The Woman's Bible is a two-part non-fiction book, written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a committee of 26 women, published in 1895 and 1898 to challenge the traditional position of religious orthodoxy that woman should be subservient to man. By producing the book, Stanton wished to promote a radical liberating theology, one that stressed self-development. The book attracted a great deal of controversy and antagonism at its introduction.
Many women's rights activists who worked with Stanton were opposed to the publication of The Woman's Bible; they felt it would harm the drive for women's suffrage. Although it was never accepted by Bible scholars as a major work, much to the dismay of suffragists who worked alongside Stanton within the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), it became a popular best-seller. Susan B. Anthony tried to calm the younger suffragists, but they issued a formal denunciation of the book at NAWSA's January 1896 convention, and worked to distance the suffrage movement from Stanton's broader scope which included attacks on traditional religion. Because of the widespread negative reaction, including that of suffragists who had been close to her, publication of the book effectively ended Stanton's influence in the suffrage movement.
Background
In the early 19th century advocates of women's rights began to accumulate rebuttals to arguments used against them founded on traditional interpretations of Bible scriptures. Lucretia Mott countered those who would put her in her place by quoting other Bible passages, or by challenging the original interpretation of the scripture. In 1849, Mott wrote Discourse on Woman which discussed Adam and Eve, the activities of various women who appear in the Bible, and argued that the Bible supported woman's right to speak aloud her spiritual beliefs.Mott, Lucretia Discourse on Woman, December 17, 1849. Retrieved on May 26, 2009. Independently from Mott, Lucy Stone determined for herself that the male-dominant interpretations of the Bible must be faulty—she worked to learn Greek and Hebrew and thereby gain insight into the earlier Bible translations which she believed would contain wording more favorable to women's equality. In New York, aided by Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped draft the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 and included two Resolutions which protested against man's usurpation of rights relating to her position in church and to her role under God. By the 1850s, Mott had become expert at disarming men who used Scripture against her. At the National Women's Rights Convention in 1852, and again in 1854, she stood up to debate men who came prepared with Scripture in hand. Reverend Henry Grew told the 1854 convention audience that the Bible proved men were naturally superior to women. He was countered point-by-point by Hannah Tracy Cutler, then in broad societal and political terms by Mott who began by saying: "It is not Christianity, but priestcraft that has subjected woman as we find her. The Church and State have been united, and it is well for us to see it so."
Revising Committee
In 1881, 1885 and 1894, the Church of England published a Revised Version of the Bible, the first new English version in over two centuries. Stanton was dissatisfied with the Revised Version's failure to incorporate recent scholarship from Bible translator Julia Evelina Smith. She wrote:
Stanton assembled a "Revising Committee" to draft commentary on the new Bible version. Many of those she approached in person and by letter refused to take part, especially scholars who would be risking their professional reputations. Sharing Stanton's determination, the committee wished to correct biblical interpretation which they viewed as being biased against women, and to bring attention to the small fraction of the Bible which discussed women.About.com, Jone Johnson Lewis. The Woman's Bible – Excerpt. Retrieved on May 26, 2009. They intended to demonstrate that it was not divine will that humiliated women, but human desire for domination.Andover-Harvard Theological Library. Of the Incomparable Treasure of the Holy Scriptures: The Woman's Bible. Retrieved on May 26, 2009.
The committee was made up of women who were not Bible scholars, but who were interested in biblical interpretation and most were active in the NAWSA. In The Woman's Bible, Part I, first edition, released November 1895, the Revising Committee listed 23 members, including Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Augusta Jane Chapin, Lillie Devereux Blake, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Olympia Brown, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Just a few months later in early 1896, Part I, Second Edition was released permanently replacing Mrs. Catt's name with Mrs. Clara Neymann and adding a list of international members, notably among them were Alexandra Gripenberg, Ursula Mellor Bright and Irma von Troll-Borostyani.
In 1890 at the formation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Stanton was elected president. She left such duties to Susan B. Anthony and instead traveled to Europe for two years. While there she met with women who shared her views, and she gathered critical observations about the place of woman in the Bible. In Greenbank, Bristol, Stanton met with English suffragist Helen Bright Clark, and spoke to a group about the Bible position of woman. Clark questioned whether Stanton's liberal views had shocked some in attendance, and Stanton replied: "Well, if we who do see the absurdities of the old superstitions never unveil them to others, how is the world to make any progress in the theologies? I am in the sunset of life, and I feel it to be my special mission to tell people what they are not prepared to hear ..."
