All About the Bible, by Elizabeth Fletcher

Link to All about the Bible

ELIZABETH FLETCHER

I got into writing by accident. I was teaching Religious Education in senior high schools, and was looking for accessible material about the Bible, something that would interest my students. I could not find it.

There was hardly anything, for example, on the women of the Bible. Available books were either scholarly and out of the reach of the normal student, or cloyingly sentimental and sometimes historically inaccurate as well. I approached Harper Collins with a book proposal which they accepted.

They published ‘Women in the Bible’ in 1997. It contained the stories of twelve biblical women, told from a historical point of view – I had originally been a History teacher.

After ten years the book went out of print and the copyright reverted to me, so instead of letting it disappear I put it on the web – you can find it at www.womeninthebible.net

I got hooked on the Web, and have been writing for it ever since.

This site explores just about anything to do with the Bible: the people, good and bad – their stories the archaeology of the Bible: what it tells us about ancient Israel daily life for ordinary men and women in ancient Israel – what they ate, what their houses were like, what work they did the great artworks depicting events and people of the Bible a section on each of the books of the Bible, with some activities to help people who want to explore them warfare: who fought who, what weapons they used, how they attacked and defended
list of top ten – good and bad men and women, commandments, plagues, young people, etc.

My religious and personal background?

I was born into a Catholic family, and attended Catholic schools and then the University of Sydney, Australia. My first degree was in History and Modern Languages.

I became a schoolteacher and agreed to teach Religious Studies, which can be taken as a University entrance subject in Australia. I found I was out of my depth – attending church regularly does not prepare a person for teaching Religion to high school students.

So I went back to University and gained advanced qualifications in this area.

After my husband died, I moved out of teaching into full-time writing. I wrote and edited a variety of Religion textbooks, and developed the Religious Education curriculum now used extensively throughout Australia. But my chief interest was always Biblical Studies, and my websites reflect this.

I am interviewed on national radio or talk-back programs whenever there is a fuss about something to do with the Bible, as there was when ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was published.

Let me know if you have suggestions for the website. I am always interested in feedback.

Elizabeth Fletcher