Preaching The Women Of The Old Testemant is a refreshing telling of the under telling of the Old Testament women. This book is informative,, exhilarating. and it covers all the precious use women by GOD Of course it starts with Eve and ends with Gomer it has a chapter per woman and it has a chapter / woman and they go into each of them with scripture references. Then it continues on with the women's story. I cannot stress enough how you should add this one to your library.

Having been raised by a single mom, I admire strong women and want them to succeed and learn from them. I love my mother and think she is a role model par excellence. She grew up in a relatively poor family (like trailer-park poor), yet eventually put herself through nursing school, then taught nursing. That would be enough besides raising two kids. Yet, she would eventually go back to school and become a lawyer. If that wasn’t enough, now at 64, she’s an Ironman athlete. Talk about inspiration. She continually pushes the bounds of what you think would be possible for any person regardless of gender. It’s the same kind of inspiration and boundary pushing which I find in Japinga’s work.
It’s astonishing how inaccurate we can read biblical texts, especially as it applies to women. Here it’s easiest to let Japinga speak herself,
“When interpreters misread the story of Eve and blamed women for sin, they contributed to centuries of sexism, leading society to view women as inferior and dangerous. When commentators criticize a biblical woman like Miriam for speaking out or taking initiative, their words have a chilling effect on contemporary women readers. The stories we tell ourselves about the Bible have extraordinary power, but they are not always correct.” (4)
Japinga alerts us to the dangers of simply presupposing our own conceptions of who women are, their place, and their status of guilty or innocent. Dinah is often blamed for ‘going out’ into the city, which thus incited rape. This has perpetually placed an overbearing responsibility on women, in that tone of “if only they had been good little girls, and stayed at home and nothing would have happened.” Yes of course, but thats true for all of us. That’s not a women’s issue. But that’s besides the point. As Japinga makes clear, these moralization’s usually assume too much. In the case of Dinah, we can’t be certain exactly what happened. There’s ambiguity here and that just might be the point. Was it consensual or not? There’s no definitive conclusion. But that’s the great thing about this story. It’s openness invites us to continually explore the issue of sexual ethics (specifically rape), with Dinah and Shechem as the backdrop.
Our Time
Living in such an open society, now is just the time to really dig into these stories that can help shape our culture’s understanding of issues, like rape, murder, and prostitution, in a way that the Church hasn’t been before. They were limited because they had a certain vision of the church as pure, and incapable of speaking of such ‘unholy’ things. We can really speak to the culture through these women in the bible and the horrendous trials they’ve gone trough and how God’s grace still overcomes.
However, not all is doom and gloom. There is also plenty of biblical women who we can and need to learn from. One of the things I like most is that in the “Preaching” section Japinga usually points us to even more female role models. No stranger she points out is Malala Yousafzai and her work in female education, in chapter 14: Achsah (some one I had never heard of!). In these sections, I find so much resources in such tiny spaces. At times I’m moved and want more. At other’s I’m questioning my assumptions about economic theory and justice. If we are too reach diverse communities we must understand their stories, and lift up role models for them to show how God’s grace can change their lives as well. Another helpful feature is that this section is broken down by themes and subsequent examples. This gives the teacher inspiration but also different ways of applying the text.
One caution I have is being aware not to fall into an equally bad errors that she works hard at preventing, or looking for any alternativley easier way out. Im not quite sure she means it to seem like revisionism, but it has an air to it when she’s describing her process. She says, “one way to approach the most difficult stories is to ask how we might write a new ending for them (6).” Im going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say this isn’t what she’s doing. At least, I haven’t seen anything like that. Instead I think she is trying in her own way to make sense of the hard stories that remains true to the text. Rather than moralize and wrongly interpret biblical stories, she acknowledges the mystery and confusion and supplements that with this wishful thinking in a positive sense.
Even if you don’t get the book I would highly advise any Christian teacher or pastoral figure to read the introduction to help them become aware of the danger they may be inciting with bad hermeneutics. Actually, it would be easy to blame you for never glancing at this work if you are coving a biblical story that includes women, since each chapter usually is a mere 5 pages. I think it would be great for anyone on their own or a small group setting as the chapters are so brief. To give my honest opinion, I really like this book. It’s provocative, but in the good way. Im glad Japinga was one women who didnt stay at home doing chores, and instead went out and wrote such a brilliant book.
A few guiding questions for small group application:
What was your preconceived idea of this Character and story?
What did you learn?
Where are these themes popping up in your life or around you?
What push criticism would you give?

Forty chapters, forty women (actually, a few more because a few chapters contain multiple women that form a narrative unit) found in the pages of the Old Testament. I recognized all of them, even the more obscure ones, thanks to my past in a denomination that placed high value on reading through the Bible annually.

Lynn Japinga structures each chapter following a pattern: first a brief note is provided giving the scripture reference(s), any Revised Common Lectionary use of the passages are noted, and an occasional recommendation on expanding or replacing RCL texts in order to preach on a woman discussed in a chapter.

Next, a brief synopsis of the narrative or context in which the woman is found, followed by a discussion of typical readings and interpretations in traditional commentaries and sermons. Along the way questions are raised and alternate readings or interpretations might be given. But these are generally left to the final part of each chapter.

The last part of the chapter provides one or more (depending on the chapter) ways of preaching the text that provides a different portrayal of a woman found in scripture. Some of these aren't too far from a traditional approach, while some may be quite jolting to those steeped in the traditional interpretations. All the innovative and alternate perspectives are based on scholarly work (see book endnotes).

At first I wasn't quite enthused about what I was reading. It had to do with how Lynn does not provide a "this is the correct interpretation" discussion. Rather she leaves conclusions somewhat open and offers a "here are some different ways of thinking about the story." I think I'm accustomed to the approach of traditional books and commentaries that deal with theology: there is one or two "correct" ways of reading and here it is. But as I kept going chapter after chapter, I started to feel more comfortable resting in the ambiguities and how the questions posed often dealt with present-day issues.

The women of the Bible and their stories are studies in injustice, poverty, abuse and rape, lack of power, misuse of power, treatment of forefingers, and many more issues that 21st century Christians face daily. I also realized that up until encountering this book, close to 100% of my own view of women in the Bible was from the traditional perspective, that is the women's stories are told exclusively in terms of the male characters as "heroes" (rightly or not) in the same stories.

Following the forty chapters, the book contains suggestions for a large possibility of sermon series by combining several of the women based on topics. This is followed by the endnotes, which I also recommend reading. In additional to references to source materials, Lynn also notes contemporary media (TV and movies) references that might be of interest to preachers.

This book is a valuable resource for pastors who need or want to get out of their usual preaching rut, or want some fresh ideas on how to speak to present-day issues from the perspective of women.

(This review is based on an ARC supplied by the publisher through NetGalley.)

Some interesting ideas, but the author seems to disregards cultural elements of the time, reading the story through modern lenses. It seems like she wants to apply the Biblical accounts to illustrate her/modern American values, rather than let the Bible be the teacher/authority.