Womanist interpretations

of the BiBle

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 semeia studies

steed V. davidson, General editor

Editorial Board:
pablo r. andiñach
fiona Black
denise K. Buell
Gay l. Byron
masiiwa ragies Gunda
monica Jyotsna melanchthon
Yak-hwee tan

number 85 s
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Womanist interpretations
of the BiBle

expanding the discourse

Edited by
Gay l. Byron and Vanessa lovelace

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Atlanta

Copyright © 2016 by sBl press

all rights reserved. no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
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should be addressed in writing to the rights and permissions office, sBl press, 825 hous-
ton mill road, atlanta, Ga 30329 usa.

library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication data

names: Byron, Gay l., editor. | lovelace, Vanessa, editor.

title: Womanist interpretations of the Bible : expanding the discourse / edited by Gay l.
Byron and Vanessa lovelace.
description: atlanta : sBl press, [2016] | series: semeia studies ; number 85 | includes
bibliographical references and index.
identifiers: lCCn 2016040615 (print) | lCCn 2016040794 (ebook) | isBn 9781628371529
(pbk. : alk. paper) | isBn 9780884141853 (hardcover) | isBn 9780884141846 (ebook)
subjects: lCsh: Bible—feminist criticism.
s
Classification: lCC Bs521.4 .W66 2016 (print) | lCC Bs521.4 (ebook) | ddC 220.6082—
dc23
es
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016040615
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printed on acid-free paper.

 Contents

acknowledgments ............................................................................................ix
abbreviations ....................................................................................................xi

introduction: methods and the making of Womanist Biblical

hermeneutics
Gay l. Byron and Vanessa lovelace.........................................................1

part 1: Gender and sexuality

The invisible Women: numbers 30 and the politics of singleness

in africana Communities
stacy davis ................................................................................................21
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a Womanist midrash of delilah: don’t hate the playa hate the Game
Wil Gafney ................................................................................................49
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The song of songs: redeeming Gender Constructions in the age
of aids
Cheryl B. anderson .................................................................................73
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part 2: agency and advocacy

race, Gender, and the politics of “sass”: reading mark 7:24–30

through a Womanist lens of intersectionality and
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inter(con)textuality
mitzi J. smith ............................................................................................95
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antitypes, stereotypes, and antetypes: Jezebel, the sun Woman,

and Contemporary Black Women
love l. sechrest ......................................................................................113
vi Contents

one more time with assata on my mind: a Womanist rereading

of the escape to egypt (matt 2:13–23) in dialogue with an
african american Woman fugitive narrative
shively t. J. smith ...................................................................................139

“Battered love”: exposing abuse in the Book of Job

marlene underwood..............................................................................165

part 3: foregrounding Women on the margins

Black Collectors and Keepers of tradition: resources for a Womanist

Biblical ethic of (re)interpretation
Gay l. Byron ...........................................................................................187

flowing from Breast to Breast: an examination of dis/placed

motherhood in african american and indian Wet nurses
sharon Jacob and Jennifer t. Kaalund .................................................209

“We don’t Give Birth to Thugs”: family Values, respectability

politics, and Jephthah’s mother
Vanessa lovelace ....................................................................................239
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part 4: illuminating Biblical Children/Childhood
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outrageous, audacious, Courageous, Willful: reading the
enslaved Girl of acts 12
margaret aymer......................................................................................265
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“nobody’s free until everybody’s free”: exploring Gender and

Class injustice in a story about Children (luke 18:15–17)
Bridgett a. Green ...................................................................................291

“i Will make Boys Their princes”: a Womanist reading of

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Children in the Book of isaiah

Valerie Bridgeman ..................................................................................311
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 Contents vii

part 5: in response

miracles and Gifts: a Womanist reading of John 14:12–14 and

ephesians 4:11–16
layli maparyan .......................................................................................331

looking forward from the horizon: a response in africana

sisterhood and solidarity
althea spencer-miller............................................................................339

Challenged and Changed

Katharine doob sakenfeld ....................................................................349

The road We are traveling

emilie m. townes ...................................................................................359

Contributors ...................................................................................................369
ancient sources index ..................................................................................375
subject index ..................................................................................................384
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 acknowledgments

We are honored that so many of our colleagues responded enthusiasti-

cally to our invitation to contribute to this volume. for their commitment
and willingness to press the boundaries of womanist hermeneutics, we are
grateful. We are also honored that this volume includes responses by some
of the leading scholars who have embraced womanist theory and praxis
and who value the spirit of collaboration this volume represents.
We stand on the shoulders of womanist theologians, ethicists, reli-
gious scholars, cultural critics, and biblical interpreters who dared to read
their way through the struggle and to offer rich trajectories and paths for
our own explorations. indeed, “if it wasn’t for the(se) women,” to borrow
a phrase from Cheryl townsend Gilkes, this volume would have never
emerged from its dark womb of knowing. in particular we are grateful for
renita J. Weems and Clarice J. martin, who have inspired our efforts and
s
much of the scholarship reflected in this volume and continue to remind
us that we are “just a sister away.” We are also grateful for the early sup-
es
port of Cheryl Kirk-duggan and Bridgett Green, who embraced the idea
of a womanist volume when we first conceived of it. Cheryl suggested an
outline and Bridgett offered to contact potential editors, including Gay
Byron who was serving on the semeia studies editorial board. although
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the initial outline did not come to fruition, we are appreciative of Cheryl’s
support and encouragement in pursuing this project.
We thank the semeia studies editorial Board for their acceptance of
these essays for publication and the very constructive feedback offered
during the early phase of conceptualizing the volume. in particular, gen-
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eral editor Gerald West, offered great encouragement and sound advice.
steed davidson, who succeeded Gerald as general editor, offered timely
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and keen editorial support as the volume progressed toward publication.

