Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament

A friend was kind enough t lend this book to me when I was facilitating a study; it was so valuable and I learned so much from it that I absolutely HAD to have it! Was fortunate to find a copy that, save for the namplate in front (which I removed) is like a brand-new book, at less than 1/2 the list price. So thrilled to have this and already get great value from a most comprehensive, well-ordered and well-written book.

I have been using this book intermittently for reference purposes during the more than two years since I bought it.Big plus: Exhaustive coverage of all women in the Bible, named or unnamed. I don't believe there is any female character or group of women in the Bible who have been overlooked. And navigation (finding any given female character/s in this book) is very well done. The book is easy to use.Big minus: In many cases (but not all), I have been disappointed by the nature of the commentary offered. I know the title says it's a dictionary, not a commentary, but quite a lot of the content (in common with other Bible Dictionaries) is in fact in the nature of commentary. The problem I have with the commentary is that several (again, not all) of the contributors seem to be more driven to make points in support of their particular feminist or womanist hermeneutic than to explore the text and discover what else there might be to say about the woman, or women, being considered in the entry. Since I am male, I had better add that I sympathise somewhat with the feminist perspective and a great deal with a womanist perspective. My complaint is not that entries are written from these perspectives: in a volume like this the reader should surely anticipate that! What I feel is lacking is a deeper exploration. In some cases, (eg. Jephthah's daughter) I felt that more could have been said from those very perspectives, but that the writer failed to spend enough time in fresh analysis of the text.On balance, I would say that if you need an exhaustive reference, there is not another available like this one. But be prepared, after paying for this book, to do some further exegesis and/or exposition yourself, on occasion.

I know this subject quite deeply and can say with some slight authority that this book is amazing. It compacts a lot of information into its pages, and will be one of my permanent reference books.

This book is rigorously researched and very readable. It is a fantastic reference book for anyone teaching Bible or writing homilies or sermons. It is on my shelf for ready reference, and it can be bought new for as little as $21. I know of no other compendium that covers the content of this book as deeply. I only wish there were an equivalent volume by these authors on the men in the Bible. As stated by other reviewers, the articles at the beginning of the book are excellent.

A wonderful tool for thorough research.

book in great shape

This book details all women in scripture, wether named or unnamed. A wonderful resource for anyone wanting to know more about women in the Bible.

The book is old and dirty and not in the best condition for someone to purchase. It was a library book at some point and it still had the library's name and tags on it. Not a good purchase.