other, are as essential to the maintenance of the equilibrium of the universe as positive and negative electricity, the centripetal and centrifugal forces, the laws of attraction which bind together all we know of this planet whereon we dwell and of the system in which we revolve.”
And to those who believe that a woman is inferior to man, because she was created after man, the book compilers say that they, therefore, must also accept that man is inferior to crawling creatures, because according to the Scriptures man was created after them.
The third chapter contains the allegory of Adam and Eve on which is based the doctrine of original sin. According to Stanton, it describes mankind’s fall into sin and characterizes the woman as the author of all ills. But Stanton thinks that „the unprejudiced reader must be impressed with the courage, the dignity, and the lofty ambition of the woman. The tempter evidently had a profound knowledge of human nature, and saw at a glance the high character of the person he met by chance in his walks in the garden. He did not try to tempt her from the path of duty by brilliant jewels, rich dresses, worldly luxuries or pleasures, but with the promise of knowledge, with the wisdom of the Gods. /.../... and he roused in the woman that intense thirst for knowledge, that the simple pleasures of picking flowers and talking with Adam did not satisfy. Compared with Adam she appears to great advantage through the entire drama.“
Regarding the Old Testament, Stanton and her committee members found praiseworthy passages, especially concerning women. But on the whole, they concurred that Mosaic code and customs need to be censured as denigrating of women, and because they have been taught as the word of God women’s position in the society is difficult. As mentioned above, these opinions were criticized, sometimes even severely. Stanton replied to her critics; „To criticize the peccadilloes of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel does not shadow the virtues of Deborah, Huldah and Vashti; when I condemn Jewish laws and customs in the first Book of Genesis, the power of the 10 commandments and the Golden Rule are not destroyed. Parts of the Bible are so true, so bright and so beautiful that it is a shame they are in the same volume with very coarse and immoral feelings and descriptions.“
Turning to the committee’s scrutiny of the New Testament, we learn that Jesus never said “that woman should be subject to man…. He spoke to the individual soul, not recognizing sex as a quality of spiritual life, or as determining the sphere of action of either man or woman.”
That passage is, also, interpreted as Jesus’ teaching to women to seek knowledge above household tasks. In Stanton’s book a woman’s self-development and education, seeking of truth and knowledge are an all-pervasive theme, starting with Eve in Paradise as we have seen already.
According to many theologians, Paul was the founder of Christianity; thus Paul’s references to women have great significance. His letters to the different congregations in which he gives instructions and counsel form the basis for the Christian Church. The committee members find that there is no doubt about the prominent role women played in the early church and they cite Paul’s letters to the Romans, Chapter 16, verses 1-5: „I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea, that he receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.“
Stanton wrote, „Paul not only virtually pronounces Priscilla a fellow-Apostle and fellow-bishop, but specially commends Phebe, a Greek woman, as a minister (diakonos), which as we have seen, may be legitimately interpreted either presbyter, bishop, or Apostle.“
Since Paul’s teachings have been decisive in matters concerning the status of women, the committee finds it necessary to take a closer look at the sources and reasons for these teachings. They find that many of the teachings contain old Hebrew legends, for example, the one about women having to cover their heads.
The most often cited passage pertaining to the status of women is in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 14, verses 34-35: „Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for woman to speak in the church.“
Why such a message to the Corinthians and not the Romans? Stanton explains: „The church at Corinth was peculiarly given to diversion and to disputation; and women were apt to join in and to ask many troublesome questions; hence they were advised to consult their husbands at home. The Apostle took it for granted that all men were wise enough to give to women the necessary information on all subjects. Others, again, advise wives never to discuss knotty points with their husbands; for if they should chance to differ from each other, that fact might give rise to much domestic infelicity. There is such a wide difference of opinion on this point among wise men, that perhaps it would be as safe to leave women to be guided by their own unassisted common sense.“
Indeed, also in other passages Paul has sent instructions offensive to women, but he also taught principles of equality. In his letter to the Galatians, Chapter 3, verse 28 he wrote: „There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”The above gives some examples from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s book „The Woman’s Bible“. The book could be considered as a step in the development of Christianity. In the early years, Latin which only few knew to read was the language of the Church. We’ve seen that in the late 14th century the Bible appeared for the first time in a language other than Latin. After Luther’s time, the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular spread and the Bible became accessible to many. In the 20th century, we began to understand the Bible also in women’s language and, in conclusion, I would, therefore, submit that the Bible has had a role in the democratic development of societies.
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