We also express our gratitude to the entire staff of sBl press, especially
Bob Buller and nicole tilford, for their expert assistance throughout
the publication process. in addition, we acknowledge Barbara fears,

-ix-
x aCKnoWledGments

Jonathan mcphee, and rickdrieka sanders for their assistance with this
volume.
We are grateful for our families and other networks of support—espe-
cially Wilfred Bentley, patient spouse to Vanessa, who endured our many
conference calls. finally, we dedicate this volume to our children: Christo-
pher, shauna, Khalil, lloyd, and pJ—who constantly remind us why such
a volume on expanding the discourse about womanist biblical interpreta-
tion is not an optional academic exercise but a necessary life-affirming
reflection of our commitment to wholeness of our entire community and
peace throughout the world.
Gay l. Byron, Washington, dC
Vanessa lovelace, atlanta, Ga

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 abbreviations

primary sources

Ag. Ap. Josephus, Against Apion

Ant. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities
b. Bablyonian talmud
B. Bat. Baba Batra
Ber. Berakhot
B.J. Josephus, Bellum judaicum
Cels. origen, Contra Celsum
Embassy philo, On the Embassy to Gaius
Ep. Tra. pliny the Younger, Epistulae ad Trajanum
‘erub. eruvin
Flaccus philo, Against Flaccus
s
Gen. rab. Genesis rabbah
Geogr. strabo, Geography
es
Gos. mary Gospel of mary
Gub. Dei salvian, The Governance of God
Hist. rufinus, Eusebii Historia ecclesiastica a Rufino translata et
continuata
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Hist. rufinus, Eusebii Historia ecclesiastica a Rufino translata et

continuata; tacitus, Historiae
Hist. rom. dio Cassius, Historiae romanae
let. aris. letter of aristeas
Leuc. Clit. achilles tatius, Leucippe et Clitophon
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Ling. Varro, De lingua latina

naz. nazir
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num. rab. numbers rabbah

Physiogn. pseudo-aristotle, Physiognomonica
Poet. aristotle, Poetics
Pol. aristotle, Politics

-xi-
xii aBBreViations

Šabb. shabbat
sanh. sanhedrin
Sat. Juvenal, Satires

secondary resources

aarCCs american academy of religion Cultural Criticism series

aB anchor Bible
ail ancient israel and its literature
AJSR Association for Jewish Studies Review
asor american schools of oriental research
asV american standard Version
atla american Theological library association
BaGd Bauer, Walter, William f. arndt, f. Wilbur Gingrich, and
frederick W. danker. Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 2nd ed.
Chicago: university of Chicago press, 1979.
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BdaG danker, frederick W., Walter Bauer, William f. arndt,
and f. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed.
Chicago: university of Chicago press, 2000.
s
BdB Brown, francis, s. r. driver, and Charles a. Briggs. A
Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. pea-
es
body, ma: hendrickson, 1996.
BeCnt Baker exegetical Commentary on the new testament
BibInt Biblical Interpretation
BJs Brown Judaic studies
Pr

BSac Bibliotheca Sacra

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CdC Centers for disease Control
Cet Common english translation
CJ The Classical Journal
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CurTM Currents in Theology and Mission

DBI Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. edited by John hays.
SB

2 vols. nashville: abingdon, 1999.

EDB Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. edited by david noel
freedman. Grand rapids: eerdmans, 2000.
ExpTim Expository Times
 aBBreViations xiii

fCB feminist Companion to the Bible

fCnteCW feminist Companion to the new testament and early
Christian Writings
GR Greece and Rome
Gss General social survey
HALOT Koehler, ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner. The Hebrew
and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. translated
and edited by mervyn e. J. richardson. study ed. 2 vols.
leiden: Brill, 2001.
HAR Hebrew Annual Review
hBm hebrew Bible monographs
Historia Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte
hmml hill museum and manuscript library
HTR Harvard Theological Review
husd howard university school of divinity
iBC interpretation: a Bible Commentary for teaching and
preaching
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
JAH Journal of American History
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JBQ Jewish Bible Quarterly
s
JFA Journal of Field Archaeology
JFSR Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
es
JITC Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center
JNE The Journal of Negro Education
JNH Journal of Negro History
Jps Tanakh: A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures accord-
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ing to the Traditional Hebrew Text. philadelphia: Jewish

publication society, 1985.
JRA Journal of Religion in Africa
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
JRT Journal of Religious Thought
L

JSB Jewish Study Bible. edited by adele Berlin, marc Zvi Bret-
tler, and michael fishbane. oxford: oxford university
SB

press, 2004.
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Jsotsup Journal for the study of the old testament supplement
series
xiv aBBreViations

