CEB Women's Bible

I don't like the color pink. I cut my own hair and don't wear makeup or get manicures. There are few things more unpleasant for me than shoe shopping. In general, I shy away from anything marketed specifically to women. But I ordered a Common English Bible about a year ago, and I am greatly enjoying the translation. So when the opportunity arose to preview a copy of the new CEB Women's Bible, I responded with guarded enthusiasm. And after several weeks of studying this Bible and using it for sermon and Bible study prep, my enthusiasm has only grown!

This Bible is much more than your stereotypical “Christian princess” Bible. For starters, the cover is not pink! Not even purple! It is maroon, with gold lettering. The text inside is black, with maroon headings. This color scheme matters greatly to women like me, who are inherently suspicious of anything pink.

On a more substantial note, every woman in the Bible, named and unnamed, is listed in an index along with references to the chapters and verses that tell her story. Many of these women are also described in portraits that show up near the story of the woman in question. These portraits are thoughtful, scholarly, and faithful to history and Scripture. The authors take into account how the women have been described throughout the history of the church (is Mary really “meek and mild”?) and how they have been treated in non-Christian scholarship (Ruth was compared to Abraham in ancient rabbinic scholarship). Descriptions of these women help to bring their stories to life, and can inspire additional themes of study, preaching and teaching. The portraits of biblical women are perhaps the strongest and most unique aspect of this Bible.

The CEB Women’s Bible includes a number of other helpful features. The preface gives important background information about the translation process. The CEB is a very good translation, easy to understand and faithful to the original text, but tends to sound more colloquial and less formal than many familiar translations. This can be both an asset and a drawback. Introductions to each book and chapter provide good summaries of the content to come, though they do include opinions and interpretation, as any summary of Scripture does. This book also includes reading plans for folks looking to read the entire Bible, as well as several full-color maps.

The sidebar articles throughout the book address timely topics that are relevant to Christians today, particularly to women. For example, topics of the articles in 1 Corinthians include love and spiritual gifts, and also head coverings and singleness. An article on race in Esther seems to give a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement. The sidebars are helpful for anyone looking for more information about particular topics and passages, and an index lists them all for anyone seeking what the Bible might say on a particular topic.

One appendix includes a discussion question for each week in the Revised Common Lectionary cycle. These questions are good for personal reflection, or as a conversation starter. They are not substantial enough to be the basis of a full Bible study, but the questions provide a good resource for people who attend churches that follow the RCL to tie their personal study of Scripture more directly to what they experience in worship.

The CEB Women’s Bile has many great aspects, but of course it cannot be all things to all people. If you are the kind of person who likes to write notes in the margins of your Bible, this book is probably not the best choice for you. If you are hoping to study any of the books from the Apocrypha, you won’t find them in this Bible. There are other versions of the CEB that could meet these needs, but they would be missing the valuable biographies of biblical women, and the topical articles and discussion questions. Overall, this version of the Bible is refreshing. If you can live without space for margin notes, and you are looking for some progressive interpretations of the women of the Bible, this book is definitely worth checking out. I hope you enjoy it as I have!