Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
Not till "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
world" shall pierce with its rays the darkness of the sensuous nature,
will woman's spiritual motherhood for the race, be discerned as the way
of its redemption from that darkness and its consequences. As that
light is uncovered in individual souls the inner meaning of the Bible
will appear, woman's nature as the individual and her true relativity
to man be seen. Then the mistakes which have been ignorantly made will
be rectified, because both sides of the shield will be seen. Men and
women will clasp hands as comrades with a common destiny; religion and
science will each reveal their destiny and prove that truth which the
Bible even exoterically declares that "the woman is the glory of the
man."
Ursula N. Gestefeld.
It is requested that I shall answer two questions:
1. Has the Bible advanced or retarded woman's emancipation?
2. Has it elevated or degraded the Mothers of the Race?
If by "emancipation" is meant the social, legal and political position
of women, and if by the "Bible" the authorized version of the Old
Testament, it would be difficult to prove that the opponents of that
emancipation have not derived their narrow views from many passages in
the Bible. This, however, applies only to the exoteric interpretation,
the weak points of which have been so mercilessly exposed in Part I. of
"The Woman's Bible."
The Divine wisdom whose occult truths form the basis of Judaism, of
Christianity and of all other religions, has nothing to do with the
subjection of sex: and to be fair we must confess that there are many
texts in the exoteric version which proclaim the equality of woman,
notably the first chapter of Genesis. I believe that H. P. Blavatsky
was right when she said of the Bible: "It is a grand volume, a
masterpiece composed of clever, ingenious fables, containing great
verities; but it reveals the latter only to those who, like the
Initiates, have a key to its inner meaning; a tale sublime in its
morality and didactics truly--still a tale and an allegory; a repertory
of invented personages in its older Jewish portions, and of dark
sayings and parables in its later additions, and thus quite misleading
to any one ignorant of its esotericism."
This being the case, the discussion which "The Woman's Bible" raises
is to my judgment somewhat futile. It is said that from Genesis to
Revelation the Bible degrades woman. Does it not, as it stands, equally
in many passages degrade the conception of the Supreme Being? Many
noble and Divine truths have been utterly degraded by the coarse
fallacies of men. All this is so sure to be made clear in the near
future that I am doubtful of the wisdom of laying too much stress on
passages whose meaning is entirely misunderstood by the vast majority
of Christians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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