Paul and the Gift

by John M.G. Barclay

A fresh scholarly reading of grace in Paul's theology

In this book esteemed Pauline scholar John Barclay presents a strikingly fresh reading of grace in Paul's theology, studying it in view of ancient notions of "gift" and shining new light on Paul's relationship to Second Temple Judaism.

Paul and the Gift centers on divine gift-giving, which for Paul, Barclay says, is focused and fulfilled in the gift of Christ. He offers a new appraisal of Paul's theology of the Christ-event as gift as it comes to expression in Galatians and Romans, and he presents a nuanced and detailed discussion of the history of reception of Paul. This exegetically responsible, theologically informed, hermeneutically useful book shows that a respectful, though not uncritical, reading of Paul contains resources that remain important for Christians today.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies, Christian, New Testament, Christianity, Religion, Nonfiction

672 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2015

About the author

John Barclay has been Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University since 2003. He has served as President of the British New Testament Society, TRS-UK,the umbrella organisation for Subject Associations and Departments of Theology and Religious Studies in the UK), and shortly, the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.

His research is in the history and thought of early Christianity and early Judaism, with special interest in the ancient Jewish Diaspora and in the letters and theology of Paul. Using tools from the social sciences, he has explored the social formation of early Christianity, the ‘postcolonial’ identity of the Jewish historian Josephus, and the practice and theology of gift (‘grace’) in the work of Paul.

Reviews

[Matthew Colvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the most overrated work of Biblical studies in recent years. Exegetically, Barclay is on the wrong side of several debates, and he fails to engage with the philological reasons why, e.g. Romans 4:1 cannot be translated, "What shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found?" or why πιστις Ιησου Χριστού ought not to be rendered "faith in Christ".

While setting himself over against the New Perspective, he does not challenge any of its core criticisms of the Lutheran tradition's misreadings of Paul's theology. Yet despite not having deflected any of those blows from Dunn, Sanders, Stendhal, Wright, etc., Barclay has the audacity to characterize the Lutheran reading of Paul as a "brilliant recontextualization for the 16th century" instead of as a misreading that resulted in horrendous distortions of soteriology within the church and frightful mistreatment of Jews outside the church.

Barclay's central heuristic device is his six-fold taxonomy of "the perfections of grace": singularity, superabundance, priority, incongruity, efficacy, and non-circularity. This is fine as far as it goes, but it should be recognized as a philosophical theory, and not as a piece of Pauline theology derived from the text of Scripture. Barclay's use of these "perfections" as a way to evaluate exegetical options without needing to descend into the philological and lexical trenches smells a bit like cheating. Reading Paul through a grid of abstract perfections of grace is not an adequate substitute for the hard work of bringing forth the inner coherence of Paul's language and arguments. And Barclay's historical survey of other second-temple Jewish texts (Philo, 1QHa, 4 Ezra, etc) is employed not so much to provide historical context for Paul as to offer contrasting test cases for Barclay's use of the six "perfections".

What did I gain from this 600+ page book? Very little new understanding of Paul's ideas and arguments, but a helpful philosophical taxonomy for talking about grace. The book has been touted as an answer to the New Perspective on Paul. It is not.

[Daniel Supimpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopefully, I will work on a proper review in the future.

This is Barclay's magnum opus, and for many well-regarded biblical scholars, the most significant shift in Pauline studies since E. P. Sanders' "Paul and Palestinian Judaism" in the late 70s. Barclay's overall argument runs around the language of divine "grace/gift" (the char- radical in the Greek), in order to get a clearer view of Paul's relationship to his Jewish background (although the Greco-Roman cultural understandings of gifts and patronage are also briefly considered at the beginning).

Two initial remarks are important for the whole work. First, drawing from anthropological studies on gifts-relations, Barclay initially concludes that the concept of gifts with "no strings attached" is Western and modern. All other cultures outside this space and time would presuppose a relationship between a gift and the honour or response due to the receiver. Second and central to his whole argument, Barclay builds on Kenneth Burke's linguistic idea of "perfection," by which Barclay means "the tendency to draw out a concept to its endpoint or extreme, whether for definitional clarity or for rhetorical or ideological advantage" (p.67. Chapter 2, actually, is one that the reader will constantly have to turn back to, in order to understand different portions of the book). Thus, Barclay distinguishes six common perfections of a gift (based on p.69-75):
1) Superabundance - an ideal gift is characterized by a large scale, demonstrating the generosity of the giver;
2) Singularity - the giver is characterized by benevolence, and benevolence alone;
3) Priority - the timing of the gift (before any previous interaction between giver and recipient) highlights the freedom and generosity of the giver;
4) Incongruity - a gift bears no relation to the worthiness of its recipient;
5) Efficacy - a gift, in its effects, achieves the purpose for what it was given; and
6) Non-Circularity - a gift is unilateral, free from constraints, so the giver does not seek his own benefit out of the gift.

