A study Bible 500 years in the making: Introducing the Anabaptist Community Bible

By Frank Ramirez

A funny thing happened on the way to retirement–or at least that’s what John Roth, a history professor at Goshen (Ind.) College, discovered. “I just assumed I would retire at Goshen but in 2022 MennoMedia had the idea we should do something to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement.”

Less than three years later, the Anabaptist Community Bible was published under his direction. The project involved more than 70 scholars, 6 historians (who read through the corpus of 16th and 17th century Anabaptists in their entirety), and nearly 600 congregations from the Mennonite and Brethren traditions.

Roth noted that “the relationship of the Brethren to the Anabaptist movement has been a source of conversation.” But whether we trace our roots to January 1525 (the birth of Anabaptism) or late summer of 1708 (the first baptisms in the Brethren movement), “both movements began when young people gathered around scripture and asked questions about what that means for how we should live.”

The basic format was worked out in a planning conference in August 2022. Scholars were recruited to write introductions and marginal notes, marked with an icon of a lamp that is lit.

Others scoured the writings of the Anabaptists of the 16th and 17th century for reflections on scripture, often written in prison cells using the scriptures treasured in their memories. These are indicated with an icon of the lamb bearing the marks of slaughter.

And finally, congregations across all the Anabaptist traditions were invited to conduct four-week Bible studies in which they provided more marginal notes, marked by an image of individuals holding hands around a table. These groups recorded their observations and sent them in, resulting, Roth said, in over 4,000 pages of notes.

In addition, each page contains some white space in the margins for individuals to write their own observations.

The translation utilized is that of the Common English Bible, which tested each passage of the translation with groups for whom English as a second language, to make the scriptures accessible to all.

The Anabaptist Community Bible also includes evocative artwork that draws one deeper into the biblical stories.

The result of the project, utilizing the broad spectrum of Anabaptist groups (including 60 Church of the Brethren congregations) is, in Roth’s words, “if not unity, then collaboration.”

The final product addresses three points, Roth said:

“We read scripture together, in community.
We read scripture through the lens of Jesus.
We read scripture expecting that it will change how we live.”