Susan B. Anthony tried to calm the younger suffragists, but they issued a formal denunciation of the book at NAWSA's January 1896 convention,[4] and worked to distance the suffrage movement from Stanton's broader scope which included attacks on traditional religion.

Because of the widespread negative reaction, including that of suffragists who had been close to her, publication of the book effectively ended Stanton's influence in the suffrage movement.

[5] In the early 19th century advocates of women's rights began to accumulate rebuttals to arguments used against them founded on traditional interpretations of Bible scriptures.

[7] In New York, aided by Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped draft the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 and included two Resolutions which protested against man's usurpation of rights relating to her position in church and to her role under God.

He was countered point-by-point by Hannah Tracy Cutler, then in broad societal and political terms by Mott who began by saying: "It is not Christianity, but priestcraft that has subjected woman as we find her.

Stanton was dissatisfied with the Revised Version's failure to incorporate recent scholarship from Bible translator Julia Evelina Smith.

In The Woman's Bible, Part I, first edition, released November 1895, the Revising Committee listed 23 members, including Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Augusta Jane Chapin, Lillie Devereux Blake, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Olympia Brown, and Carrie Chapman Catt.

Just a few months later in early 1896, Part I, Second Edition was released permanently replacing Mrs. Catt's name with Mrs. Clara Neymann and adding a list of international members, notably among them were Alexandra Gripenberg, Ursula Mellor Bright and Irma von Troll-Borostyani.

In Greenbank, Bristol, Stanton met with English suffragist Helen Bright Clark, and spoke to a group about the Bible position of woman.

Gage determined that the Church had acted against women's interests in important ways: from Roman Catholic canon law, to Scripture, to its advocacy of celibacy and more.

"[21] The Appendix consisted of Letters and Comments written by a multitude of contributors, as well as the resolution passed by the NAWSA, by which it repudiated "The Woman's Bible".

[28] Mary Seymour Howell, a member of the Revising Committee, wrote to The New York Times in defense of the book, saying that its title could be better understood as "The Woman's Commentary on the Women of the Bible".

[29] Stanton countered attacks by women readers, writing "the only difference between us is, we say that these degrading ideas of woman emanated from the brain of man, while the church says that they came from God.

"[30] Susan B. Anthony, Stanton's best and most faithful collaborator, concluded after years of working for women's rights that the concentration on one issue—votes for women—was the key to bringing success to the movement.

Stanton insisted, however, that the women's rights conventions were too narrowly focused; she brought forward a variety of challenging concepts in the form of essays for Anthony to read to the audiences.

At the NAWSA convention January 23–28, 1896, Corresponding Secretary Rachel Foster Avery led the battle to distance the organization from The Woman's Bible.

As an organization we have been held responsible for the action of an individual ... in issuing a volume with a pretentious title, covering a jumble of comment ... without either scholarship or literary value, set forth in a spirit which is neither reverent nor inquiring.

[34] Avery called for a resolution: "That this Association is non-sectarian, being composed of persons of all shades of religious opinion, and that it has no connection with the so-called 'Woman's Bible', or any theological publication.

She wrote to her longtime friend Reverend Antoinette Brown Blackwell in April, 1896 to observe: "Our politicians are calm and complacent under our fire but the clergy jump round the moment you aim a pop gun at them 'like parched peas on a hot skillet'".

"[43] In 1920, during the last battles for ratification of the 19th Amendment in Tennessee and North Carolina, Anti-suffragists weaponized the first edition of The Woman's Bible, Part I with Carrie Chapman Catt's name listed among the Revising Committee.

"[43] In July and August, they maintained an exhibit in their mezzanine headquarters at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, TN, and prominently displayed several first edition Woman's Bibles and other literature supporting their anti-ratification views.