Many have written to ask when the Transparent English Bible 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 own 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. However, I don’t think we will see finished copies of the TEB in bookstores until 2012-2014, first the Hebrew Bible and then the Greek New Testament. We are still in the translation and editorial stages of the Project and its final preparation for publication, even when we are ready, will take up to two years, judging from my experience with trade publishers. In order to finish this project I will have to be at a place in my own professional life where I have completed my own administrative duties that have taken up 60% of my time the past four years, which will not be the case until May, 2010 at the earliest.

One possibility we are considering is the publication of the book of Genesis alone, with a major trade publisher, as early as 2009. 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 might just note here that each of these marvelous translations share much in common with the Transparent English Bible, so much so that I encourage readers to obtain these works but I am not consulting them in my own translation process in order to preserve independence. I might note here 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, are going to be a minimum of two decades in the making, despite my earlier youthful optimism when I began in 1992 on the TEB.

What we are ready to do immediately though is begin to release what we have called Preliminary Translation Samples on the Web in PDF format here through this new Web site. These “Beta” versions are the same as the ones we are giving to our roster of academic experts for their professional feedback and evaluation. However, we are very much committed to also hearing fron non-specialist readers of the Bible who want to offer their suggestions and comments. Over the years I have found that thousands of such folk collectively, with or without the technical knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, come up with highly valuable insights and feedback. At one point I was concerned about making our translation available in this form all over the world for anyone to download and print out–free of charge! I have since decided that should not be a worry on our part. The material is copyrighted and I do not think its wide distribution will harm in any way our ultimate sales of the printed full version. In fact, if anything, I think the serial release of the TEB during 2007 and 2008, if anything, will only serve to whet the interest and appetites of our readers for more.

So, beginning in September, 2007 we began to put up a series of these Preliminary Translation Samples. As we continue to receive feedback from readers, both academic and non-specialist, I will be discussing some of the issues that have been raised here in this Web site. I am really looking forward to this process and welcome all of our hundreds of new readers to the OBP.

As long-time viewers of this site will recognize we have inaugurated a complete overhaul of the Original Bible Project Website with new software that will support a wide range of new features. This will include updated Translation Sample releases, news items and information related to the Project, and lots of discussion of translation issues along the way. Rather than carry on our main communication through periodic newsletters as we have done over the past decade this new Web site will allow us to be in touch with those interested in the Transparent English Bible on a frequent and regular basis. We are particularly pleased that through the Web we will be able to easily reach people living in any country in the world, whereas in the past, sending surface/air mail reports through conventional means to those outside the United States was becoming prohibitive financially.

If you have not already subscribed our e-mail list please go to our contact page and sign up. This will allow us to reach all of our interested readers with more immediate news items and special alerts related to the Project. You may also use that page to offer us feeback via e-mail and to pose whatever questions you have.

I am completely committed to seeing this wonderful Project through to the end. I just looked up some dates. The OBP was officially incorporated on September 11, 1991. It came to me through the inspiration of the late and beloved Dr. Ernest L. Martin who had visited me here in Charlotte in early 1991 and invited me to Portland in May of that year to discuss his beginning ideas. I actually began work in May, 1992. At the time I remember telling Dr. Martin that I was sure it would be a five-year Project. Of course I had no idea of what would turn out to be the complexity of the task. Moreover, I did not anticipate the ways my academic and professional career would require so much of my time, particularly in the areas of archaeology, research, publishing, and now serving as Chair of a growing Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Martin always had faith that the OBP would come out at the “right time” and he encouraged me along the way to take advantage of the opportunities that were before me as a scholar. I think he saw everything working out eventually as a harmonious whole-even if things did not unfold according to the timetable we initially anticipated. I would like to think he was correct in that positive faith he always maintained.

I should point out for those who are fairly new to the Project that much of it depends on one person-me. That was our deliberative decision from the beginning. Many translations have teams of scholars working on various books with the final product synthesized by editorial deliberation. What we decided was that the basic translation, of both the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament would come first from one editor, in consultation with others, and then be reviewed by teams of scholars. Our decision was based on our desire to achieve an absolute consistency in our method and approach to the translation. If I were completely free to work on this and only this, and did not have a job or career, I suppose I could have met my original five-year projection. I still believe our decision was correct and I am thoroughly committed both to the concept and the task before us.

For reasons of cost and efficiency we want to move most of our operations to the Internet and handle things electronically through e-mail and the Web site. If some of you do not personally use the Web or e-mail I imagine one of your children or grandchildren or a friend or relative would be more than pleased to assist you in this. Our plans are to put our current Translation Samples on the Web site so anyone can download them and print them out and our new releases will be handled the same way. Material can then be released more quickly and efficiently and everyone on our e-mail sign-up list will be regularly informed of new materials and major news of the project. If there are any of our long-term supporters who absolutely have no way to access the Internet or the Web we will of course mail you these materials. However, we anticipate almost everyone can move to this new medium with a bit of help from friends or relatives.

I should also want to be sure that everyone knows that we have moved our OBP editorial and administrative office to Charlotte, NC. For all the years of the Project we have never really had an “office” per se, but Bob Ellsworth, who has done so much for us over the years has allowed us to use his own business office in Pasadena and has voluntarily carried on all our administrative duties single-handedly. I have now secured shared office space at a very economical cost here in Charlotte The office, which houses the David Horowitz Memorial Library, is lovely and has room for all my books and research materials. This growing library, focused on biblical and historical research, is perfect match for us in terms of space. Having our own dedicated place is a first for us and I think it will make a tremendous difference in our operational efficiency. The new address to which you should now direct all correspondence is: 2124 Crown Centre Drive, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28227. The telephone number is 704-841-3689. Your can reach us via e-mail at the Web site under “Contact.”

As we begin to ramp things up again we will continue our work as previously planned with our outside editors and consulting academic readers working with us. I recently met informally with Dr. Haak in Washington, D.C. at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting. Dr. Haak has served as our general Hebrew Bible editor and he remains fully committed to our concept and task.

I want to thank all of you who have loyally been with us all these years. We are getting new people every day through the Web site. The interest in this kind of translation, and the publication of the Bible with the books in the manuscript order as originally arranged is high. I know of no other translation like this one and I have an unwavering commitment to seeing it through to the end.