Merging Mormon women & women of Genesis: Hannah Tapfield King’s Women of the Scriptures

Keywords

Women of the Scriptures, Hannah Tapfield King, Merging Mormon women

Abstract

When Hannah Tapfield King published Women of the Scriptures (1878) her work became part of the growing body of women’s biblical interpretation—most often written as character studies—in nineteenth-century America and Great Britain. King’s Bible sketches provide a useful case study of how nineteenth-century women went to the source of religious authority to assert the importance of women’s roles, agency, attributes, impact, and authority within patriarchal religious communities. Analyzing King’s exegesis within the context of the growing fields of women’s religious history and women’s biblical interpretation, this study also opens a new field of inquiry into how Mormon women adopted and challenged Protestant interpretations of scriptures as they read the Bible through a distinct Mormon theology that differed from traditional Christianity’s understanding of the gospel knowledge and keys possessed by the patriarchs, the fall of Adam and Eve, polygamy, and man and woman’s eternal potential.

Original Publication Citation

“Merging Mormon Women & Women of Genesis: Hannah Tapfield King’s Women of the Scriptures” Women’s History Review, 27:7 (December 2018) 1103-1122.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2018-02-26

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6205

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Language

English

College

Religious Education

Department

Ancient Scripture

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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