The Forgotten Women’s Bible
Around the turn of the last century, Katherine Bushnell, an American doctor working as a medical missionary in China, noticed what she thought were mistranslated passages in the Chinese version of the Bible she was reading. A fellow missionary confirmed Bushnell’s suspicion that the passages in question had been mistranslated to avoid offending Chinese traditions toward women
"She (Bushnell) was outraged. To her the scripture was inspired and inerrant," said Calvin history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
Bushnell’s experience with the Chinese Bible inspired her to create a translation of her own. In 1908, she published God’s Word to Women: One Hundred Bible Studies on Women's Place in the Divine Economy, a translation of and commentary on biblical passages relevant to women.
"It's a book that claims that for centuries, the scriptures … were translated by men, and they had a male bias—and it was time for women to start reading and translating,” said Kobes Du Mez, who recently landed a $40,000 Sabbatical Grant for Researchers from the Louisville Institute to write a book about Bushnell's life and work. (Kobes Du Mez also focused her dissertation on Bushnell.)
"People who write about her theology rarely situate her historically, and there are people who write about her reform work who know nothing about her theology," she said of Bushnell. "My job is to piece together the story of who she is."
