the best news since graduation

It's been a really big year for the Imes family.

• First, there was the last-minute call from the department chair at George Fox University, inviting me to teach a spring course . . . immediately. Of course I said yes.
• Then there was my successful dissertation defense on April 1 -- an event that was actually fun!
• I came home to a brand new car (my first ever), a surprise from my parents.
• All of us returned to Wheaton for my graduation in May and reconnected with so many dear friends.

And it felt like the whole world was celebrating with us.

In the intervening months I have had speaking engagements, dissertation revisions, a summer intensive, a fantastic week of VBS, a publishing project for Zondervan, and a new semester with three great classes -- Exodus and Psalms at George Fox University, and Prophets (online) at Multnomah University.

But this . . . this is the best news since graduation. Last week I descended on San Antonio with thousands of other scholars for the annual meetings of the Institute for Biblical Research and the Society of Biblical Literature. My hope was to return home with a book contract. I got two!

My dissertation has been accepted for publication in the Bulletin for Biblical Research Supplement Series with Eisenbrauns. The title is Bearing YHWH's Name at Sinai: A Re-Examination of the Name Command of the Decalogue. I hope it will be available by this time next year! It's especially gratifying to have my work appear in this series alongside two of my "Blockhead" brothers (a.k.a. students of Daniel Block), Matthew Patton and Austin Surls. Both men have been stellar examples of solid scholarship paired with a servant's heart and commitment to the church. It's an honor to be in print together. Soli deo gloria!

A peek at the Illustrated Genesis in Hebrew, by Timothy McNinch

I also come home from San Antonio with a surprise contract to produce an Illustrated Exodus in Hebrew for GlossaHouse. It will include the entire Hebrew text of Exodus with an English translation. The illustrations were done by Keith Neely. I will create the text boxes and speech bubbles, insert the text, adapt the pictures as needed, and provide an English translation. It will be a great resource for Hebrew Reading classes or students who want to keep practicing their reading skills.

I also had a very positive conversation with another publisher about writing a book for laypeople that includes insights from my MA thesis and doctoral dissertation. I'll submit a formal proposal for that project in the next few weeks.

It was "The Year of the Publisher" for me at SBL. I'm so grateful for these opportunities to contribute to the scholarly community as well as build resources for students and laypeople to enhance their understanding of Scripture. I've got my work cut out for me in 2017!