For Barclay, each person or author might have one or more perfections in mind when talking about grace/gifts, but rarely the six of them. And rarely, different people in different cultures will perfect "gift" in the same way. So, for example, modern Western culture tends to perfect the non-circularity of gift (the idea of a non-interested "pure" gift) whereas Marcion would have perfected its incongruity and singularity, thus affirming the idea that God cannot be at once a gracious gift-giver and a righteous demanding judge towards undeserving human beings (the solution: the benevolent God and Father who forgives believers in Jesus had to be different from the Old Testament harsh Yahweh, probably a "semi-god").

This distinction of perfections is the foundation for Barclay's evaluation of the main interpreters of Paul throughout history. In my view, the high peak of this section was the interaction with Sanders' argument that Paul and Palestinian Judaism where basically identical in their understanding of grace/gift (see esp. 151-8). For Barclay, Sanders was right in analyzing the presence of grace in texts of Second Temple Judaism (contra general Protestant scholarship) and of demonstrating that Paul was closer to STJ in his understanding of grace that biblical scholars had previously perceived. However, Sanders fell short of seeing a distinction between the perfections of "priority" (which was the cornerstone of his argument) and "incongruity" (which was assumed but not developed throughout his work and was, ironically, a characteristic that Sanders could not get totally aware of in his Protestant scholarship heritage). Because of this blindspot, Sanders presupposed that (1) ALL mentions of grace in ancient texts (either in Paul or STJ) highlighted its incongruity; (2) that STJ had a uniform understanding (or at least, a core understanding) of grace.

From these two blindspots, Barclay will develop the rest of his book. The Second Part is an analysis of the conception of grace in five witnesses from STJ: The Wisdom of Solomon, Philo of Alexandria, the Qumran Hodayot, Pseudo-Philo (LAB), and 4 Ezra. Barclay is highly thorough and compelling in these chapters, and his synthesis makes a strong case for "the diversity in Second Temple Judaism on this topic [grace], a diversity that 'covenantal nomism' not only masks but is conceptually incapable of grasping" (319).

The Third and Fourth parts dive into Paul's understanding of grace in the book of Galatians and Romans, respectively. These are densely researched and skillfully written 200 pages, which interact thoughtfully with the most significant Pauline interpreters in the English and German speaking world (e.g. Kahl, Dunn, Martyn, Hays, Wright, B. Longenecker) . Barclay's previous work in these Pauline books makes his argument very mature, and his footnotes gold mines for the researcher. Overall, Barclay concludes that in Pauline discourse, the Greek for grace (charis) "appears to have acquired a particular perfection: it functions without regard to the worth of its recipients" (354). This, of course, has less to do with existential categories ("I am a worthless sinner in desperation for meaning"), and more to do with worth based on race (Jews and Gentiles have the same standing before the gift of God in Christ). This is why Paul emphasizes the figure of Abraham in both Galatians and Romans. From the aged patriarch and his barren wife Sarah, God graciously created a people out of nothing, when no human causes were possible at all (either spiritual or physical). God was, therefore, doing the same in Christ for Jews and Gentiles. In other words, incongruity is the main way in which Paul perfects grace in Galatians and Romans.

In a very short sentence about the outcome (and here I risk being simplistic), one could say that Barclay's position sits methodologically closer to the New Perspective on Paul (highlighting the importance of the STJ background for understanding Paul's dealing with grace in his mission of creating communities composed of Jews and Gentiles), and theologically closer to Calvin (incongruity is more fundamental to Paul's argument than non-circularity. The fruits of justice become integral to the exercise of faith for those who receive Christ as God's gift while they were still sinners, cf. Rom 5:8. Hence, participation cultivates sanctification).

This is probably the most thorough work on Paul I have read in my life (although I'm not exactly a Pauline scholar). It was worth the three months of investment! Even if you disagree with Barclay, from now on you cannot ignore him in the debate on grace and justification in Paul.

