Study Bible Depicts Black Women And Their Stories
Study Bible Depicts Black Women And Their Stories
By Tia Carol Jones
A study Bible with stories of Black women represented in the Bible is receiving positive feedback from its readers. The Women of Color Study Bible is published by Urban Spirit! Publishing and Media Company.
Urban Spirit! Publishing and Media Company was founded by Mel Banks. Banks, a Chicago native, grew up in religious publishing. His father was the founder of Urban Ministries, which is known for publishing Sunday school and Vacation Bible School curriculum for Black churches. Banks worked for his father’s company, which is one of the largest Black-owned Christian materials publishers. While Banks was working for Urban Ministries, people would ask if there was a Bible that featured Black people and people of color. That was when Banks set out to publish a Bible that depicted Black people and people of color in it.
Banks began his own publishing endeavors with Children of Color Publishing, where he started out publishing the Children of Color Holy Bible in 2001. That bible has illustrations of Bible characters that are people of color, which at the time, there was nothing else like it on the market. With the success of that, he started to publish books and bibles that are geared to meet the needs of people of color everywhere, with the hope to point them to a Christian outlook and towards Jesus. It also has audiobooks and video and is looking to evolve into including all kinds of media platforms.
With the Women of Color Study Bible, what distinguishes the Bible is the features and articles in the Bible. It features stories about the women in the Bible and why their life experience is important to woman of color today. The Bible also includes life lessons that explain passages of the Bible that might be difficult to understand, written in a voice that women of color can appreciate, as well as prayers.
“The reason for it is to appeal to a particular group of people so they’ll enjoy their Bible more and come to know, honor and serve the Lord better, because of their contact to this information,” he said. “There are all kind of features that make it a Bible that women of color appreciate more than maybe another Bible they’ve had in the past.”
Banks said it is important to have Black representation in the Bible because throughout history all of the depictions of Bible characters have been Eurocentric. He believes when there is a depiction of Black people and people of color in the Bible, people from those communities can relate to it more. He also acknowledged that where the people in the Bible come from, those people were not white or European.
There were 125 women who wrote the articles and features in the Women of Color Study Bible, and two editors that worked on putting it together. Banks said it took more than a year to complete. He said more than 99% of the people who purchased the bible said they love the bible and are glad they purchased it. People are also buying the bible for their friends and family members.
For more information about the Women of Color Study Bible, visit urbanspirit.biz.
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