Customer Reviews

Bad Girls of the Bible: Exploring Women of Questionable Virtue

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

There is some confusion because there are two books with the same title. Bad Girls of the Bible by Barbara Essex is terrific! She uses sound biblical interpretation to help us uncover the "real" story of infamous biblical women. She goes beneath the surface and uses history, archeology and other tools to get at the heart of the women's stories. She doesn't berate them, but helps us see their more positive qualities even though they are being used to move the biblical story forward. This book is fabulous!

I, along with the women from my church, thoroughly enjoyed this book! We learned about women from the Old Testament and gained new insights on familiar ones. We especially appreciated Ms. Essex's "Biblical Interpretative Tools." It was like having a mini seminary class. All of my life I thought that Jezebel was a prostitute or a slut. The term, "You old Jezebel" was the worst term that one could say about a woman. Even though Jezebel was a terribly devious person, Ms. Essex taught us about Jezebel's background and put her story into perspective. We were able to see Jezebel through another lens and discuss how God used her in God's divine plan. The questions in each chapter are also very engaging. I highly recommend this book.

Spiritually misguided- in your point of view, maybe. Jezebel was very religiously committed- just not to your religion. In defense of Jezebel, how many people of different faith did your God command the Israelites to kill? Please tell me, why is Jezebel any worse for defending her religion?

This book is good for an audience that wants an enlighted, factual understanding of the historically "bad" women of the Bible.

This author gives a person her false ideas. By the time I read to page 3 I knew it was blasphemy.

I was very disappointed in this book. Although it contained extensive background and historic info on each "Bad Girl", I felt that it was spiritually weak and not biblically correct in its opinions. Jezebel was one of the most wicked women ever explored in the Bible, yet the author describes her as "religiously committed, politically savy, determined, self-assured, bodacious, and clever. She was dedicated to her family and a zealous missionary for Baal. And she died as she lived--royally!" From this desription, you would have thought she was Mother Teresa instead of a violet woman who had many prophets killed just because they were men of God. The author also comes across as anti-male. I was disappointed and felt I had wasted my money.

Thank you for the prompt, responsible service, but the purchased book was worthless and I cannot recommend it,due to no fault of yours. The author of this particular book exploited the study by twisting ideology to meet agenda of the the feminist movement, rather than God's agenda. Fortunately, another author has taken the same concept, and studied these 'undesirable 'women in a biblically, scholarly way. Thanks ! Barbara

If you're searching for a book to study the "bad girls" more in-depth, this one isn't it. Much of the authors "facts" are purely speculative. Much like todays popular culture, she makes heroes of the wicked and tears down those who act righteously. It's scary to think that she is an ordained clergywoman in the United Church Of Christ. She's obviously a radical feminist who believes that all the women in her book got a bad rap and all men are scum. Don't waste your time or money on this one.