Green. We see it everywhere — hybrid car ads, governmental policy priorities, Starbucks coffee cups. And now you can see it in your Bible. Literally.

That doesn't mean the 66 books of the Bible have suddenly changed. The Scriptures have always been green in some sense. When God created the heavens and earth, He called what he created "very good" (Gen 1:31) and set up humanity as caretakers of His creation. And while sin's entrance into the world defaced all of creation — not just humanity (Rom 8:18-25) — that doesn't mean followers of the Creator should neglect or mistreat what He created.

On another level because God's glory is revealed in creation (Rom 1:19-20), it is counterintuitive to think Christians shouldn't care about this planet. Care, of course, does not equate to worship. Yet it makes sense that we should respect what God originally called good.

What's new this year is a Bible that brings out the green theme for you in a fresh way. The Green Bible was published by HarperOne on October 7, 2008. Its paper is made of 10 percent post-consumer content, its ink is soy-based, and its 100 percent cotton/linen cover is produced in a green-friendly environment.

The Green Bible also provides 10 introductory essays discussing theological approaches to the environment issue. These essays are written from a broad spectrum of contributors including the late Pope John Paul II, Anglican Bishop of Durham Dr. N. T. Wright, emergent church leader Brian McLaren, founder of the first national Jewish environmental organization Ellen Bernstein, and others. These essays give different theological, and even religious, perspectives on environmentalism.

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu orients the reader to this volume in his foreword by emphasizing the communal reality of the world: We need to be aware of the inter-communal nature of existence, and that's why those who are impoverished and whose lives are devastated by natural disasters, he says, should rate high on a Christian's list of priorities.

He then brings these "moral obligations" into connection with climate change and environmental issues:

We, who should have been responsible stewards preserving our vulnerable, fragile planet home, have been wantonly wasteful through our reckless consumerism, devouring irreplaceable natural resources. We need to be accountable to God's family. Once we start living in a way that is people-friendly to all of God's family, we will also be environment-friendly.¹

Indeed, the introductory essays challenge readers to be concerned about life on this earth rather than abandoning our duties on this planet. And what Christian can deny that general principle when God commands us throughout the Old and New Testaments to care for the poor and love our neighbor as ourselves (e.g., Lev 19:18; Matt 22:39)?

Perhaps that is why the Green Bible enjoys some significant endorsements on its cover. Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus of Columbia Theological Seminary, calls it "a crucial resource." The Message translator Eugene H. Peterson says it's "an urgent agenda for the Christian community." And Lauren F. Winner describes it as "challenging, inspiring, and hopeful. The Green Bible will change the way you think, and the way you live."

The volume aims to answer the question, "Is God green?" In a time when environmentalism is the hot issue, The Green Bible steps in to make a contribution. In a bold statement, the preface says, "Our role in creation's care may be a new question unique to our place in history, but the Bible turns out to be amazingly relevant." As it should. "In fact, it is almost as if it were waiting for this moment to speak to us."²

And this gets us to what's most striking about The Green Bible: not the manner of its production nor its introductory essays nor its publication at a time when being green is all the rage, but the color of its ink. The Green Bible is a green-letter edition that highlights for you more than 1,000 verses that discuss the earth.

OK. Should Christians engage contemporary issues? Yes. Should we do it using the Bible? Absolutely. Even with the green movement? Sure.

My personal take on the issue of environmentalism is one of tension. Christians have a dual citizenship: We are citizens of earth for a time, but are also citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20). We must fulfill our responsibility to our neighbor on earth now, and at the very least, insofar as our environmental choices and policies affect the lives of other humans we have a responsibility to care for God's creation. But Christians also have a responsibility to preach the gospel and live today in light of eternity. These aren't mutually exclusive, but they do create a tension in how we live out the limited time we have on earth.

But this article is not about environmentalism proper. As Christians, let's be sure to discuss how green we should be, and let's use the Bible to guide our views. But my concern here is more fundamentally about the Bible itself.

