alisarae's profile picture

alisarae 's review for:

The Women's Bible Commentary by Sharon H. Ringe, Carol A. Newsom

I am reading this bit by bit on archive.org. As I finish books in the Bible, I read what the commentary says after. This is an essay-style commentary, not line-by-line, and it makes for much better reading. Besides, the content of this commentary is to specifically look at women present (or absent) in the Bible, so it doesn't make sense to do a line reading.

Each essay is written by a different woman, and they necessarily vary quite a bit in their presentation styles. The book introductions provide interesting historical and literary analyses, then the essays diverge into specific women characters in the book, the role or responsibilities of women in the book, or maybe the absence of their responsibilities. For example, the essay on Mark is divided into: women characters shown in a positive light, women characters in a negative light, and women in the Passion story. But the essay on 1 Corinthians goes into a discussion about why there might be a distinction between the groups of women that Paul refers to: unmarried women vs virgins, then moves on to the next chapter, etc.

This commentary is very easy to follow and to browse through. It is meant for the layperson to be able to pick up and grasp quickly. I would recommend it if you are looking for something interesting to ponder while you read the Bible. For people who have grown up in church and find they know the stories so well that it is hard to read with attention, this might be a good tool to get your brain engaged in the text.