Sarah Beth Baca’s book on Women of the Bible

Looking for a Mother’s Day present? “Full Image | Women of The Bible,” beautifully produced by artist Sarah Beth Baca, could make the perfect gift, especially for mothers who love the Bible!

“Full Image” features portraits of 33 women, along with a summary of their story adapted from the biblical text. The illustrations, done in watercolour and ink, are lovely to look at and contain carefully thought-out symbolic elements. Sarah Beth explains the symbolism in her book.

I’m delighted and honoured that I’ve been able to use many of these illustrations, with permission, on my website. (See here.) And I have the portrait of Junia on my desk.

As well as the artwork, Sarah Beth writes about her journey towards understanding how God sees women. After reading 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, she went through a difficult season which made her question whether God even likes women. Many Christian women have asked similar questions and have had similar struggles.

Sarah Beth writes, “This struggle for a clear understanding of scripture placed me on a new path of discovery.” That path led her to “seeing God’s heart for women,” and it inspired her to create her series of portraits of biblical women.

Each portrait shows only half of the woman’s face. Sarah Beth explains that when she started the series, she was reading “Half the Church” by Carolyn Custis James and had recently seen the documentary “Half the Sky” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The book and documentary both highlight the fact that women make up half of our churches, half of our communities, and half of the world’s population.

Furthermore, the half-portraits acknowledge that we only know a portion of the lives and stories of  Bible women. Sarah Beth writes, “There is much that is unknown about the women of the Bible, so I’m highlighting the mystery of what we don’t know.”

There’s information about her series on women of the Bible on her website: Sarah Beth Art. And there’s more information about her book “Full Image,” here.

In several countries, Mother’s Day is coming up on May 11th. So if you’re interested in Sarah Beth’s book, order it soon. (Allow a fortnight for delivery.) It’s available online here.