What women do not learn in Bible study.

Once I sat in a circle on the floor with other women, bibles, and warm cups of tea. It was a women's only bible study that offered a humble and close connection between other women and scripture. We read the writings of Paul one week. 1 Timothy 2 verse 11-15 raised much confusion, and the bible study leaders were quick to offer apologetic musings about the time this was written. Nothing they said made me feel any comfort over how this was still apart of the book we were instructed to turn to for comfort and clarity.

Women poets in America created their own comfort by writing poems using biblical stories, and with the rise of competitive Protestantism, biblical interpretations were growing in number. Elizabeth Cady Stanton published a then radical feminist interpretation of the bible. This publication was appropriately named The Women's Bible, and it includes lengthy commentary from Stanton.

Her commentary for 1 Timothy verses 11-15 explains Paul’s relationship with Timothy as well as condemns what Paul says about women as tyrannical and includes an argument about the under-appreciated teaching skills many women have. She further argues that Paul was not “inspired by infinite wisdom in his utterance.”(pg. 163 Woman’s Bible) She quotes another writing of Paul Galatians 3 verse 28 “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor Free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” and is perplexed at the inconsistency of Paul. Although he had inclusive ideas about salvation through Jesus, these ideas did not transcend to hierarchical church organization and to the pew.

Stanton’s Women’s Bible is just one of many examples of new biblical interpretation that arose during the proliferation of Protestantism in early America. This rise caused many to further question claims of singular religious authority.  The poems of Sigourney and Howe are just another chapter in the history of the recreation of the bible. This time in Christian history exemplifies the ability to use the bible, a book that had a tremendous amount of authority to many people, to support a plethora of agendas.

Stanton’s bible was not well received when it was published, even the National American Women’s Suffrage Association rejected it, but its safe to say that a majority of women now would agree with many of Stanton’s views. Despite this, many women still open bibles seeking divinely inspired wisdom, and these bibles still include the writings of a ill inspired man who was clueless about the potential women held within them.