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JWJ mss James Weldon Johnson manuscripts
KJV King James Version
lCl loeb Classical library
lXX septuagint
mt masoretic text
na28 Novum Testamentum Graece, nestle-aland, 28th ed.
Neot Neotestamentica
net new english translation
NIB The New Interpreter’s Bible. edited by leander e. Keck. 12
vols. nashville: abingdon, 1994–2004.
niCnt new international Commentary on the new testament
niGtC new international Greek testament Commentary
niV new international Version
nrsV new revised standard Version
ntl new testament library
NTS New Testament Studies
nWpC national Women’s political Caucus
otl old testament library
paCs philo of alexandria Commentary series
pepfar president’s emergency plan for aids relief
pl patrologia latina
s
ptms princeton Theological monograph series
Pneuma Pneuma: Journal for the Society of Pentecostal Studies
es
semeiast semeia studies
shBC smyth & helwys Bible Commentary
snCC student nonviolent Coordinating Committee
sntsms society for new testament studies monograph series
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sp sacra pagina
Spectrum Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men
syms symposium series
TTR Teaching Theology & Religion
unesCo united nations educational, scientific, and Cultural
L

organization
VT Vetus Testamentum
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WBC Word Biblical Commentary

 introduction:
methods and the making of
Womanist Biblical hermeneutics
Gay L. Byron and Vanessa Lovelace

Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse is a long-

awaited collection of original essays that features bold new womanist
approaches to biblical hermeneutics. We first conceived of this volume
through a series of conversations, which first began at the 2011 annual
meeting of the society of Biblical literature in san francisco. at that time,
Vanessa lovelace shared with a group of colleagues her desire to publish
a volume of womanist interpretations of the Bible to honor the trailblaz-
ing scholarship of renita J. Weems and Clarice martin. around the same
time, Gay l. Byron was serving on the semeia studies editorial board and
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having conversations with board members and other colleagues about
editing a volume showcasing womanist readings of the Bible. our mutual
es
friend and editor, Bridgett Green, was privy to both of these conversations
and connected us together. once we realized that we shared the same idea
and a commitment to womanist biblical scholarship, it seemed natural for
the two of us to collaborate and serve as coeditors of this volume.
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We both have generated various essays and articles using gender criti-
cism, critical race theory, and other theories and methods dealing with
the interlocking oppressions of black women. Though in some cases not
explicitly identifying a womanist hermeneutic, we have been greatly influ-
enced by the writings of author, poet, and activist alice Walker. she is
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often credited with coining the term womanist, which she first used in
her essay “Coming apart” published in the 1979 anthology Take Back the
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Night. in this essay, Walker wrote that a “ ‘womanist’ is a feminist, only

more common.” she elaborated in a footnote:

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2 BYron and loVelaCe

“Womanist” encompasses “feminist” as it is defined in Webster’s, but also

means instinctively pro-woman. it is not in the dictionary at all. none-
theless, it has a strong root in black women’s culture. it comes (to me)
from the word “womanish,” a word our mothers used to describe, and
attempt to inhibit, strong, outrageous or outspoken behavior when we
were children: “You’re acting womanish!” a labeling that failed, for the
most part to keep us from acting “womanish” whenever we could, that is
to say, like our mothers themselves, and like other women we admired.
(Walker 1979, 100)1

Walker refined her description of womanist in her classic four-part poetic

definition of the term in the preface to her 1983 book In Search of Our
Mothers’ Gardens:

1. from womanish. (opp. of “girlish,” i.e., frivolous, irresponsible, not

serious.) a black feminist of color. from the black folk expression of
mothers to female children, “You acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman.
usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behav-
ior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered
“good” for one. interested in grown-up doings. acting grown up. Being
grown up. interchangeable with another black folk expression: ‘You
trying to be grown.’ responsible. in charge. serious. 2. Also: a woman
who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. appreciates and
prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility (values tears as
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natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s strength. sometimes
loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually. Committed to sur-
es
vival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. not a separatist,
except periodically, for health. traditionally a universalist, as in: “mama,
why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins are white, beige,
and black?” ans. “Well, you know the colored race is just like a flower
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garden, with every color flower represented.” traditionally capable, as in:

“mama, i’m walking to Canada and i’m taking you and a bunch of other
slaves with me.” reply: “it wouldn’t be the first time.” 3. loves music.
loves dance. loves the moon. Loves the spirit. loves love and food and
roundness. loves struggle. Loves the folk. loves herself. Regardless. 4.
Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. (Walker 1983, xi)
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1. two lesser-known progenitors of the notion and terminology of womanism,

independent of Walker, are Chikwenye okonjo ogunyemi (1985) and Clenora hud-
son-Weems (1998). see layli phillips 2006.
 introduCtion 3

shortly after the publication of In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, the

term womanist began to appear in the discipline of religious studies. a
group of black female theological students at union Theological seminary
in the City of new York studying with dr. James Cone were the first to
begin to express new black liberationist theology that was also inclusive of
their particular experiences of sexism and racism in the academy and the
church, perpetuated even by their own black male colleagues. The group
consisted of doctoral students Jacquelyn Grant and Katie Geneva Cannon
and master of divinity students delores Williams and Kelly Brown doug-
las. They began to raise critical questions regarding the absence of black
women’s voices in black and feminist theological discourses. it was their
exploration of black women’s tridimensional oppression of gender, race,
and class that led them to embrace the term womanist to identify their
religious thought.
Womanist theological discourse expanded in 1985 when a number
of black women members of the american academy of religion and the
society of Biblical literature gathered at the first session of Womanist
approaches to religion and society, convened by Cheryl townsend Gilkes.
This was the beginning of womanist theological, ethical, and biblical inter-
pretation in the academy. That same year Cannon (1985) published the
formative essay “Black feminist Consciousness,” in which she used the
terms black womanist and womanist to speak of black women’s biblical
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interpretive tradition to confront racism and other forms of oppression.
This was followed by Williams’s (1987) seminal essay on “Womanist The-
es
ology,” which identified the sources and methods for this new area of theo-
logical inquiry.2
also among this budding group of womanist religious scholars was
martin, who earned her doctorate in new testament (Christian scriptures)
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in 1985 and Weems, who earned her doctorate in old testament (hebrew
Bible) in 1989.3 Weems published the monograph Just a Sister Away: A

