"Freed from contemporary theological categories that have been informed by ideological and psychological issues, but ever mindful of the social location of gender analysis, these essays provide fresh and exciting looks at otherwise unfamiliar texts. They jar our minds and our biases.... This book is a valuable contribution to gender-oriented biblical scholarship. Its content is accessible to both the scholarly and the less technically trained reader. All will be well served by this important collection of essays." - Naomi Steinberg, DePaul University
"This book is a credit to the quality and breadth of feminine biblical scholarship and presents some creative interpretations of the texts and a wealth of Ancient Near Eastern material." - J. Massyngbaerde Ford, University of Notre Dame
Table of Contents: 1. Introduction - Peggy L. Day 2. Rehabilitating Hagar: Fragments of an Epic Pattern - Jo Ann Hackett 3. The Woman in Ancient Examples of the Potiphar's Wife Motif, K2111 - Susan Tower Hollis 4. Eroticism and Death in the Tale of Jael - Susan Niditch 5. From the Child Is Born the Woman: The Story of Jephthah's Daughter - Peggy L. Day 6. "To Play the Harlot": An Inquiry into an Old Testament Metaphor - Phyllis Bird 7. Verse and Reverse: The Transformation of the Woman, Israel, in Hosea 1-3 - Mary Joan Winn Leith 8. "And the Women Knead Dough": The Worship of the Queen of Heaven in Sixth-Century Judah - Susan Ackerman 9. "Whence Shall Help Come to Me?" The Biblical Widow - Paula S. Hiebert 10. Woman and the Discourse of Patriarchal Wisdom: A Study of Proverbs 1-9 - Carol A. Newsom 11. Esther: A Feminine Model for Jewish Diaspora - Sidnie Ann White 12. Women of the Exodus in Biblical Retellings of the Second Temple Period - Eileen Schuller
These are understandable to lay readers (like me). The chapter by Dr. Ackerman was particularly well-written and interesting.