Fall 1992 · Vol. 21 No. 2 · pp. 73–74
Book Review
Remember Lot's Wife and Other Unnamed Women of the Bible
April Yamasaki. Elgin, IL: FaithQuest, Division of Brethren Press, 1991. 112 pages.
Though names were very important during biblical times, it is significant that many names of both women and men are missing from the scriptural accounts. In biblical genealogies, women’s names are regularly omitted as part of the tradition of patriarchy. Sometimes women are mentioned but unnamed, or, like Lot’s wife, play a small role in a larger story. The point that April Yamasaki makes is that because women are unnamed, they have been “unmentioned and unremembered women” even though their contribution made a difference in history.
April Yamasaki introduces us to fifty of these unnamed women through devotional meditations. She includes the good and the bad, the familiar and the unfamiliar, those who lived with hope and joy and those who lived with despair and sadness. The reader learns about Job’s wife, the Queen of Sheba, the woman in the Song of Solomon, and many others, They each have “their own stories to tell and their own lessons to teach us.”
Yamasaki expands on Edith Deene’s extensive section of about one hundred unnamed women in All the Women of the Bible by adding more historical and religious background information and a meditation on the Scripture, an application, and a prayer. The goal of the book is to enrich faith as well as bring the reader to a deeper appreciation of these women of the Bible.
The book will be useful for small groups or individual study, both men and women. Ministers looking for material on these women will also find it helpful.
The material is well-researched and well-presented so that it is easily accessible to readers. I have one frustration, however, with the Table of Contents. In my library I have several valuable books with chapters each dealing with a different character or a biblical text. Yet the Table {74} of Contents lists each one only with an enigmatic title. Because this book has chapter headings such as “The Word of the Lord,” or “Glory to God,” which give little or no clue to their content, I add this book to those frustrating books. Unless, as I work with the book, I re-index the Table of Contents, adding a note to inform me what Scripture passage or unnamed woman is under consideration in a particular chapter, I have to page through the entire book to find the meditation I am looking for.
April Yamasaki is Writer in Residence at Columbia Bible College in Clearbrook, British Columbia. She is also the author of Where Two Are Gathered: Readings for Shared Devotions and numerous articles for Christian magazines.