2. We recognize that nineteenth-century black women such as Jarena lee,

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sojourner truth, and maria stewart have a documented history of engaging in bib-
lical interpretation in their social activism. moreover, contemporary womanist reli-
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gious scholars such as Grant, Cannon, and Williams use the Bible in their ethical and
theological formulations. however, unlike Grant, Cannon, and Williams, the former
would not be considered womanists since the term postdates them.
3. it is not evident from their dissertation titles whether martin and Weems refer
to a black woman’s or womanist perspective: “The function of acts 8:26–40 within the
4 BYron and loVelaCe

Womanist Vision of Women’s Relationships in the Bible in 1988. Weems

combined feminist biblical criticism with african american oral tradition
to construct a womanist interpretation of stories of biblical women, such
as sarah and hagar (Gen 16 and 21) and mary and martha (luke 10), and
their relationships with one another. her other writings include “reading
Her Way through the struggle: african american Women and the Bible”
(1991), which addresses the significance of the Bible for african ameri-
can female readers despite its patriarchy and use in racial and gender
oppression, and “Womanist reflections on Biblical hermeneutics” (1993),
where Weems gives her critique of the shortcomings of historical critical
and feminist biblical criticism and offers womanist biblical criticism as an
alternative for african american women biblical scholars.4
martin’s essays included “Womanist interpretations of the new testa-
ment: The Quest for holistic and inclusive translation and interpretation”
(1990), where she placed the interpretive interests of women of color in
general and black women in particular at the forefront; “The Haustafeln
(household Codes) in african american Biblical interpretation” (1991),
which advocated for african american women and men to adopt more
liberative biblical traditions in response to the traditionally hierarchical
approaches to the enslaved-woman regulation in the Haustafeln; and “Bib-
lical Theodicy and Black Women’s spiritual autobiography” (1993), which
appears in A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suf-
s
fering, edited by emilie townes (1993).5 in addition martin provided the
first comprehensive working definition of womanist biblical interpreta-
es
tion, which consists of four tasks:

1) the recovery of women’s history in the Judeo-Christian tradition by

expanding on earlier works and using appropriate methods of recov-
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ery, analysis, and reconstruction of the biblical texts and their worlds; 2)
reclamation of neglected histories and stories of the presence and func-

narrative structure of the Book of acts: The significance of the eunuch’s provenance
for acts 1:8c” and “sexual Violence as an image for divine retribution in the pro-
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phetic Writings,” respectively.

4. Weems does not use an explicitly womanist approach in her monograph Bat-
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tered Love (1995). for further review of this book, see underwood’s essay in this
volume.
5. townes was also among the group of first-generation womanists to attend the
inaugural consultation of the american academy of religion and the society of Bibli-
cal literature in 1985.
 introduCtion 5

tion of black peoples within divergent biblical traditions; 3) critique the

persistent and still normative narrowness of vision of feminist theolo-
gians and biblical interpreters on the subject of race; 4) retrieval and
documentary analysis of the effective history of the Bible in Western
culture in general and on peoples of african descent in Black diasporic
communities in particular. (1999, 655)

other black women slowly began to pursue doctoral degrees in biblical

studies. however, by the end of the 1990s, there were still only eleven who
had completed their studies and earned degrees (Bailey 2000, 696, 707).
nearly thirty years have now passed since martin and Weems intro-
duced readers to womanist biblical hermeneutics—biblical interpretation
that incorporated african american women’s lived experiences; and yet
the appearance of womanist biblical interpretation in books and articles
have been few and far between, despite the new addition of black women
earning terminal degrees in hebrew Bible/old testament and new testa-
ment/early Christianity. This was due in part, as nyasha Junior outlined in
an essay on womanist biblical interpretation, to a number of circumstances.
for one, while there are several works of womanist biblical interpreta-
tion, Junior noted that the preponderance has been by scholars outside
the field of biblical studies, such as Williams (1993), Cannon (1995), and
Cheryl Kirk-duggan (1997). moreover, biblical criticism by self-identified
womanist scholars has not always reflected an explicitly womanist meth-
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odological approach (Byron 2002; anderson 2004). finally, and probably
the greatest factor, is that while black women continue to join the growing
es
ranks of blacks and women of color in biblical studies, black women bibli-
cal scholars are still underrepresented (Junior 2006, 40–41, 43).6 even with
the increasing numbers, all black women scholars, as Junior herself noted,
do not choose to identify as a womanist or feminist.
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despite the circumstances and challenges noted above, recent afri-

can american commentaries such as True to our Native Land (Blount et
al. 2007) and The Africana Bible (page 2010) and feminist commentaries
such as The Women’s Bible Commentary (newsom, ringe, lapsey 2012)
and a feminist Companion to the Bible series have included contribu-
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tions by womanist and other black women scholars. There has also been
a growing number of articles, essays, and books by black women using a
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6. society of Biblical literature us members of african descent are only 3.8 per-
cent, which means that black women are even fewer (society of Biblical literature 2015).
6 BYron and loVelaCe

