Many who are interested in the Transparent English Bible have often asked when it will be available in print and for purchase. Although we have not yet contracted with a trade publisher, the same agent I have used for my other publishing is very interested in taking on the TEB. When we reach that stage I have no doubt we will be able to secure a major mass market trade publisher that will offer us the kind of wide distribution and publicity that we would want. In 2005 I took on the very demanding full-time, twelve month-a-year position as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Previously I had had a standard nine-month contract as a regular tenured faculty member with several days a week free for research, plus the three months of summer and a month between Fall and Spring semesters. That was what allowed us to make the progress we did make on the translation in the years 1992-2004. Since Fall 2005 my time for research has been severely restricted and I have had to spend what time I do have for my own academic research and publishing projects. When I finish my current term as Chair in May, 2013, I plan to devote a fair portion of my research time to the translation once again.

In the meantime one possibility we are considering is the publication of the book of Genesis alone, followed the Torah and other portions of the Bible (Prophets, Psalms, Gospels, etc.) with a major trade publisher, or even perhaps in e-Book format, as early as 2012. This is a pattern that has been followed by a number of major translators in the past, including Everett Fox and Robert Alter, each of whom now have their versions of the Five Books of Moses on the market. I should note in this regard that Fox’s version of Genesis and Exodus was published in 1987, while his Five Books of Moses came out 1997, ten years later. Robert Alter published Genesis in 1996 and his Five Books of Moses in 2004. Both Fox and Alter have since published their versions of 1 & 2 Samuel as separate volumes and Alter has the book of Psalms out as well. I mention this just to illustrate that translations of this type, done by individual scholars, often stretch over several decades despite my earlier youthful optimism when I began in 1992 on the TEB.