In 1893, Matilda Joslyn Gage took time out from her participation in the Revising Committee to write Woman, Church and State, a book which challenged traditional Judeo-Christian teaching that women were the source of sin, and that sex was sinful. Gage wrote that the double standard for morality hurt both sexes.Gage, Matilda Joslyn Woman, Church and State: A Historical Account of the Status of Woman Through the Christian Ages with Reminiscences of the Matriarchate , 1893. Retrieved on May 26, 2009. Gage differed from most of the women on the Revising Committee in that she did not feel that the Bible, once interpreted in a more true, original form, would support women's rights. Gage determined that the Church had acted against women's interests in important ways: from Roman Catholic canon law, to Scripture, to its advocacy of celibacy and more. Especially troubling to Gage was the story of Adam and Eve.
Publication In November 1895, The Woman's Bible – Part I, first edition was published, covering the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It was a best seller. News sources reported the initial printing of the first edition Part I, consisting of 50,000 copies,Chicago Tribune, 21 Nov 1895, p. 7. New Bible of the New Woman. Retrieved on February 25, 2019.The Newcastle Weekly Courant, 07 Dec 1895, p. 2. The New Woman's Bible. Retrieved on February 25, 2019. sold out within three months and by May 2, 1896, Part I, Second Edition was selling rapidly.Harrisburg Telegraph, 02 May 1896, p. 1. Jottings. Retrieved on Feb 25, 2019. "The entire first edition of "The Woman's Bible" was sold within three months after its publication. The second edition, just edited, is selling rapidly by the European Publishing Company, 35 Wall Street, New York."
In April 1898, Part II was published,Omaha Daily Bee, 27 Apr 1898, p. 9. History of a Great Church ... More of the "Woman's Bible." Retrieved February 25, 2019.The Times-Picayune, 17 Apr 1898, p. 16. The New Books. Retrieved February 25, 2019. covering the rest of the Old Testament as well as all of the New Testament. It included a Preface and an Appendix. The Preface was written by Stanton in which she acknowledged that "Both friend and foe object to the title."Sacred Texts. The Woman's Bible, Preface to Part II. Retrieved on May 27, 2009. Nevertheless, she praised the Revising Committee for showing "a more worshipful reverence for the great Spirit of All Good than does the Church." Stanton wrote: "We have made a fetich of the Bible long enough. The time has come to read it as we do all other books, accepting the good and rejecting the evil it teaches." The Appendix consisted of Letters and Comments written by a multitude of contributors, as well as the resolution passed by the NAWSA, by which it repudiated "The Woman's Bible".The Woman's Bible (PDF) at Project Gutenberg, www.dominiopublico.gov.br, accessed 7 Sep. 2021.
Contributors Additional co-authors of the two volumes include Ellen Battelle Dietrick; Ursula Newell Gestefeld, a New Thought activist;Satter (1999), see here. Louisa Southworth, a suffragette and temperance movement activist;Satter (1999), see here. Frances Ellen Burr (1831–1923), a leading suffragette of Connecticut;Frances Ellen Burr at Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame, New Haven, CT. Accessed 7 September 2021. Lucinda B. Chandler, a leader of the American women's rights movement with interest in New Thought;Satter (1999), pp. and 305. and Clara B. Neyman (1840–1931), New York suffragette and member of the Freethinkers. Other contributors to the Appendix are Mary A. Livermore, Frances E. Willard, Eva Amelia (Parker) Ingersoll (1841–1923), the wife of leading US agnostic Robert G. Ingersoll, Josephine K. Henry, and Catharine F. Stebbins.
Reaction
At its introduction, The Woman's Bible was widely criticized in editorials and from the pulpit. Stanton wrote that "the clergy denounced it as the work of Satan ..." Some were put off just by its prejudicial, sacrilegious title, especially those who did not take the time to read the book.New York Times, March 7, 1896, Mrs. W. Winslow Crannell. Her View of the "Woman's Bible."; What a Correspondent Says of Objections: Offered to Work. Retrieved on May 26, 2009. Others countered the book's more extreme conclusions one by one in public fora such as letters to the editor. One female reader of The New York Times wrote to decry The Woman's Bible for its radical statements that the Trinity was composed of "a Heavenly Mother, Father, and Son", and that prayers should be addressed to an "ideal Heavenly Mother". Mary Seymour Howell, a member of the Revising Committee, wrote to The New York Times in defense of the book, saying that its title could be better understood as "The Woman's Commentary on the Women of the Bible".The New York Times, March 1, 1896, Mary Seymour Howell. Defense of The Woman's Bible.; Mary Seymour Howell Says Something to Its Critics. Retrieved on May 26, 2009. Stanton countered attacks by women readers, writing "the only difference between us is, we say that these degrading ideas of woman emanated from the brain of man, while the church says that they came from God."Trivia-Library.com. Famous Feminist Works: The Woman's Bible by Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Retrieved May 26, 2009.