womanist hermeneutic. When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood

from a Womanist Perspective (2016) by stephanie Buckhanon Crowder
engages a womanist reading of biblical mothers, including rizpah, hagar,
Bathsheba, mary, the Canaanite woman, and Zebedee’s wife, to argue that
their stories can be beneficial to contemporary women who are seeking
models for self-identification and empowerment. in addition, Wil Gaf-
ney’s forthcoming Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women
of the Torah and The Throne uses a midrashic interpretation rooted in
african american preaching traditions and imagination to bring to life
both familiar and often overlooked female characters in the hebrew Bible.
other recent publications include mitzi J. smith’s I Found God in Me: A
Womanist Reader (2015), nyasha Junior’s An Introduction to Womanist
Biblical Interpretation (2015), and shanell smith’s The Woman Babylon
and the Marks of Empire: Reading Revelation with a Postcolonial Woman-
ist Hermeneutics of Ambiveilence (2014), the first womanist monograph
since raquel st. Clair’s Call and Consequences: A Womanist Reading of
Mark (2008).
mitzi smith and Junior’s recent works deserve a little more atten-
tion in relation to our volume. Both scholars expressed that a motivating
factor for writing their respective books was the lack of a textbook on
womanist biblical scholarship when they were seminary students. smith’s
(2015) edited volume provides the reader with a brief introduction to the
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development of womanist biblical interpretation and its growth from the
pioneering works of martin and Weems, to subsequent groups or “gen-
es
erations” of womanist biblical scholars, such as the second-generation
scholars Gay Byron, Cheryl anderson, and Valerie Bridgeman, third-
generation scholars margaret aymer, Wil Gafney, and love l. sechrest,
and fourth- and recent-generation scholars shanell smith and Bridgett
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Green (m. smith 2015, 5–7).7 The remainder of mitzi smith’s volume is
divided into two parts: reprinted essays of significance for an introduc-
tion to womanist biblical interpretation and womanist readings of bibli-
cal texts, both reprints and original essays.
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7. historians usually speak of the feminist movement in terms of “waves” to

define the different periods in the movement: first wave (nineteenth to early twentieth
century), second wave (1960s to 1980s), third wave (1990s to present). for more on
the differences between feminists’ use of waves and womanists’ use of generations, see
stacey floyd-Thomas (2006) and monica Coleman (2013).
 introduCtion 7

Junior’s (2015) book is intended as an introductory-level resource on

womanist biblical interpretation for graduate students. it traces the trajec-
tory of womanist biblical interpretation from its early roots in us black
women’s activism and biblical interpretation around issues of race and
gender by both nonprofessionals and professionals, its development inde-
pendent of feminist biblical interpretation, and its emphasis on womanist
reading strategies by scholars outside of biblical studies. Junior’s mono-
graph offers the reader a comparative analysis of feminist and woman-
ist biblical interpretation. in particular, the book devotes several chapters
to analyzing the different waves of feminism, feminist forerunners, and
feminist biblical interpretation.8 The novice reader should understand that
Junior’s book is an introduction to both the use of feminist and womanist
approaches across disciplines rather than a generative example of woman-
ist biblical interpretation.

diverse range of interpretations: expanding the discourse

Given the growing body of literature, this volume expands on the recent
publications on womanist biblical criticism in the following ways. first,
it is intentional in naming themes and interpretive trajectories that char-
acterize womanist hermeneutics. in this regard, our purpose is to build
upon the scholarship that has already been generated and extend the
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conversations and interpretive frameworks among biblical critics and all
interested readers concerned with contemporary injustices perpetrated
es
against african american and other people of color throughout the world.
second, it offers a comprehensive, global, and interdisciplinary compila-
tion of essays from the hebrew Bible, new testament, and extracanoni-
cal sources, including books that have never been treated to a womanist
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interpretation, as these readings interface with the experiences of black

and other women of color. These essays feature a range of methodologi-
cal approaches such as postcolonial, sociological, psychological, gender
and race theory, literary and rhetorical theories, and the like. Third, the
range of contributors is indicative of the wide breadth of scholars who
L
SB

8. see chapter 5, “feminist Biblical interpretation” (76–94), in which several con-

temporary feminist biblical critics and their methodologies are provided. for exam-
ple, scholars such as mary ann tolbert, elisabeth schüssler fiorenza, and Katharine
doob sakenfeld have outlined different tasks and forms of engagement for feminist
biblical criticism.
8 BYron and loVelaCe

are now applying womanist theories to their interpretations of the Bible.

Thus, included in this volume are emerging scholars (including those in
their early years of teaching or completing their dissertations), indepen-
dent scholar-activists, and those along various stages of their academic
careers who are teaching in theological schools and departments of reli-
gion across the united states.
it is not our intention to offer an all-inclusive survey of womanist
biblical scholarship. We are featuring broad methodological, geographi-
cal, and ideological approaches to womanist criticism. We also choose to
include women who do not self-identify as womanist but who foreground
black and other women of color’s experiences in their interpretive pro-
cess. Therefore, we have stacy davis who in her article self-identifies as a
black feminist, margaret aymer reading from her particularity as a black
“Caribbean, naturalized, economic migrant” woman in america, and
sharon Jacob’s interpretation of sacred hindu texts as an indian immi-
grant living in the united states.
We contend with scholars such as layli phillips (2006, xxii, xxxvi)
that womanism is an ethnically and culturally situated but not bounded
perspective that allows room for black and other women of color who
self-identify as womanist. for example, sarojini nadar (2001), a south
african indian who uses a womanist approach to her biblical interpreta-
tion, is explicit in acknowledging her ethnic and cultural location. nev-
s
ertheless, we maintain that although womanists and black feminists share
a common cultural and historical heritage and certain political concerns,
es
womanism and black feminism are not interchangeable; indeed, mark-
ing the distinctions between the two is an ongoing debate among femi-
nist and womanist critics (West 2006). They “favor” each other, to use a
family metaphor (phillips 2006); but in contrast to womanism, feminism
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is still generally regarded as the “universal” experience of white women,

which invariably leads to inequitable power dynamics that are often too
difficult to overcome and best expressed in the classic text on black wom-
en’s studies by Gloria t. hull, patricia Bell scott, and Barbara smith: All
the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave
L

