I’ve posted writing schedules in the past (2016 through 2019). For some reason, I didn’t do it for 2020. But it’s time again to try and sketch things out and make some plans for how to spend my research and writing time in 2021.

Things are always subject to change, but for 2021, my planned focus is on fragmentary early Christian papyri. I’ve done research and writing in this area since late 2018 (as sporadically evidenced on this blog) and have posted numerous transcriptions and translations as well.

At various times in the crap-hole that will historically be known as “2020” I’ve been able to get some further writing done on these fragmentary wonders. I have drafts together for the liturgical papyri (16K words) and hymn papyri (11K words) and am probably 60% through the prayer and amulet papyri (15K words at present). This means my hopes for 2021 are to:

• Finish the Prayer and Amulet papyri fragments
• Write about papyri letters
• Write about theological and homiletical papyri fragments

My goal is to introduce biblical studies folks to these papyri as they are excellent and typically overlooked material. Each papyri will have a transcription, a translation, a content description, and a discussion (some short, some long) on the papyrus itself. These will typically be focused on examining affinity and interaction with Old Testament, New Testament, and other early Christian literature, with references (and hopefully decent indexes for facilitating lookup).

Not sure on word counts for letters and theological/homiletical fragments, but I’m guessing the total will be 100-120K words, maybe more. Below is a sample of one of the hymn fragments, P.Berol. 16595.

I’m not sure where or how this material will be published. I’ve had one publisher express interest but want to go in a different direction with the material (and I was not interested in their direction). I’ve also had one publisher pass on publishing. If you’re reading this, and you’re an acquisitions editor or otherwise involved with a publisher and want some more information, feel free to contact me via the blog contact form.

Here’s hoping 2021 is a productive year for writing. If I can get through drafts of most of this material, that would be most excellent.