Meera Lester - The Everything Women of the Bible Book: From Eve to Mary Magdalene--a history of saints, queens, and matriarchs

Dear Reader,

I first started reading the Bible when I was a kid in elementary school. I suppose in some ways I was mimicking what I saw in the women around me. I grew up in a rural area of the Midwest where, on Sunday afternoons, farm-women who had toiled from dawn to dusk on all of the other days rested, visited, and caught up on their reading of the Good Book. They'd sit on the front porch in their rockers and read the Bible, all the while keeping one eye on the kids who were often playing in the yard or a nearby field.

One of my earliest and fondest childhood memories was walking through the woods with my mom and brother to the house of an elderly farmer and his wife. My little brother and I would stretch out on the guest featherbed or, if it wa s a blazing hot day, on a quilt spread upon the floor, and listen to my mom or the farmer's wife read from the Scripture s until we fell asleep.

I believe that the ages-old ritual I experienced as a child was similar to that of the nomadic Hebrew women of Abraham's time. They likely gathered on the Sabbath in one of the tents to talk, perhaps have a honeyed sweet or fruit and a beverage, and share fellowship in their own cultural tradition.

As a child, I'd listened to their stories being read to me, and I thought those women were pretty interesting people, even though some of them were not too nice. It is my honor to offer their stories to you, my readers, with the hope that you will find them to be as fascinating as I have.

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From Eve to Mary Magdalene a history of saints, queens, and matriarchs

Meera Lester

Adams Media

Avon, Massachusetts

Copyright 2007, F+W Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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An Everything Series Book.

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Published by Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company 57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.

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ISBN-10: 1-59869-385-9

ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-385-0

Printed in the United States of America.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The everything women of the Bible book / Meera Lester.

p. cm. (An everything series book)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-385-0 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 1-59869-385-9 (pbk.)

1. Bible Biography. 2. Women in the Bible. I. Title.

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