(1982).
in light of this, we believe that what makes these essays womanist is,
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first, the intentionality with which the contributors in this volume bring
into sharp focus the multilayered and interlocking systems of oppression
and microaggressions that keep all women of color, locally and globally,
stymied in racialized pits of poverty, violence, and despair. second is the
 introduCtion 9

way in which these contributors draw upon sources from black cultural
traditions such as the activism of fannie lou hamer or assata shakur,
the hip hop lyrics of Beyoncé or rihanna, and the courageous women of
the Civil rights or #Blacklivesmatter movements. They recognize that,
without a womanist hermeneutic, the mothers, children, infants, single
women, power brokers, bibliophiles, activists, moral agents, landown-
ers, strategists, and other carriers of life and hope would remain invisible,
ignored, and marginalized in biblical narratives. Third, is the commitment
with which these contributors bring their experiences as black and brown
women to name and work towards ending the multidimensional oppres-
sion faced by women of color that limit the progress of all humanity. Thus,
our goal in pulling together this volume is to provide a sample of essays
that represent some of the best in womanist scholarship using interdis-
ciplinary approaches for reading biblical texts. in this regard, we seek to
expand the discourse among womanist biblical scholars and invite other
interested interpreters to the table.
The book is organized into four parts that reflect some of the over-
arching themes of womanist biblical interpretation. This organizational
schema does not account for the myriad themes and commitments that are
evident among the contributors. for example, the themes of respectability
politics, sexual independence, and political and social activism appear, to
some degree, in all of the essays. Yet, we have identified the following key
s
subheadings that have emerged from the content of the various essays:
(1) Gender and sexuality; (2) agency and advocacy; (3) foregrounding
es
Women on the margins; and (4) illuminating Biblical Children/Child-
hood. The final section includes the responses to the essays from four lead-
ing womanist and feminist scholars.
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part 1: Gender and sexuality

in several ways the articles by davis, Gafney, and anderson each examine
issues of race, gender, and sexuality especially around the theme of inde-
pendent women, sexuality, and the need by some interpreters to use the
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Bible both to celebrate black women’s independence and to police their

sexuality, especially if they are unmarried.
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davis takes on the biblical anomaly of the unmarried woman in her

article, “The invisible Women: numbers 30 and the politics of singleness
in african american Communities.” she reads the passage about women’s
vows in num 30 to show how women typically are defined by one of four
10 BYron and loVelaCe

categories in the biblical text: wife, minor daughter, widow, or divorcée.

however, missing is the adult daughter who has never married. davis
approaches the passage from the perspective of a never-married african
american woman, using womanist theory, masculinity studies, and queer
theory to highlight the ways unmarried biblical women and contemporary
women, especially black women are discriminated against.
Gafney applies her distinctive womanist midrash to the biblical figure
delilah (Judg 16) in her essay, “a Womanist midrash of delilah: don’t hate
the playa hate the Game.” Gafney combines a womanist biblical herme-
neutic informed by hip hop lyrics and rhetoric and the rabbinic midrash
tradition of filling in what the text omitted to paint a portrait of delilah
as a subject of her own story, who makes her own choices about her body
and life, while besting the men in the story. Gafney exposes heteropatriar-
chal interpretations of delilah as a “playa hata” seeking to bring down the
valiant samson to reveal the truth of the story—that samson engages in a
twisted game of bloodsport that is lethal to the women in his life.
anderson proposes a different biblical gender and sexuality paradigm
for the african american church to confront the transmission of hiV in
her article, “The song of songs: redeeming Gender Constructions in the
age of aids.” anderson contends that leadership on this issue has been
lagging in the african american church due to an emphasis on race as its
primary concern and its reluctance to address sexuality and sexual expres-
s
sion. she argues that the church’s teaching on sex is limited to traditional
hierarchical gender and sexuality constructions based on Gen 2–3 that are
es
undermining african american well-being in the age of aids. anderson
offers the mutuality paradigm in the song of songs as an alternative to
help prevent new hiV infections in the african american community.
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part 2: agency and advocacy

a few of the articles express a solidarity with or indirect reference to the

#Blacklivesmatter social justice movement, begun after the acquittal of
George Zimmerman, neighborhood watch volunteer, who shot and killed
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black teenager trayvon martin. each article in this section emphasizes

some form of agency, in which the biblical characters or contemporary
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activists express the ability to transform their social circumstances.

