Customer Reviews

Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context

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I first read this book several years ago, when putting together an undergraduate course on ancient and medieval women, and have yet to find anything that comes even close to Meyers' beautifully written and convincing account of ancient Israelite women. The book's greatest strength is the way the author blends archaeological and linguistic information, building a convincing portrait of early women that gets past the wall of later Jewish patriarchal thought. Meyers is by no means a "rabid feminist," but gives a great deal of food for thought about how women "fell out" of the Bible and how cultural expectations have led to centuries of misinterpretation.

Carol Meyers has an easy to read writing style. I read it and wanted more. She adds flesh to the bones of the people of ancient Israel especially the women. I would recommend it to any one but especially women who want a better understanding of our heritage and a clearer understanding of the part our early mothers played. It made me hungry for more.

I first read this book years ago while researching the book of Genesis. I continue to refer it to students and others seeking to understand the Garden of Eden story and other sometimes confused stories from the Hebrew Scriptures involving women. This book should be read by all interesting in allowing the Hebrew Scriptures to speak in their own voices, including the voices of women.

I chose to write a report on this book for an introductory Hebrew Bible class. The book gave me plenty to write (and think) about, although I found some sections a bit dry and the constant references to previous and later material a bit dizzying. Overall, it was a fantastic book. I was able to sit down and read through it in only a few sittings, so it's interesting enough to hold the attention of someone unfamiliar with the material it contains. I found that the knowledge that I had previously from class helped me to appreciate some of the points, and I don't know whether I would have been able to enjoy/understand parts of the book without that previous knowledge about biblical editing and composition. I found one part especially interesting and at the same time completely unnecessary. Although plagues in the Bible have little to do with the point of the book (and certainly don't merit 8 pages of writing), I found the material fascinating and plan on exploring the matter further. Not bad at all for something that I had to read for a class and probably would not have picked up otherwise. I don't regret reading it, because some of the epiphanies in the book were just mind-blowing to me. It never occurred to me that a simple revisiting of the original Hebrew could tear down centuries of translational prejudices. I would suggest the book, but I feel as if the material could have been presented in an equally poignant manner in only 100 pages rather than 200.

This book is a well written one that sure to be an enlightening experience. Although this book was written in the late 70s, it was written at a time when academic feminist research of the bible was in it's infancy and consequently I find it a must read for any serious study of the subject. The book discusses a survey of feminist research both religious and otherwise up to the point the book was written and addresses various flaws and misdirections the author feels exists in the methodologies that predate this book (I personally find these same flaws and misdirections just as current as they ever were). I feel it's most important contribution is that it provides a fundamental, responsible perspective to studying the bible apart from political or social agendas and the bias of modern day perspectives of both feminism and patriarchal society and women in ancient history. In many respects I consider this book to be so far ahead of its time that we are still trying to catch up in many respects.

It was great to find so many books that I like at Amazon. This arrived as expected.