Women of the Bible

by Frances VanderVelde

Character studies of over thirty women with lively discussion questions included. Excellent for women's Bible study groups!

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Womens, Devotional

264 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1973

Reviews

[Angie Arms McGill · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a Bible teacher, I'm not uncomfortable with creative discourse if it is properly identified as such when presented. However, I found this author took too much liberty for my comfort level in interspersing unsubstantiated and speculative attributes of bible characters with biblical accounts as documented in Scripture.

I imagine this was done for intrigue and to "pique" the interests of readers; however, it left me feeling that the portrayal of these women's lives was not totally accurate.

If the author had more clearly identified the "creative" components of the writing as such, I could have given a higher rating. Without it, I envision while teaching having to dissect and "qualify" the source of some of the content as from the author's vivid imagination rather than from the Bible.

[Libby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this for women's Bible study at church; so it won't be finished anytime soon.

(4/12/15) We finished this at last week's Bible study. I had to keep reminding myself that this book was written in the 50's (this was a re-release, and I think if we'd realized that, we might not have done this study) for the frame of reference. That was disappointing enough, but there was a LARGE amount of pure speculation in the portraits, with no distinction made between ideas pulled from Scripture, those found in other reference material, and those made up by the author. I found many of the discussion questions leading and uninteresting. I would not recommend this for Bible study.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

PROS: Managed to cover most of the women throughout the entire Bible (in chronological order) and introduced us to some ladies we weren't quite aware of. The chapter that had the most impact on me was the story of Lot's wife.

CONS: Lots of speculation as to what these ladies' backgrounds & lives were like, instead of focusing just on what Scripture said about them. Along with that, many of the discussion questions at the end of each chapter felt irrelevant and pointless? And some of these questions were based on the speculative aspects of the book so it felt even more irrelevant. It was hard to distinguish at times what was from Scripture and what was creative liberty. We were bored by the end.

I really hate to leave a negative impression of this book, but that's how we kind of all felt by the end of this study (and it took us a year to go through this book, too). If you want to pick this up as some kind of a light guide or supplement to studying the women in the Bible, then go for it. But don't expect deep theological revelations or guidance.

[Kristy Teague · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic book, originally published in 1957, provides an in-depth character study of 30 women in the bible. It is helpful for personal study or for women's bible study groups. Some of the author's examples reflect a different time period but are still insightful.

[JoLynn Morriss · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many great women

Great highlights on the women of the Bible so I knew some I did not know about. Quick and easy read

[Erika Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Missing some of the women we studied but was a good resource. Great information and well written!

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro toma de la Biblia aquellas mujeres más emblemáticas, y nos describe aquellos aspectos positivos o negativos, por los cuáles se destacaron.
Particularmente, esperaba un análisis más profundo y psicológico de las personalidades de estas mujeres.

[Shara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was also a good book...its nothing like reading about the inspiring women of the bible. This book shows how they were like you and me in every way and teaches how to become either more like them or more like how they became.

[Nancy Fabik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, this was a very good book. I was nervous that it had an older publishing date, but it turned out to be very thought provoking with examples of how to live a Godly life! Enjoyable!