Using interpretation from modern critical scholars, rabbis, and feminist scholars, Katheryn Darr offers a fascinating book that provides new ways of understanding the stories of four biblical women. The author studies Ruth, a foreigner from Moab who became the ancestor of Israel's King David; Sarah, who lost hope of bearing a child yet she became the mother of Isaac and the entire Hebrew nation; Hagar, who was mistreated by Sarah, her boss, yet survived under persecution; and Esther, a Jewish queen of Persia who preserved her people despite a conspiracy at court.
This series brings to a wide audience important new discoveries concerning relationships of women and men in the Bible, ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. The books explore the role of gender within the biblical tradition and document its continuing influence on subsequent life and thought. The books emphasize literary and historical methods as well as anthropological, archaeological, and linguistic approaches to biblical characters, gendered imagery, and the history of biblical interpretation. The books are based on thorough scholarship and can be read with pleasure by all serious readers.
