I’m really looking forward to this finally being published. Hopefully soon!

My long-awaited First Timothy stuff is getting closer. Hopefully April 2016!

My publisher, Appian Way Press, posted an extended blurb from Dr. William Varner on my just released book “Second Timothy: Notes on Grammar, Syntax, and Structure.” Check it out!

You may recall a survey I linked to awhile back. I asked y’all to “Help Me Determine my 2016 Writing Schedule.” Several of you obliged, and for that I am thankful.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the responses, and came to a conclusion: The only way for me to publish this stuff is, like the little red hen (the pizza version is the best), to do it myself. So, I thought about it. A lot. I asked friends and colleagues about my options. And I talked with my wife about it.

The result: Appian Way Press will be the imprint that my Pastoral Epistles stuff is published under. Check the sweet logo to the side. The press also has accounts on Twitter (@AppianWayPress), Facebook, and Faithlife. Link, like, friend, follow, tweet, retweet, and tweet again. Get the word out, and please tell all your friends. A few times. And then one more time just to be sure.

There are presently two volumes that Appian Way Press will publish, if all goes well.

• Second Timothy: Notes on Grammar, Syntax, and Structure. Approx. 100 pages, includes block outline of the Greek and underlying translation. $14.95, hope for availability in Spring 2016 or before.
• Lexical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles: First Timothy. Approx. 400 pages. Price unsure at present. Hope for availability in Summer-Fall 2016.

Print volumes will be available from Amazon. If Faithlife/Logos choose to license the content then the books could be available in Logos Bible Software at some future point. But I can’t promise that; I can only promise the print. I do not anticipate releasing Kindle or PDF versions.

I also mentioned some Group Study and Leader Guide resources on the survey. These will be based on classes I’ve taught in various contexts since around 2000. There are three of these guides. Over time, I plan for Appian Way Press to publish them as well, though I have no estimated time frame on these. The basics are there, but each will take significant time to revise and edit for publication.

• First Timothy: Group Study and Leader Guide
• Titus: Group Study and Leader Guide
• The Apostles Creed: Group Study and Leader Guide

Why “Appian Way Press”?

Since I know I’ll be asked, here you go, from the Appian Way Press web site:

The name Appian Way Press refers to one of the earliest roads established in Ancient Rome, the Via Appia. For centuries — and even now — if you were going to Rome or leaving Rome, you would likely spend some time on this road. In the same way, the Appian Way Press hopes to establish an easily traversed conduit into and out of scholarship as it relates to Biblical Studies.

[Also, between you and me, my first choice was taken. And I used to live on a street called Appian Way. And there was no existing press/publisher or URL that I could find of this name, so I went with it.]

You guys surprise me. At the beginning of January, on a whim I threw out a survey with some questions about what to do with my 2016 research and writing time. I knew what I wanted the results to be, but y’all had slightly different ideas.

For the record, my current schedule is to spend 90-120 minutes each weekday morning focused on writing and research tasks. This is stuff that happens outside of my role and responsibilities at Logos/Faithlife.

For those who didn’t take the survey (shame on you, and I’m keeping it open, so take it), here are the questions:

Here are the individual question responses.

1. What should Rick try to accomplish with his 2016 research and writing time?

I only allowed one answer for each respondent on this question. I was floored that the Apostles’ Creed item actually was the most popular (and that you’d want me to write it). I guess I’ll have to look into digging up those old notes and see what I can do with them.

That said, my primary focus this year will still be the Pastoral Epistles work; that’s really where my head and heart is at this time. But we’ll see about what else can squeeze out later in the year. I’m already committed to do a class on NT Textual Criticism at my church (4 weeks), so that’ll get some attention soon.

2. Which of the above would you actually buy?

The numbers are weird on this one because I let folks select as many as they wanted to. This one surprised me as well with the NT Textual Criticism stuff being something folks would say they’d spend money on. The pricing on these is complete and total speculation, BTW, I just figured it would be useful to have numbers associated.

3. What format would you like for this sort of material?

No real surprises (to me) here. I figured Logos and print would be the tops. That PDF actually beat Kindle is a little surprising.

So, what next?

As mentioned above, I’m still most interested in completing the Pastoral Epistles work. My present thinking is to pursue publishing it in three volumes (one for each letter) as the work is done. I’m still trying to figure out the details with that, but there is still a decent amount of research and writing to do. While most of 1 Timothy is done, I’d be very surprised if I could squeeze out both 2 Timothy and Titus this calendar year.

The information from the survey is helpful. It tells me that, depending on what I’m able to find of my old notes, creating a group study resource for either the Apostles Creed or NT Textual Criticism is something worth seriously exploring.

Thanks, all, for sharing your insight!

I have a few different options to pursue with my overall 2016 research and writing time. But I want to know what other folks out there think. I have my own personal ideas on what I would like to focus on, overall (detailed in my Changing Focus post), but a year is a long time, and I have a few other options as well. I created a survey so you can give me feedback on these other options.

These other options include:

Titus Group Study and Leader Guide. In 2001 I taught a class at the church I attended on Titus. We only made it through the end of chapter 2, but I still have all my notes with outline and questions (the “Group Study” portion) and a separate set of material with answers/discussion to the questions (the “Leader Guide” portion). I’ll need to rewrite/revise existing material, and write the stuff for chapter 3.

Apostles’ Creed Group Study and Leader Guide. In 2000 (I think) I taught a similarly structured class at the same church on the Apostles’ Creed (I think? Or was that in 2002 or so, in Bellingham? I don’t remember). I used the organization in the Heidelberg Catechism as the outline. It as well has a Group Study and Leader Guide portion. I know we finished, but I don’t know that I still have all the material (I know I have portions of it).

New Testament Textual Criticism Group Study and Leader Guide. I plan on teaching a short (4 week?) course on NT Textual Criticism at my church sometime in the late winter quarter. I’d use the class at church as an opportunity to organize the material, and extend and revise it after the class ran.

Please let me know what you think by taking the survey. Thanks!