The most important news ever delivered by God through a human voice was delivered by a woman of color. Yet how often do we allow the paintings, movies, and stained glass windows we’ve grown up with determine what we imagine Bible characters looked like? The Bible’s stories are all about people of color–the whole Bible is set in the Middle East and Egypt, until the Apostle Paul ventures into southern Europe in the book of Acts. Let’s be good stewards of God’s Word and re-imagine a more accurate picture of the skin colors and cultures of the Bible.

While my book, God Chose a Woman First, provides great detail about 13 women of color whom God chose to deliver life-changing truths, I’m only going to discuss three of those women and their messages in this blog post. Here are three conversation starters to help people begin to see the people of color in the Bible.

1. Talk about the most important news in all of history.

The first message I want you to remember, which was delivered by a woman of color, is the news of the resurrection of Jesus. This messenger was a Middle Eastern woman with a misunderstood past, a woman who was healed by Jesus, a wealthy woman who supported Jesus and his male disciples, a woman who traveled with Jesus and his male disciples throughout Palestine, and one of the women who was with Jesus at the cross and at his burial. The news she delivered was “I’ve seen the Lord.” Her name was Mary Magdalene and she is the first person Jesus appeared to after his resurrection and the first person he commissioned to “Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them, ‘I’m going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God'” (John 20:17 CEB). The news of Jesus’ resurrection is the most important news in all of history and it is the foundation of the Christian faith. Without the resurrection, our faith is futile. God chose Mary Magdalene to deliver that message.

2. Talk about the first document authenticated as God’s written word.

One of my favorite Bible characters that most people have never heard of is Huldah. Huldah was a woman prophet in King Josiah’s court in the 7th century BCE. You can read her story in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. She was also a Middle Eastern, Jewish woman who would be seen as a woman of color in today’s world. (In her world, we white people would have stood out as the minority, the foreigners, the immigrants! Those terms are all a matter of perspective and geography.) During King Josiah’s reign, he ordered that the deteriorating Jewish Temple in Jerusalem be restored to its purpose of worship. In the cleaning out process, a document was found in the rubble and read to the king. The king ordered his men to take the document to the woman prophet Huldah for authentication. What’s interesting is that they could’ve consulted any number of male prophets, such as Jeremiah or Zephaniah who also prophesied in Jerusalem at the same time. Yet the high priest and others of the king’s court were sent to the woman prophet. This is the first time in the Bible where someone is asked to verify a written document as God’s word. Huldah’s interpretation of the document–the message from God–not only convinced the king to turn his whole nation back to God, but also began the centuries-long process of determining which books would eventually become part of our Bible today.

3. Talk about how God broke 400 years of prophetic silence.

And the third message I want to remind you of is the first time God spoke through a human voice in the events of the New Testament, which began 400 years (!) after the end of the events of the Old Testament. This message from God was spoken through a woman of color named Elizabeth. She was a faithful Middle Eastern, Jewish woman, married to a priest, and a woman who had suffered with infertility her whole married life. The gospel of Luke tells us her story and introduces us to her husband Zechariah. The angel Gabriel visited Zechariah and told him that he and Elizabeth were finally going to have the son they had prayed for. Then, because Zechariah doubted the angel’s message, he was struck mute. Therefore, Zechariah’s voice was not the one through which God would break 400 years of prophetic silence. Instead, that 400 years of God’s prophetic silence would be broken by the loud announcement of Elizabeth when she was the first person to confirm prophetically that Mary was pregnant with the coming Messiah (see Luke 1:39-45).

“I have come to appreciate the fact that the women in the Bible each had a heritage, language, ethnicity, and culture different from my own. I am indebted to these Egyptian, Hebrew, Middle Eastern, and Mesopotamian women in Scripture for showing me the riches of a relationship with God. Their examples have literally changed my life, informed my understanding of God’s Word, helped me comprehend God as my source of confidence, and enhanced my personal experience with God. My prayer is that their stories will do the same for you and will remind you that God has a calling for you, too.” –Laura Savage-Rains, p. 4, God Chose a Woman First

While the whole Bible is about people of color, it is helpful to emphasize some of the more significant moments when God chose a woman of color to proclaim a new message of God’s truth! Let’s correct our mind’s eye view of the people in the Bible and see them as people of color to whom we are indebted for giving us our Bible and our Savior.

I’d love to hear in the comments below if any of your churches have stained glass windows or even children’s teaching pictures where people’s skin tones are accurately portrayed as people of color.