mitzi smith approaches her article, “race, Gender, and the politics of
‘sass’: reading mark 7:24–30 through a Womanist lens of intersectional-
ity and inter(con)textuality,” from the womanist hermeneutic of “sass/talk
 introduCtion 11

back.” she engages the story of sandra Bland, the black female motorist
whose arrest led to her shocking death in jail. smith puts Bland in dialog
with the Greek syro-phoenician woman in this markan text. she also
combines sass and mikhail Bakhtin’s heteroglossia to give resistance speech
to the syro-phoenician woman and contemporary women of color who
would dare to raise their consciousness by talking back to those in author-
ity at the risk of condemnation or death.
sechrest’s article, “antitypes, stereotypes, and antetypes: Jezebel, the
sun Woman, and Contemporary Black Women,” examines the role of
women’s agency in the book of revelation by comparing and contrasting
the figures Jezebel and the sun Woman in rev 2 and 12, respectively, with
contemporary black women activists in the Civil rights and #Blacklives-
matter movements. sechrest explores how John, the writer of revelation’s
use of stereotypes about “good” and “bad” women in the public square
to describe Jezebel and the sun Woman, obscures the reader’s vision of
feminine agency in the text. similarly, she argues that such stereotypes
associated with the imagery and language in revelation are used to shape
and constrain women of color’s agency today.
We affirm the new generation of black women religious scholars who
have adopted the #Blacklivesmatter’s call to action against antiblack racism
without regard to the respectability politics revolving around sexual orien-
tation. The #Blacklivesmatter was founded by three queer black women
s
activists who decried the violence against black people saying, “our lives
matter, black lives matter.”9 This is, ironically, in contrast to the earlier
es
rejection of womanism by some black women Christian ethicists and theo-
logians because Walker’s poetic definition included “loves other women
sexually and/or nonsexually.” although the articles in this section do not
explicitly address lGBtQ perspectives, this omission was not intentional.
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The contributors in this volume focused more on their own sociopoliti-

cal location. nevertheless, we acknowledge the importance of the women
loving women aspect of Walker’s definition.
We also affirm the historical precursors that are referenced in the
#Blacklivesmatter movement. Cofounder alicia Garza wrote, “When
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Black people get free, everybody gets free,” a paraphrase of the famous
line by civil rights activist hamer. Garza also draws inspiration from black
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9. Black lives matter was founded by alicia Garza, patrisse Cullors, and opal
tometi (“a herstory of the #Blacklivesmatter movement,” n.d.)
12 BYron and loVelaCe

liberation and Black panther activist shakur in her own activism against
antiblack racism, whom she quotes: “it is our duty to fight for our freedom,
it is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We
have nothing to lose but our chains.”10 shakur is the subject of shively t.
J. smith’s article.
shivley smith’s “one more time with assata on my mind: a Wom-
anist rereading of the escape to egypt (matt 2:13–23) in dialogue with
an african american Woman fugitive narrative” examines how shakur’s
account of her transition and assimilation from life in the united states to
life in Cuba, issues related to the reasons for political flight, changing ter-
ritorial relations, and the challenges of cultural adaptation. These themes
resonate with the biblical story of the flight of Jesus’s family from Judea
to egypt in matt 2:13–23. smith argues that using shakur’s story to read
matt 2 afresh expands the breadth of african american women’s experi-
ences and history that womanist biblical readings engage in its interpre-
tative work.
finally, marlene underwood’s essay, “ ‘Battered love’: exposing abuse
in the Book of Job,” engages the social cycle theory developed by psycholo-
gist lenore Walker called “cycle of abuse.” Contrasting the retributive jus-
tice implied in YhWh’s punishment of israel in the marriage metaphor
with the unmerited suffering of Job, underwood exposes the abuse perpe-
trated by YhWh against Job as a form of domestic violence. after taking
s
the reader through Job’s various cycles of abuse at the hand of YhWh
(tension building, acute battering incident, loving-contrition), she high-
es
lights Job’s agency throughout his trials, including maintaining his inno-
cence despite his friends’ protests and his calls for justice.

part 3: foregrounding Women on the margins

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most womanist interpretations have focused on hebrew Bible and new

testament canonical sources. although feminist and womanist interpret-
ers have called for an expansion of texts, there still remains a significant
gap in the scholarship. Byron’s essay, “Black Collectors and Keepers of
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tradition: resources for a Womanist Biblical ethic of (re)interpretation,”

illuminates the rich tradition of black bibliophiles and collectors such as
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10. assata shakur, unisex, liberation ink (quoted on “Get involved in the fight
for Black lives,” n.d.).
 introduCtion 13

dorothy porter Wesley, mayme Clayton, arthur schomburg, and others

who have amassed archival artifacts and sources that offer a new world
of source material for the biblical critic. in particular, she discusses dr.
andré reynolds tweed, who amassed during his lifetime one of the largest
collections of ethiopic manuscripts and artifacts in the united states. she
theorizes how “living sources” such as the experiences of these virtually
overlooked black bibliophiles and the often-ignored experiences of black
women in biblical and other early Christian sources open a more critical
and expansive lens for understanding early Christianity.
Byron is not the only contributor foregrounding women on the mar-
gins. two essays call attention to the marginalized roles of mothers, in par-
ticular the deleterious impact of their social status on their children’s lives
and the displaced (surrogate) nature of their maternal contributions to
society. sharon Jacob and Jennifer t. Kaalund’s essay “flowing from Breast
to Breast: an examination of dis/placed motherhood in african ameri-
can and indian Wet nurses” uses the sun Woman in the book of revela-
tion in conversation with the hindu text linga purana to explore the phe-
nomenon of black and indian women being forced to nurture empire with
their breasts in the contexts of antebellum slavery in the united states and
the British colonization of india. Jacob and Kaalund demonstrate how the
wet nurse illuminates not only the violent nature of surrogate motherhood
in hegemonic systems, but also the role that class, or socioeconomic status,
s
plays in the displacement of motherhood.
lovelace critiques interpreters of Judg 11 who maintain that Jephthah
es
is doomed to fail because he is the son of an unmarried woman. in her
essay “ ‘We don’t Give Birth to Thugs’: family Values, respectability poli-
tics, and Jephthah’s mother,” she approaches the text from a functionalist
perspective on the family with a womanist hermeneutic, which asserts that
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commentaries on Jephthah and his mother depict them as lacking tra-

