The Woman's Bible ... Part 1. The Pentateuch.
New York: European Publishing Company, 1895.
Price:
$19,500.00
First edition. 152, [6]pp. 8vo. Publisher's wrappers, minor rusting to the staples, else very good. Two leaves folded at the lower corner prior to trimming. Krichmar 1044 (1898 edition). Kathi Kern, Mrs. Stanton's Bible (Cornell University Press: 2001).
Item #379897
In Stanton's controversial revision of the Bible, she corrected passages omitting women and reinterpreted areas that subjugated women. The radical Woman's Bible "was unlike modern attempts to revise the Bible by modifying the dated patriarchal language. Rather, the Woman's Bible reprinted particular biblical passages that pertained to women and, following each, presented interpretive commentaries prepared by Stanton and the members of the revising committee" (Kern, p. 2).
Stanton writes in the Introduction to the first part: "The canon and civil law; church and state; priests and legislators; all political parties and religious denominations have alike taught that woman was made after man, of man and for man, an inferior being, subject to man ... The Bible teaches that woman brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced ... I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God. I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians what they say he did about woman, and so long as woman accepts the position they assign her, her emancipation is impossible. Whatever the Bible may be made to do in Hebrew or Greek, in plain English it does not exalt and dignify woman."
The project was controversial both outside and within the Suffrage movement, with many opposed to attacking traditional religion as potentially harmful to the cause. Indeed, the publication of the work is sometimes argued to have set back woman's suffrage and the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment, and marginalized Stanton's role in the movement, being repudiated by the National American Woman Suffrage Assocation. The Woman's Bible's censured publication "was one final, great stroke in her battle against inequality. It was also the ruin of her historical reputation" (Kern, p. 1).
Published in two separately-issued parts, the first edition of the first part was published in December 1895 and treats the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy), with comments by Stanton, Lillie Devereux Blake, Phebe A. Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Ursula N. Gestefeld, Louisa Southworth and Frances Ellen Burr. A second edition of the first part would be published in April 1796 (with Carrie Chapman Catt's name removed from the Revising Committee), and a third edition in 1898. The first edition of the second part, covering Joshua to Revelation, would not be issued until 1898. No further parts were published.
Although widely printed, copies of any edition of either part of the Woman's Bible are rare in commerce. The first edition sold out very quickly, with Stanton writing to her son in March 1796, referring to the National Suffrage Association disclaiming any association with it, that "the action in Washington sold off the edition in a twinkling and we are getting ready for a second edition." Reviews in the press and from the pulpit condemned the work immediately, going so far as to proclaim it demonic; and although this negative publicity resulted in robust sales, it also contributed to its suppression, perhaps explaining its great rarity today.
Item #379897
In Stanton's controversial revision of the Bible, she corrected passages omitting women and reinterpreted areas that subjugated women. The radical Woman's Bible "was unlike modern attempts to revise the Bible by modifying the dated patriarchal language. Rather, the Woman's Bible reprinted particular biblical passages that pertained to women and, following each, presented interpretive commentaries prepared by Stanton and the members of the revising committee" (Kern, p. 2).
Stanton writes in the Introduction to the first part: "The canon and civil law; church and state; priests and legislators; all political parties and religious denominations have alike taught that woman was made after man, of man and for man, an inferior being, subject to man ... The Bible teaches that woman brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced ... I do not believe that any man ever saw or talked with God. I do not believe that God inspired the Mosaic code, or told the historians what they say he did about woman, and so long as woman accepts the position they assign her, her emancipation is impossible. Whatever the Bible may be made to do in Hebrew or Greek, in plain English it does not exalt and dignify woman."
The project was controversial both outside and within the Suffrage movement, with many opposed to attacking traditional religion as potentially harmful to the cause. Indeed, the publication of the work is sometimes argued to have set back woman's suffrage and the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment, and marginalized Stanton's role in the movement, being repudiated by the National American Woman Suffrage Assocation. The Woman's Bible's censured publication "was one final, great stroke in her battle against inequality. It was also the ruin of her historical reputation" (Kern, p. 1).
Published in two separately-issued parts, the first edition of the first part was published in December 1895 and treats the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy), with comments by Stanton, Lillie Devereux Blake, Phebe A. Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Ursula N. Gestefeld, Louisa Southworth and Frances Ellen Burr. A second edition of the first part would be published in April 1796 (with Carrie Chapman Catt's name removed from the Revising Committee), and a third edition in 1898. The first edition of the second part, covering Joshua to Revelation, would not be issued until 1898. No further parts were published.
Although widely printed, copies of any edition of either part of the Woman's Bible are rare in commerce. The first edition sold out very quickly, with Stanton writing to her son in March 1796, referring to the National Suffrage Association disclaiming any association with it, that "the action in Washington sold off the edition in a twinkling and we are getting ready for a second edition." Reviews in the press and from the pulpit condemned the work immediately, going so far as to proclaim it demonic; and although this negative publicity resulted in robust sales, it also contributed to its suppression, perhaps explaining its great rarity today.
