The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary

The New Testament in Color is a one-volume commentary on the New Testament written by a multiethnic team of scholars holding orthodox Christian beliefs. Each scholar brings exegetical expertise coupled with a unique interpretive lens to illuminate the ways social location and biblical interpretation work together.

Theologically orthodox and multiethnically contextual, The New Testament in Color fills a gap in biblical understanding for both the academy and the church. Who we are and where God placed us-it’s all useful for better understanding his Word.

A commentary shaped by diverse perspectives

Historically, Bible commentaries have focused on the particular concerns of a limited segment of the church, all too often missing fresh questions and perspectives that are fruitful for biblical interpretation. Listening to scholars from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities offers us an opportunity to explore the Bible from a wider angle, a better vantage point.

The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary is an attempt to bring together people from many different backgrounds to offer commentary on the New Testament. Reading the New Testament, intentionally, through one’s ethnic point of view (African American, Asian American, Hispanic, or Native American) does not violate an objective, traditional reading of Scripture.

Rather, reading the Bible in and out of one’s location exposes the bias of the (formerly so-called) “objective” reading as a Euro-white reading and, at the same time, offers to the traditional readings fresh perspectives. In the introduction, McCaulley states: “we do not assume that our cultures stand over the texts, but through the interaction of person, text, history, and culture, truths that others might miss shine out all the more brilliantly.”

Rooted in a confessional commitment to the trustworthiness of Scripture, this book draws together a diverse group of theologically minded scholars. Together they explore the multiple interpretive possibilities that emerge when Christians read across and within racial and ethnic difference.

Here the promise is that God’s Word will be more faithfully understood when the colorful tapestry of God’s creation of multiple cultures and peoples is embraced. In these ways, this book joins a vital chorus of minoritized biblical scholars who invite readers to ponder the Bible and its readers in rich multiplicity.

Theological commitments and interpretive method

While it is not uncommon to encounter socially located interpretations grounded in a hermeneutic of suspicion, this work speaks from one of trust in the biblical text and a commitment to the central tenets of the Christian faith. It also moves beyond theories about these interpretations (although it does provide those discussions) to commentary on every New Testament book.

The book achieves its aim of being theologically orthodox and multiethnically contextual. Rather that conflicting with Scripture, these biblical scholars are grounded in a trustworthiness of Scripture that allows for diverse interpretive possibilities enhancing faithful understanding of God's Word and God's World.

Each scholar brings exegetical expertise coupled with a unique interpretive lens that allows a brighter illumination toward biblical interpretation and historicity. The contributors are experts not only in the biblical subject matter but also in identifying and sharing the gifts their social location brings to the hermeneutical task.

The authors, drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, are self-aware of their social location and write with a hermeneutic of trust in Scripture. Their essays and commentary emerge from critical, socially located methods and insights that are also informed by the writers' ecclesial perspectives and experiences.

How the book is organized

After an introduction, readers get essays on African American, Asian American, Hispanic, Turtle Island, and Majority-Culture biblical interpretation. Then, the book launches into individual authors offering commentaries on each book of the New Testament.

Interspersed are a few selected essays on gender in the New Testament, resources for the mental health of the oppressed in the NT, multilingualism, and immigrants in the Kingdom of God.

The format lends itself to deeper discussion of individual topics each author wants to write about, but makes it a bit less useful if one is looking specifically for a verse-by-verse commentary. The commentaries on individual books of the New Testament are usually close to chapter-by-chapter, with authors seemingly getting a good amount of leeway with how focused they ought to be verse-by-verse.

They do not exegete each verse but provide a minority perspective on the theme(s) of a passage throughout the book(s). Then for each book of the New Testament it gives an introduction to the book, context of the contributor, author/date, genre, setting, and critical issues.

It then gives a passage-by-passage commentary (i.e Acts: 1:6-11) with asides on things like Pharisees, Sadducees, and leprosy. In addition, it includes important chapters on wider themes such as Gender in the New Testament and Immigrants in the Kingdom of God.

Ethnic and cultural frameworks

African American biblical interpretation

Esau McCaulley wrote on African American Biblical Interpretation. The volume’s contributors demonstrate how reading from a particular social location can raise questions that might otherwise remain unnoticed and can bring theological insight germane to all of God's people.

Asian American biblical interpretation

Janette H. Ok on Asian American Biblical Interpretation. In Janette H. Ok’s section on Asian American Biblical Interpretation, she provides Daniel D. Lee’s Asian American quadrilateral as a distinctive framework for Asian Americans to talk about Asian American identity: (1) Asian heritage, (2) migration experience, (3) American culture, and (4) racialization.

Asian American biblical interpretation includes reading from the minority experience, including marginalization, erasure, and tokenization, while anticipating and working toward greater justice, inclusivity, and equality.

In Daniel K. Eng’s commentary on James, he brings up various relatable concepts in the Asian American experience. The model minority, the principle of reciprocity, striving after educational credentials and marketplace success, and more.

