Baptists and Unity
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 51, No. 1 – Fall 2008
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By David E. Garland and Diana R. Garland. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2007. 235 pages. $19.99.
This book has a dual focus: 1) How women in the Bible were mistreated, misunderstood and misused, and 2) how God worked for good through his grace in each case. The study concentrates on an often over- looked facet of family disfunctionality, especially at the point of the treat- ment of women and girls during the periods of the patriarchs and the early kings. There are also applications made to the plight of present day women in their problematical familial situations. The style is basically narrative with limited references and use of Scripture. The references are placed in parenthesis within the text, thus making this a more popular form of presentation.
There are several distracting and detracting matters with the book’s presentation. The authors are certainly accurate in pointing out that there were real (and horrible) cases in the Old Testament in which women suffered injustices and mistreatment by their husbands, fathers, other family members and others in their society. Nevertheless, the reality of the flawed families in the Bible is not limited to the treatment of women. The title of the book, reflecting its actual content, would more accurately be, “The Mistreatment of Women in the Bible” (with the exception that the last chapter deals with the Ethiopian eunuch, a case of how such singles were misunderstood and maligned). Where are the studies on Adam and Eve, Joseph and his brothers, Moses and his family, Hosea and Gomer, Samson, and several of the kings of Israel and Judah? There is no shortage of flawed families in the Old Testament, so there is no reason to limit the subject to the problems of the treatment of women.
The authors also seemed to dwell on the dark side of the cases, and there was only limited treatment given to the role of God’s grace and any form of solution or positive application. Eventually this reader gained more of a sense of frustration toward how men mistreated women, including their wives and daughters, and a growing sense of depression that so few of those forbearers of our faith seemed to pay any attention to the Bible’s positive and creative guidelines for having healthy families.
One further negative aspect of the book was that there was a decided slant given against male leadership in the telling of the stories chosen. It appears that they were told anachronistically from a modern perspective with limited sympathy for the ancient context. It also appears that an attempt is being made by the authors to address some of the maladies of the plight of modern women (rape, abandonment, adultery, rejection, etc.), but one wonders if the women reading this volume will be inspired and guided toward healthy choices and lifestyles by the treatment given to the grace of God, as well as the illustrations and applications of Scripture to life which were presented.
