I picked up a special issue of U.S. News: Women of the Bible and just finished it last night (magazines make for great knit-reading cause they lie flat). It was a great read! I bought it because I had just seen a preview for The Da Vinci Code and... well I don't want to give away the plot but it caught by eye.
I've always been very dissatisfied with how poorly women have been represented in the Bible. I'm sure most people will agree that the Bible is very mysoginistic. How is half the Bible reading population supposed to be inspired if we're represented as sinners, harlots, temptresses, manipulators, and weak willed subordinates? I remember someone (my mom?) once gave me a book of saints and I used to pore over it selectively reading about all the women martyrs and I thought they were so cool because they were so pretty (in the illustrations), and pure, and good. Nevermind that they were all basically murdered via stoning or some other gruesome end. I kid you not, I was probably about 8. Trippy.
Anyway, this special edition was a pretty good read. I think the analysis of these figures was pretty thorough and objective, getting input from a variety of sources including Rabbis and feminists. I thought the articles on Eve, Delilah, and Mary Magdalene to be the best of the bunch. It even had a blurb about The Da Vinci Code. I'd recommend it, even if you're not religious just because it was good historical reading and helped put a spin on conventional thought.
Edit:
GMail just gave me a wonderfully apropos quote - "There are no facts, only interpretations" (Nietzsche)