ditional family values. This sounds much like the functionalist argument
that children born to single mothers become juvenile delinquents and
create social instability. This rhetoric, targeted mostly at black children, is
the same language used to describe Jephthah, which in turn functions to
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racialize Jephthah and his mother as black.

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part 4: illuminating Biblical Children/Childhood

The next section of this volume illuminates the experiences of children

in biblical narratives and adds to the ongoing dialogues among biblical
14 BYron and loVelaCe

scholars who are highlighting the multilayered dimensions of children

in the biblical world. The essays in this section challenge some of the
assumptions contemporary readers have about children, such as their
youth, innocence, and vulnerability.
in “outrageous, audacious, Courageous, Willful: reading the
enslaved Girl of acts 12,” margaret aymer examines the enslaved girl
rhoda in luke’s narrative and reads her story intersectionally, darkly, and
ambiveilently (using shanell smith’s term) to allow the subaltern to speak.
aymer’s womanist reading of rhoda attends to the issues of trauma aris-
ing from the darkness of the intersectional oppression based on racism/
ethnocentrism, sexism, classism, and ageism considering rhoda’s youth.
she also raises questions about the ancient text and modern forced migra-
tion and human trafficking. aymer challenges the early church’s idealized
narrative that luke’s Gospel is sympathetic to women while listening for
rhoda’s silenced cry for liberation.
Valerie Bridgeman likewise examines the plight of children in her
essay, “ ‘i Will make Boys Their princes’: a Womanist reading of Chil-
dren in the Book of isaiah.” she adds to the growing body of literature
on children in the world of the Bible with her piece on how the book of
isaiah contributes to the ways the writer symbolically portrays israel as a
wayward child that needs punishment for correction. Bridgeman lifts up
the danger of a literal reading of the text that may lead the contemporary
s
reader to conclude that the Bible condones child abuse.
Bridgett Green focuses on children (more specifically, infants) in
es
the Gospel of luke. her article, “ ‘nobody’s free until everybody’s free’:
exploring Gender and Class injustice in a story about Children (luke
18:15–17),” interprets the story of Jesus blessing the children through civil
rights’ activist hamer’s gender, class, and race analysis of power dynamics
Pr

that legitimated interlocking systems of oppression. using hamer’s speech

“nobody’s free until everybody’s free” delivered at the founding meeting
of the national Women’s political Caucus as a hermeneutical guide, Green
reads luke’s version of the blessing of the children for a liberative thrust
that empowers the marginalized and admonishes the privileged.
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part 5: in response
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The final part of the book offers responses from four leading womanist
and feminist scholars who each bring a unique perspective for setting in
context the diverse essays included in this volume: layli maparyan, Katha-
 introduCtion 15

rine doob sakenfeld, townes, and althea spencer-miller. Their insights

highlight the theoretical, interdisciplinary, global, pedagogical, and prac-
tical implications of the different essays and articulate new horizons for
womanist biblical interpretation.

Concluding thoughts

as we developed this volume through our own dialogues and through

conversations with the contributors, we realized that collaboration and
sharing is at the heart of womanist doings and ways of being in the world.
We recognize that interpreting sacred texts cannot be done independent of
the communities with whom we read and to whom we are accountable. all
of the essays demonstrate that our black bodies and our black lives cannot
be left outside of the interpretive process. likewise, the bodies and lives of
all interpreters are integral in the interpretive process.
furthermore, we acknowledge that injustices and challenges in our
contemporary world are an indispensible component of womanist herme-
neutics and not matters to be left solely for theologians, ethicists, policy
analysts, or other scholars committed to social justice. The contributors to
this volume have consistently emphasized their responsibility to speak out
against the deep, systemic nature of the interlocking systems of oppres-
sion related to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, et cetera that cannot
s
be ignored by biblical interpreters—not just black women biblical inter-
preters. all interpreters of sacred texts are responsible for exposing and
es
analyzing the power dynamics in both the ancient texts and the interpre-
tations of the texts that have been used to further injustices and global
systemic challenges.
The question of where we go from here was raised in regard to the
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insights in these womanist ways of reading the Bible and other sacred
texts. one of the desirable outcomes from this volume would be that read-
ers come away with a new understanding of womanist readings of sacred
texts that highlight the myriad perspectives that black and other women
of color bring to interpreting these texts. in addition, that more inter-
L

preters (including those outside the discipline of biblical studies) would

be emboldened to read the texts from their own social location and be
SB

empowered to take action and work toward building new relationships

and coalitions that can transform the injustices in our society and across
the globe. finally, we hope that this volume will lead to further collabora-
tive efforts and conversations that will keep the interests of black women
16 BYron and loVelaCe

and other women of color at the forefront of interpretations of biblical and

extrabiblical sources.

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 part 1
Gender and sexuality

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