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Rating: 
Summary: Too much speculation and very few facts - agenda driven.
Review: I am currently researching and writing a novel based only 200 years earlier than this novel in this area of the world. I have been doing extensive research on this entire era and find most of Pfitsch's assumptions annoyingly, provably false.
Here are a few thoughts from only the first couple of chapters:Untrue:
1. That Ashterah is a wooden pillar. Rather it is a tree that is pruned and worshipped.
2. That Solomon didn't pay his workers and most people starved while he basked in luxury. Even if that were true why would, even she, say that the people loved him?
3. That women didn't know how to read. From the numerous pottery shards that contain day-to-day lists and notes from women's lives it is obvious that most people - including women - knew how to read and write.
4. That the father had life and death power over his household. -Even the law was contrary to this! This is what Judges were for - and nothing could be decided without at least two witnesses and a minimum of three judges.
5. That Judaism was a "male" religion. The names Adonai and Elohim (translated as G-d and L-rd) are indeed masculine, but how often do you hear that "His" name Yah is actually feminine!
6. I would like to know what she calls yogurt since I have found nothing even remotely similar to modern yogurt in this time period in my research.
7. That the prayer men pray thanking G-d that they were not made a woman was derogatory to women! Men are required to do a lot more than a woman is and it is considered an honor. The point is that men are thanking G-d for the extra obligations because there is greater reward for observance when it is required of you (because it goes against our nature) then when it is optional. We women thank G-d for making us "who we are" because we don't have to do all those things and can focus our efforts on taking care of our family, home, job, etc. True:
1. Handmaidens (yes, slaves) were foreigners and sometimes influenced the people they served to worship other gods.
2. Worshiping the "queen of heaven" was common (Ishtar from which the word "Easter" originates). Unfortunately, the author has stong feminist prejudices. I did not bother finishing the book because the inaccuracies and the vehemence with which the author seems to believe them were too annoying. If you are a Jew or a Christian, you will probably have major problems with this work.
Rating: 
Summary: Colorfully Portrayed life in the Past
Review: This book wonderfully showed how being a teenaged girl in biblical times was like. It is about a girl, Judith, who's father is a priest. He strongly believes in God. Judith doesn't feel accepted in her father's religion because of the way women are treated (badly), and she secretly follows the religion of the Goddess. Judith is very good at storytelling, and is asked by her cousin, a priest-in-training, to write the stories of the bible (this was before the bible existed). This is Judith's chance to give women more power in her father's religion. Women were treated like crap back then, and so to give them power Judith wrote about them as powerful and wonderful people in her stories. This is a really great book for teens today. There isn't another one like it. After reading this book I had a better understanding of what it was like to be a women in biblical times.
Rating:
Summary: Colorfully Portrayed life in the Past
Review: This book wonderfully showed how being a teenaged girl in biblical times was like. It is about a girl, Judith, who's father is a priest. He strongly believes in God. Judith doesn't feel accepted in her father's religion because of the way women are treated (badly), and she secretly follows the religion of the Goddess. Judith is very good at storytelling, and is asked by her cousin, a priest-in-training, to write the stories of the bible (this was before the bible existed). This is Judith's chance to give women more power in her father's religion. Women were treated like crap back then, and so to give them power Judith wrote about them as powerful and wonderful people in her stories. This is a really great book for teens today. There isn't another one like it. After reading this book I had a better understanding of what it was like to be a women in biblical times.
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