Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
Slowly we see a light breaking. When the dawn comes we shall have a
revision of the Bible on very different lines from any yet attempted.
In the meantime may we not ask, Is there any curse or crime which has
not appealed to the Bible for support? Polygamy, capital punishment,
slavery and war have all done so. Why not the subjection of women? Let
us hold fast that which is good in the Bible and the rest will modify
itself in the future, as it has done in the past, to the needs of
humanity and the advance of knowledge.
London, England.
Ursula Bright.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton:--Dear Madam: I have received your letter
and the specimen of "The Woman's Bible" which you have sent me. I have
not had time to examine it minutely; but I have been aware of your
purpose from the beginning. I am afraid that I cannot say anything
which you will wish to print; for I look upon the Bible very
differently from what you do.
I have no superstitious reverence for it, but hold it in high regard
as a valuable collection of very old literature well representing the
thought and the life of a great, earnest people at different periods of
their career. As such, it is full of precious lessons of wisdom and of
sweet and beautiful poetry. I certainly could not endorse Mr. White's
statement; for I have very recently in public lectures spoken of the
great value of this collection as one of the best educators of the
common people in Christendom generally, and especially in Scotland and
the United States. I should say the same, so far as my knowledge
extends, of the Koran and other so-called sacred books.
That the superstitious worship of the Bible as a direct revelation
from God, and the practice of using what is merely the history of human
life as authority for human action now, or as prophecy, has produced or
strengthened great evils in the world I readily admit, and I welcome
all the thorough and searching criticism which can be applied to the
Bible, but nothing is gained by exaggeration. There are noble examples
of woman in the Old Testament of the heroic type, as in the New
Testament of the tender and loving one.
The whole subject of the relations of the sexes is a deep and
difficult one; and the ages have been struggling with it. That woman is
handicapped by peculiarities of physical structure seems evident; and
according to the character of the age these are more or less
unfavorable. Civilization in many instances has emphasized and
increased them to her great disadvantage; but it is only by making her
limitations her powers that the balance can be restored, and in an age
of more intellectual and spiritual superiority this will come to pass.
I read this in the development of woman's life in education, in
industry and in self-support.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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