Bible publishers today are seeking new ways to engage readers by reaching out worldwide to wrap the scripture with comments and insights from scholars and thoughtful believers across differing races and ethnicities. And publishers are designing with a difference as well, stepping up on accessibility and beauty.
IVP just released The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary by Evangelical theologians and scholars Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla, and Amy L.B. Peeler. IVP president and publisher Terumi Echols calls it “a laser-focused Bible commentary that digs deeper into Bible teachings to provide context from a multicultural perspective, which is pioneering for the North American church.”
In January 2025, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation’s Anabaptist movement—which today includes Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite believers—MennoMedia will publish the Anabaptist Community Bible. Project director and editor John Roth gathered commentary from 61 biblical scholars and reflection notes from 600 community study groups around the globe to surround the translation of the text.
“Each group was assigned an Old Testament passage, a New Testament one, and a psalm or proverb to address from the Anabaptist perspective, which is centered on our theological principles of love and non-violence,” Roth says. “We wanted to create an informed discussion around scripture and a Bible that illuminates and rewards collective discernment.”
Thought-provoking commentaries
To develop the Westminster Study Bible (Sept.), Westminster John Knox took the New Revised Standard Version’s updated translation and added scholarly commentaries on ethical and moral issues from “Latino, liberationist, African-American, and womanist perspectives looking at how the Bible is deployed today,” according to acquisitions editor Julie Mullins.
NavPress, a publishing partner with Tyndale, wraps the voices of 80 women around Eugene Peterson’s classic paraphrase Bible text for The Message Women’s Devotional Bible (Aug, 2025). The authors are “well-educated women of different vocations, different ethnicities, different ages,” says Tyndale senior marketing manager David Geeslin. “The devotions they add and stories they tell raise tough questions, share painful stories, and invite people to bring their real questions to the Bible.”
Crossway has two new Bibles launching in September. The ESV Everyday Gospel Bible: Connecting Scripture to All of Life features daily devotions and 120 “doctrinal sidebars” by theologian and pastor Paul David Tripp, while the ESV Holy Bible: Dyslexia-Friendly Edition draws on a typeface developed by graphic artists at Cambridge University that features new letter forms and extra space between letters, words, lines, and paragraphs to aid dyslexic readers.
Lifeway’s Bibles team is also using this new type- face for two forthcoming Bibles—The Grace Bible for Kids and one for adults and teens that is being billed as a dyslexia-friendly presentation of the Christian Standard Bible text. It also includes colored overlay pages shown to visually enhance readability, “so people who are struggling to read can read biblical truths on their own,” says Becky Loyd, Lifeway’s VP of marketing.
Zondervan editors scoured their long-standing NIV Application Commentary series to create a new NIV Application Bible (Apr. 2025). It pairs thousands of study notes from evangelical scholars with notes on applying the Bible’s wisdom. And the publisher is going beyond the charts and maps that illustrate most Bibles to launch the Anne Neilson Angel Art series in October. It features oil painter Neilson’s angel images with two covers each for two translations: Amplified Holy Bible: Anne Neilson Angel Art Series and the NRSVue, Holy Bible: Anne Neilson Angel Art Series. Her art and commentary are woven through the books, as well.
