Abstract:
This volume explores a number of 17th-19th Century women who are regarded as the forerunners of modern feminist biblical criticism. My chapter focuses on Victorian women’s rights campaigner Annie Besant; I chose Ms Besant as the object of my study as no other scholar has carried out a detailed exploration of her biblical interpretation or considered the contribution she made to the development of feminist biblical criticism. This chapter looks closely at Besant’s reading of a number of biblical passages that deal with biblical law concerning marriage in light of her public speeches and pamphlet publications which focused on the injustices against women, which she perceived as being intrinsic within 19th Century English marital law.