Hispanic biblical interpretation

Osvaldo Padilla on Hispanic Biblical Interpretation. The book brings together scholars whose backgrounds include African American, Asian American, Hispanic, and Native American perspectives, while also recognizing the range of experiences within each broad category.

Turtle Island biblical interpretation

T. Christopher Hoklotubbe (Choctaw) and H. Daniel Zacharias (Cree-Anishinaabe) write on Turtle Island Biblical Interpretation. The perspective of Indigenous contributors adds questions about land, displacement, cultural memory, and the relationship between biblical narratives and the experiences of peoples who have encountered colonization.

Majority-culture interpretation

Michael J. Gorman contributes Majority-Culture Biblical Interpretation: Reading While White. The volume does not merely add minority perspectives to an unchanged interpretive framework; it also encourages readers from the majority culture to become more aware of the cultural assumptions that can shape their reading of Scripture.

There is pastoral sensitivity to the varied experiences of readers, from the emotional and psychological toll of racialized oppression to the exhortation to humility directed toward White Christians (like me).

Commentary on the New Testament books

The commentary itself is consistently excellent and thought-provoking. The scope of this one-volume commentary provides a nearly kaleidoscopic vision of richly varied perspectives together with solid exegesis of the texts.

I’m glad the editors chose a mode which allowed the authors to give running commentary on entire books of the Bible as it allows readers more insight into the thoughts and breadth of ideas of each individual author.

Obviously doing all that in a commentary that covers the whole New Testament means it moves through the text pretty quickly but it's a great complement to more technical textual tools.

The Gospels

The Gospel commentaries combine introductions to each book with discussion of its context, genre, setting, critical issues, and major passages. The approach allows contributors to connect close reading of the text with questions emerging from cultural experience and the life of the church.

I recall especially one moment while reading the commentary on Luke in which the author, Diane G. Chen, whose parents are Chinese, reflected on the passage about treasures in heaven (Luke 12:13-34). Chen wrote about her parents teaching her to save, live within her means, and how to balance that with the concern of a safety net turning into worldliness and power.

Time and again insights are offered into the Bible that spring from the cultural traditions of the authors included. The contributors hail from all over the world, with many different background represented.

Acts and the Pauline letters

I consulted Jarvis J. Williams’ commentary on Romans as I prepared a sermon. Interestingly, in Romans 2 - Williams mentions White superiority but makes the point that we are all capable of being racist and claiming superiority over others.

In Romans 3, Williams’ declares that “God’s judgement is multiethnic.” Jews and Gentiles can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ.

The interpretation of Acts also creates space for questions about power, social status, ethnic division, and the encounter between communities. One contributor illuminates the coldness of First Nations people to embrace easily the Israelites crossing the Jordan-as perhaps an act of colonization-to displace the current inhabitants of Canaan.

There were a few places I thought a more non-European perspective could be expressed but wasn’t: the jailer’s household being baptized because of the patriarch’s experience with Paul and Silas; the silent conflict of Philip (one of the original apostles) warning Paul on his return to Jerusalem because Paul is ignoring the elders of the community; the provoking of anger perhaps when Jesus praises the centurion’s faith over his own disciples’, the crowd’s, his mother Mary’s and the baptized John’s.

The Catholic Epistles and Revelation

The later New Testament writings are treated within the same multiethnic and socially located framework. The commentaries address the text’s theological and pastoral dimensions while giving readers tools for considering how questions of community, exclusion, suffering, identity, migration, and hope appear in the New Testament.

The commentary on James, for example, brings the text into conversation with the Asian American experience of the model minority, reciprocity, educational credentials, and marketplace success. The sections on Peter, John, Jude, and Revelation extend the volume’s attention to communities living under pressure and to the church’s identity across cultural and social boundaries.

Selected themes and contemporary questions

Gender in the New Testament

Lisa M. Bowens and Amy Peeler contribute the section on Gender in the New Testament. The inclusion of this essay reflects the volume’s interest in interpretive questions that affect the church and its readers beyond conventional commentary structures.

The authors and editors explore biblical interpretation through a range of racial, ethnic, and gender identities, while maintaining the volume’s commitment to orthodox Christian beliefs.

Mental health and oppression

Cristin J. Fort provides Resources for the Mental Health of the Oppressed in the New Testament: A Contemporary Reading of Ancient Teachings. This section addresses the emotional and psychological toll of racialized oppression and considers the New Testament in relation to readers who have experienced marginalization.

The volume is informative, prophetic, reflective, and inspiring. The authors, drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, are self-aware of their social location and write with a hermeneutic of trust in Scripture.

Multilingualism

Ekaputra Tupamahu contributes the section on Multilingualism in the New Testament. Its placement among the New Testament commentaries emphasizes the importance of language, translation, cultural movement, and communication for understanding the biblical world and the church’s contemporary life.

