By Linda Bailey, Student Reporter

After seven years of work, The Transforming Word, a one-volume Bible commentary edited by members of ACU faculty, has finally hit the shelves.

Dr. Nancy Shankle, professor of English and chair of the Department of English, was an associate editor for The Transforming Word. She said the commentary weighs seven pounds.

“Its size speaks for the important contribution of how difficult it was to work on a project of this magnitude,” Shankle said.

Dr. John Willis, Burton Coffman Chair of Biblical Studies and professor of Old Testament, also worked as an associate editor for The Transforming Word. He said the commentary has several introductory articles that give readers a broad picture of the Bible, and then goes through the Bible book by book. The commentary also contains pictures, charts, maps and sidebars that capsulate the main ideas.

The book was written for the average person, Willis said.

“It is designed, not for scholars, but for people that are interested in learning the Bible,” he said. “I would think any person from junior high up would benefit greatly from The Transforming Word.”

The Transforming Word is the product of many years spent gathering information and putting it together. First, editors assigned different scholars to write certain portions of the commentary. After they finished, they would send their work to the editors who would review it and send it back for rewriting or polishing.

Shankle said she was primarily responsible for the design and editing line by line.

“My job was to help with design elements and line editing to make sure that in every point in the process we were putting in information that was useful to the audience,” Shankle said.

Out of the 53 contributors, about 24 are affiliated with ACU, according to a press release. Shankle said with this many contributors, it was important for her to keep consistency in the style of writing.

“When you have 53 people contributing to a book, you want some consistency of style as you go through,” Shankle said. “Part of my task was to make sure there is an essential style as you work through the book.”

Willis said the commentary is easy to read and interesting. It is filled with a lot of information about the message of the Bible, marriage, the Church and worship. It also provides thoughts on how to help widows, orphans and the poor.

The people who helped create The Transforming Word are primarily from Churches of Christ and conservative Christian churches, Willis said.

Shankle said the commentary is unique because Christians, who were part of a historical root in the Churches of Christ, wrote it.

“Everyone needs a Bible commentary, and this one was written by people in the Stone Campbell movement, so it is particularly useful for people in the Churches of Christ,” Shankle said.