For the past twenty years, John Barclay has researched and written on the social history of early Christianity and the life of Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora. In this collection of nineteen
Seminal essays from a leading New Testament scholar
For the past twenty years, John Barclay has researched and written on the social history of early Christianity and the life of Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora. In this collection of nineteen noteworthy essays, he examines points of comparison between the early churches and the Diaspora synagogues in the urban Roman world of the first century.
With an eye to such matters as food, family, money, circumcision, Spirit, age, and death, Barclay examines key Pauline texts, the writings of Josephus, and other sources, investigating the construction of early Christian identity and comparing the experience of Paul's churches with that of Diaspora Jewish communities scattered throughout the Roman Empire.
Simon Gathercole
— Ecclesiology
"John Barclay has for some years been one of the world's leading New Testament scholars. He has combined in his work an extensive knowledge of the Jewish and pagan environment of the New Testament authors, a keen theoretical awareness, and careful historical analysis of Paul. Far from leading him to a suspicion of theological analyses of the New Testament, as is the case with some scholars, these strengths of Barclay have led to keen theological — and indeed ecclesiological — insights. . . . Barclay's careful historical and exegetical work together with its often immediate theological payoff makes his work widely applicable."
Joshua W. Jipp
&mdash: Themelios
"Barclay is one of the premier New Testament scholars of our generation, and this compilation of his essays in one monograph makes an excellent scholarly contribution."
Michael J. Lakey
— Journal for the Study of New Testament
"The fruit of twenty years of diligent, careful, indeed seminal scholarship by one of the major voices in the present-day field of Pauline studies. . . . An excellent volume."
James Carleton Paget
— Journal of Ecclesiastical History
"A helpful distillation of the developing thoughts of one of the freshest and most incisive thinkers in New Testament scholarship. . . . This is a stimulating collection of essays, which, unlike many volumes of the same type, contains within itself an enviable coherence."
James C. Miller
— Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
"The essays collected here represent what anyone familiar with Barclay's work would come to expect, namely, careful and informed argumentation expressed in lucid prose and marked by keen insight. . . . Teachers and students in the field will benefit from time spent working through this volume's pages."
David G. Horrell
— from the foreword
"Students of the social history of earliest Christianity and Diaspora Judaism will warmly welcome the opportunity to have access to the riches of John Barclay's research in this one volume."
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John M. G. Barclay is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University. His other books include Obeying the Truth: Paul’s Ethics in Galatians and the very recently published, highly acclaimed Paul and the Gift.
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