Immigrants and hospitality

Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III writes Immigrants and the Kingdom of God: Do They Have a Home in God’s City? The book shows how the New Testament addresses a range of issues important to today's readers, including topics of restorative justice, immigration and hospitality, racial bias and violence, the priority of families and ecclesial communities, and so much more.

Examples of socially located interpretation

Perhaps you’ve read a familiar scripture verse or passage and had it mean something new to you-because you’re in a new stage in life like dating, marriage, divorce, widow-hood, being a child of a parent and now a parent, early career versus late career or retirement, migration from rural to urban or vice versa.

Similarly, if you have a different familial history or geographic origin than the majority culture, the scripture passages might appear differently to you. Thus we can learn much from the contributors to the “New Testament in Color.” They provide a commentary on each of the books of the New Testament (Greek scriptures) as well as several other essays.

One particularly striking example concerns Peter’s vision in Acts 10 and his summons to the home of a Roman centurion. Most interpreters focus purely on the cultural challenge-one Peter has already faced-while this book’s interpreter here focuses on the socioeconomic power clash between Peter, a poor Jew, and Cornelius.

Like the power conflict between an urban Black and White metro law enforcement officer, who’s been taught that blacks are criminals and it may be the only portion of that group they’ve interacted with. Both would be totally unfamiliar with each other except as powerful/powerless, oppressive/rebellious stereotypes.

The centurion would have been educated that the Israelites were kicked out of Egypt so many generations ago so that their diseases (aka the plagues) wouldn’t contaminate the Egyptian populace. The centurion then wouldn’t have wanted to engage much with the “slum-dwelling” Jewish inhabitants, and yet kneels contritely before Peter.

These observations show how a commentary can place familiar passages within questions of class, ethnicity, power, social distance, and inherited assumptions. The purpose is not to replace one reading with another, but to allow the interaction of person, text, history, and culture to disclose dimensions that other approaches may miss.

Strengths and limitations

The New Testament in Color is a fantastic resource and, frankly, a fascinating read. Magnificently and very thoroughly researched and resourced, The New Testament in Color is ideal for those who want to dig deeper, think more, feel deeply, and enhance one's knowledge and one's faith.

It is comprehensive, well-written, well-researched, and eye-opening. This commentary belongs on the shelf of every pastor and scholar in the United States, if not on an even larger scale.

Professors, students, and all participants in the body of Christ will find The New Testament in Color to be a valuable, instructive, and challenging resource for understanding the Bible, the church, and Christian discipleship.

Some readers may find portions of the book too academic, with extensive notes and a demanding pace. It is not a quick read, but one that will take time to digest.

This is a commentary that will help you see and better understand different communities. This book offers invaluable insights from the entire body of Christ. It shows Scripture and our Savior from different views.

If there's a weakness in The New Testament in Color, it's the lack of a strong disability voice (and yes, I would argue disability is more a culture than a diagnosis).

The book is also limited by its primary setting. The contributors are drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, but their perspectives are presented as North American residents, some from many generations on the margin, sometimes 2nd generation immigrants or transplants from another country.

Thus, their perspective is somewhat limited by the time lapse from their family’s original culture. Still these commentaries are scholarly, personal and insightful.

Who can benefit from this commentary?

This a great resource for people who have the bible on their syllabi or pastor multi-ethnic Christian spaces. As a Black woman who attended many Christian schools, I always wondered where “I” was in the bible. This resource begins to answer this question and illuminates pathways for discussion and future research.

Some might look at this commentary and say that it is a resource for seminarians, academia, or people in multicultural ministry. I would caution against such an assumption.

The reality is that this commentary was a necessary addition to the range of commentaries already published because the vast majority of biblical commentaries have come from male, white, European or American contexts or contributors.

By utilizing this commentary in preparation for sermons or study in majority white churches or institutions, it is providing the reader with the opportunity to consider a perspective different from there own. God cannot be confined to one culture and by bringing together multiple voices, it then expands and enriches the interpretation of Scripture for study and proclamation.

As a White pastor to indigenous people, I have often been forced to face my lack of awareness about other theological traditions and cultural expressions of Christianity. It attempts to draw together insights from African-American, Asian, Latino, and Indigenous Christianities.

If you’ve ever read commentaries, the academic character of the book will be familiar. If you’ve never been challenged to ask different questions when you read scripture-like you haven’t read this book or “Misreading Scripture Through Western Eyes”-then you really need to pick up this commentary.

Why the volume matters

The American evangelical church has desperately needed this book, The New Testament in Color. For those of us who value the power and authority of God's Word while aware of the diverse experiences and realities that shape our own culturally unique stories, we have longed for this book.

This text reminds us that God is a transcendent God who speaks through a transcendent source, but that God is also God with us, immanent in the Word and also in our lives.

The New Testament in Color is informative, prophetic, reflective, and inspiring. It makes an extraordinary contribution to New Testament studies and sets the standard for future commentaries.

Exegetically precise, theologically orthodox, and prophetically challenging, this book-in a word-preaches!

It will help open your eyes, and your heart, to a more vivid and vibrant view of our God.

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