Keeping up with my new year resolutions, I read a new book. It’s called A Year of Biblical womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans. Before we get into the book a little back story.
Who is Rachel Held Evans?
Rachel Held Evans was an American columnist, blogger, and author. I found Rachel Held Evans this year, which is honestly odd to say. Discovered her after her death, well more accurately her work after her death. I was scrolling through Twitter (before the Nigerian government banned it), and I saw a tweet about her. Went on a deep dive and now I am here.
Synopsis of A Year of Biblical Womanhood.
The gist is that Rachel decided to follow the literal meanings of a lot of what the Bible says about women. Taking biblical womanhood literally and it some cases to the literal extreme for a whole year. She was intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence, so she decided to follow the Bible instructions for women, as literally as possible. The Biblical woman’s ten commandments were her guide for daily living. Her goal was to pursue a virtue every month.
This book doesn’t only feature her experience. It also features her husband’s journals, an Orthodox Jew, a polygamist, and many other women attempting to practice “Biblical womanhood” in one way or the other.
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My thoughts.
I laughed:
This book made me laugh a lot. Her low-key satire is top-tier. I know this may sound mean but reading Rachel struggle to sew and clean was hilarious. Reminded me of how I fall short when it comes to being the “ideal and biblical womanhood”.
Reading the Bible through Jewish eyes:
Her initial plan was to get a Rabbi but she got an orthodox Jewish woman who is married to a Rabbi. This woman provided a Jewish perspective and context for the scripture. For example, she said Proverbs 31 was what men memorized and not want women memorized to live strictly by. Eshet Chayil (women of valor), the description of the Proverbs 31 woman is like you go, girl. According to her, it’s a passage of praise and not a section of rules for women to follow strictly.
She learnt a lot and I learnt through her.
The journey taught her lessons and I learnt through her. She found a new appreciation for house work. Also, she found a new level of understanding for women trying to live a more conservative lifestyle. She learnt to judge less. I also learnt a lot about the Bible through her. She went in depth into stories of women in the Bible.
This book succeeded in showing that biblical womanhood is basically complementarian choosing and picking to make women submissive. Overall, this book showed that “Biblical” and womanhood are too complex to assign a strict set of definitions too.
