Listening to Diverse Scholarship
A Feature Review of
The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Commentary
Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla, and Amy Peeler, editors
Paperback: IVP Academic, 2024
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Reviewed by Rob O’Lynn
As I prepared to write this review, I thought that I needed to offer some brief caveats. First, I deeply love scripture and hold to a hermeneutic of trust, which means that I accept the authority of scripture in my life and believe that the initial intent of scripture was constructive and progressive in that God’s mission was advanced through the communication of scripture. Not all biblical scholars hold to this specific position, as it is one end of the hermeneutical spectrum. The authors of this volume, however, do hold to this position. Second, I believe that contemporary biblical scholarship should and must embrace as many diverse and ethnically distinct voices as possible so that the perpetual work of the Spirit is best represented in our collective understanding of scripture. I was academically raised on the “usual suspects” of biblical scholarship—Brueggemann, Fee, Gerstenburger, Johnson, Marshall, Morris and, specifically from my tradition, Holladay and Malherbe, just to name a few. I am eternally grateful for the foundation of biblical scholarship that I received from these individuals and others. However, Christianity is more than a white man’s religion and our thinking about Christian faith and practice should be influenced by as many diligent practitioners as possible. Finally, I am not sure that I am the correct person to write this review. Frankly, see my previous comment. That being said, I am deeply honored to write this review and am thrilled beyond measure that this volume is available.
This ethnically rich single-volume commentary comes from a couple of places. One is the awareness that one-volume commentaries remain incredibly helpful to all those who study scripture, whether we are scholars or preachers or marketplace disciples. Generally, I am hesitant to recommend either single-volume or multi-volume commentaries from the same author. While there is an expectation that I can learn from and speak on any part of scripture, there is hubris in thinking one person can speak authoritatively on all of scripture. Fortunately, this volume has assembled over twenty ethnically-diverse authors who are all specialists in New Testament studies. This leads to the second point: the need for ethnically-diverse voices to stand alongside those voices of the largely Western European contingency that so many of us learned from—and to now take a lead in contemporary biblical scholarship. Christianity has thrived longer in Africa and Asia than and almost as long in Central and South America as it has in Europe and North America and it is high time that we listen to voices that emerged from those divinely-touched contexts.
On one hand, this is designed as a standard single-volume commentary on the New Testament. Each book of the New Testament is treated individually—with the exception of the Thessalonian and Johannine letters, which are treated collectively in their own chapters. Given my own current commentary work on the Johannine letters and my last review for Englewood Review of Books being on an introduction to 1-2 Thessalonians, this stood out to me. However, given my aforementioned work, I think I understand the reason why—these letters are better understood collectively rather than separately (especially the Johannine letters). Generally in a review, this is where the reviewer outlines the chapters and draws attention to the chapters that the review finds strong or notes the issues with the chapters that the reviewer finds weak. I think, honestly, readers of this review know the “chapters” of this volume (the VBS song is now playing in your mind, is it not?), at least the bulk of them (more on that in a minute). What gladly caught my attention were some of the names that I recognized, such as Miguel G. Echevarria, Dennis R. Edwards, Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Madison N. Pierce, and Jarvis J. Williams. Each commentary chapter offers a brief book introduction followed by summative exposition appropriate for a one-volume commentary that invites the reader to a passionately immersive discussion of scripture.
On the other hand, there are some elements to this commentary that will intentionally set it apart from other one-volume commentaries. There are two, what we might call, collections of essays incorporated into this commentary. The first collection focuses on various culturally-specific interpretive lenses that are being used by the authors. McCaulley, who wrote the introduction, wrote the essay on African American biblical interpretation. Janette H. Ok wrote the essay on Asian American biblical interpretation. Osvaldo Padilla wrote the essay on Hispanic biblical interpretation. Each of these authors also edited the volume. T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias wrote the essay on the biblical interpretation of Indigenous Peoples. And Michael J. Gorman, the editor of an excellent global and ecumenical introduction to hermeneutics entitled Scripture and Its Interpretation, wrote the essay on majority-culture biblical interpretation. Each of these essays stand-alone yet provide a cohesive introduction to the commentary chapters that follow. The second collection of essays provide historical and cultural nuance to the study of the New Testament documents. Interspersed throughout the commentary chapter, essays included focus on gender (Lisa M. Bowens an Amy Peeler, the fourth editor), mental health (Christin J. Fort), multilingualism (Ekaputra Tupamahu), and immigration (Rudolfo Galvan Estrada III). Each of these essays is strong and invites the reader into conversations not common to New Testament studies, especially the essay on mental health in New Testament times. The essays on gender provide a more expansive view on a topic that had long been thought to be closed for debate. Lastly, the essays on multilingualism and immigration could not be any more relevant as they combat the insidious variations of segregation that continue to infect the church and tarnish its witness by reminding us that God has always intended there to be beauty in diversity.
Overall, this one-volume commentary is a beautiful and rich gift to both biblical scholarship specifically and Christian discipleship generally. My only critique is on how the more issue-focused essays were interspersed throughout the commentary chapters. I think they may have served the volume better by being gathered together elsewhere in the volume. This, admittedly, is a small point and in absolutely no way takes away from the value this volume brings to the table of faith.
Rob O'Lynn
Rob O'Lynn is Associate Professor of Preaching and Ministry, Director of Graduate Bible Programs, and Dean of the School of Distance and General Education at Kentucky Christian University. He has served congregations in Arkansas, Texas, West Virginia and Kentucky. You can follow him @DrRobOLynn on BlueSky or Instagram.
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