By highlighting some passages in green, the editors of this project identify creation care as the major theme of The Green Bible. Readers are to keep their eye out for what the Bible specifically says about creation and the environment, and they begin to see the Bible in a new way. The comment that the Bible has been "waiting for this moment to speak to us" supports the editors' belief that this is indeed the most important theme of the Bible, at least for this time in history.

But has the Bible really been waiting for this moment? By no means. The Bible holds out timeless truth that cannot be circumscribed by a 21st-century hot-button topic. While bringing to our attention things in the Scriptures we may have missed can help us grow as Christians, highlighting these passages in the biblical text itself suggests that creation care is the theme of the Bible.

However, creation care is only one aspect of our theology that falls within a much greater overarching theme. The Bible reveals foremost God's display of his glory in His redemption of the good creation that fell into sin by rebelling against God, a redemption ultimately accomplished through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel, a theme that doesn't need special colored lettering because the whole of Scripture relates to it. This theme has something to say about the creation care subtheme, but that subtheme is not the point of Scripture. We don't need a Green Bible; we need the Holy Bible.

A related concern is that highlighting a certain theme in Scripture with green ink can create what theologians call "a canon within the canon." The term "canon" refers to the 66 books that make up the Bible. A canon within the canon, then, refers to the selection of certain passages that are more authoritative than others. Printing certain passages in green is one way to delimit a canon within the canon. Whether that's The Green Bible project's intention or not, the reality is that many readers who see passages highlighted for them in the Bible will read as if those passages are more important than others.

At this point you may be wondering, What should we make of the red-letter edition? First, I think it's different to highlight a theme of Scripture than to highlight the words of Christ. The first raises a subtheme above the overarching thrust of the Bible, while the second raises Christ's speech above the other words in Scripture to emphasize the pivotal Christ event.

At the same time, red-letter editions can be misguiding as well because they can leave the impression that Christ's words are more important than the rest of Scripture. But if we believe the entire Bible is inspired by God, how could we say Christ's words are more important? For example, can we really confess that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount has greater authority or value for our life than God's words recorded in the Old Testament, such as His giving of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) or His oration to Job (Job 38-41)? Or can we honestly affirm that all God said through the prophets and apostles is less authoritative?

Thus, while I don't think highlighting Christ's words is as disconcerting as the green-letter edition, I am still no fan of red-letter editions because they can misconstrue the importance of the whole Bible.

But isn't it OK to discuss themes within Scripture? Of course. But those themes must always be held in tension with the rest of the teaching in the Bible. To fail to do so puts us at risk of stepping into heresy.

Augustine said in 397 A.D. that the "most expert investigator of the divine scriptures" will both have read all the Scriptures and also have "a good knowledge" of them. This will protect the interpreter so that others "will then be unable to take possession of his unprotected mind and prejudice him in any way against sound interpretations or delude him by their dangerous falsehoods and fantasies."³ Heresies thrive on emphasizing only a part of Scripture (e.g., saying Jesus was God, but not man), but a knowledge of the whole militates against heresies.

The preface to The Green Bible says they made the green-letter edition because they wanted to "highlight the rich and varied ways the books of the Bible speak directly to how we should think and act as we confront the environmental crisis facing our planet."⁴ That's a great purpose, but does that justify printing certain biblical passages in a different color? Thousands of books have been written to discuss what the Bible says on innumerable themes, but they didn't reprint the entire Bible to do it.

What's at stake here is our view of the Bible and what we believe we can rightfully do with or to it as Christians. What's at stake is whether we manipulate it for our own purposes or let it stand on its own to guide us in dealing with the issues we face today.

I am not taking issue with The Green Bible's aim to discuss what the Bible says about the environment, but I am taking exception to the manner in which they do it and the idea of any and every Bible printed to selectively highlight passages supporting an agenda. Let's discuss the issues elsewhere; we don't need a new Bible to do that.

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1. The Green Bible, New Revised Standard Version (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008), I-13.
2. The Green Bible, I-15.
3. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana [On Christian Teaching], trans. and ed. R. P. H. Green (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 67.
4. The Green Bible, I-15.