Review
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Title: Forgotten Women of God
Author: Diana Webb
Publisher: Bonneville Books (Cedar Fort)
Genre: Scriptural criticism, interpretation
Year Published: 2010
Number of Pages: xviii, 170, glossary, footnotes
Binding: Paper
ISBN10: n/a
ISBN13: 978-1-59955-384-9
Price: $13.99
Reviewed by Laura Compton
Anyone who's read the Old Testament is well aware that stories of women are few and far between. But there are places where these women's stories – as well as the stories of other inspiring women of that era and culture – may be found.
Diana Webb has compiled a number of these women's stories in "Forgotten Women of God." In pulling together the stories based on her master's thesis, Webb provides a readable and inspiring introduction to women of the Old Testament, The Apocrypha and the pseudepigrapha.
Lest modern readers unfamiliar with these extra-canonical books write them off as less-than-scriptural, Webb provides a brief history of the development of the Old Testament as we know it today. "The process of canonization is a long and complicated story," she writes in her introduction (xvii). "We don't know just when and why certain books became regarded as authoritative….Although these additions to the scriptures are not canonical, they often reflect the accepted theology and Jewish traditions of ancient times. I personally love gaining new insights into the lives of the 'forgotten' women found in these texts. I am blown away by the strength these amazing women possessed, and their examples have given me a new awareness of my role as a woman."
Webb introduces us to these women with the First Woman, Eve. She develops a theme that becomes the touchstone by which the rest of the women's stories are measured. Eve, Webb writes, has a legacy of being an "ezer". While modern readers often think of Eve's calling as being a helper to Adam, Webb describes a more accurate translation to be "power" or "strength." The ancient Hebrew roots of the word include rescuing, saving, succoring, strength and "to save from extremity, and to deliver from death." (3) Each of the women depicted in this book acts in some way with power or strength or rescues, saves, succors or delivers those around her – men, women, children and even countries.
In using this idea of "ezer" to bind these women together, Webb has turned her master's thesis into a layperson-friendly collection of stories of remarkable – and sometimes Biblically unnamed – heroines. Of course there are the stories of Hannah, Deborah, Jael, Miriam and Zipporah, but there are also stories of Sitis (Job's wife) and Naamah (Noah's wife), Susannah, Judith, Hagar, Asenath and Tamar. Some stories are expanded versions of familiar Old Testament women, but many will be unfamiliar to readers not well-versed in ancient writings.
Webb spends the majority of each chapter summarizing the women's stories as they are found in both Biblical and non-Biblical histories, adding explanations or commentary as needed to clarify confusing text or translations. After introducing the reader to each woman, Webb describes why she believes that woman followed in Eve's legacy – why that woman could be called an "ezer."
Footnote references are dotted throughout the text, providing support for Webb's interpretations of the women's stories, and a Glossary is included to help readers keep track of perhaps unfamiliar terms and compilations.
Anyone wanting to learn more about ancient near-Eastern women would find Webb's book intriguing and the women inspiring and captivating. It is definitely a book written with beginning students in mind – Webb takes great care to explain the sometimes intricate and puzzling web of ancient Jewish writing, lest one confuse Targum, Talmud, midrash, Septuagint, Torah, or any of a number Greek or Hebrew roots.