[Josh Wilhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since its publication in 2015, Paul and the Gift has received a great deal of scholarly attention, lauded by many as the most significant book on Paul in decades. The historical reference point for these claims is the groundbreaking work on Paul and Palestinian Judaism by E.P. Sanders, published in 1977. Through his survey of first century texts, Sanders was able to demonstrate that “grace was everywhere present” in first-century Judaism. Old caricatures which depicted Judaism as a religion of “law” over against Christianity as a religion of “grace” no longer held up. Indeed, after Sanders one wondered if anything new might be said about grace in the ancient world. Enter Paul and the Gift.

In his book, John Barclay manages to break new ground in this discussion not by way of word study (of say, ‘χάρις’ for example), but through the study of a multi-faceted concept: gift. The importance of a correct understanding of gifts is at the heart of several theological debates today. Egalitarians argue on the basis of gifting that women should be able to teach. Pentecostals emphasize the spiritual gifts are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of a believer. But what of the divine gift of God in Christ? In Paul and the Gift, John Barclay is able to demonstrate the tremendous importance of understanding the divine gift. He does this through sweeping surveys of gift-giving in the ancient world, Judaism, Paul, and throughout the history of the church, all coupled with strong sociological awareness. By doing so, he affirms Sanders’ depiction of Judaism was a religion of grace, serving to highlight that Paul was at home in this religious environment. Paul’s uniqueness being the Christ-oriented focus of his work.

One of the central research methods employed by Barclay—adding a unique character to his work—is that of sociology. Chapter 1, “The Anthropology and History of Gift” lays this foundation. Serving to outline and unpack this concept are what Barclay labels “six perfections of the gift”. A ‘perfection’ according to Barclay, refers to “the tendency to draw out a concept to its endpoint or extreme, whether for definitional clarity or for rhetorical or ideological advantage” (67). Barclay then identifies six common perfections of the gift: 1) Superabundance (its size or significance) 2) Singularity (the good spirit of the giver) 3) Priority (timing) 4) Incongruity (regard for worth of recipient) 5) Efficacy (effect) and 6) Non-Circularity (reciprocity). These six perfections are not a package deal, and no one perfection requires or even implies the other (563). The perfections are stated early in the book, and are central to Barclay’s argument, providing a measuring stick to unpack descriptions of the divine gift throughout its history.

Barclay offers a clarifying history of interpretation of Paul and the divine gift, examining the work of key gift-interpreters in detail. He helpfully highlights the sociological context which informed the interpretations of those he surveys (see for example, Luther’s strong reaction to Catholic malpractice, which ungirds Luther’s rejections of all things “merit” on pg. 102). Barclay argues, as in the case of Augustine and Pelagius, that it is not as if one theologian emphasizes grace and his opponent does not, rather, “because each is concerned to draw out a different perfection of this multifaceted concept” (186).

A large part of the work is centered around explaining the “non-circular” dimension of gift giving, which according to Barclay is a modern notion. He writes, “to define grace as ‘unmerited favor’ is a historically specific, not a timeless, definition of the term” (320). The free gift is a modern construct. But what about God’s gift in Christ? According to Barclay, this gift also carries the need for reciprocity. “The divine gift in Christ was unconditioned (based on no prior conditions) but not unconditional (carrying no subsequent demands). Chief among these demands is allegiance to a new Lord, and “Without this obedience, grace is ineffective and unfulfilled” (519). The gracious act of God in Christ event is the generative event. God’s grace in Christ Jesus towards believers is to serve as their new point of reality—from which they offer themselves back to him in obedience and service. This ordering seems inherent to the structure of Paul’s letters, which often begin with theological matters before moving into ethical exhortation.

According to Barclay, in Galatians and Romans, Paul’s stress is on the incongruity of the gift of God in Christ. God’s gift is given without regard to worth. For Paul, the death of Christ was the “ultimate incongruous gift” (479). This “incongruitous grace” is a central, defining feature of both Galatians and Romans, and Paul’s “central perfection of grace” overall (454).

Barclay is not afraid to shy away from talk of the final judgement, and frankly, neither is the apostle Paul. “Like 4 Ezra, he insists that there will be a distinction between good and evil, a fit between the praise of God and the ‘good work’ that it acknowledges (2:6–11). But—this is the critical Pauline point—the basis for that fit, the foundation and frame of the patient good work that leads to eternal life, is an act of divine power, an incongruous gift to sinful humanity whose transformative effects will be evident at the judgement” (473). Barclay’s approach helps to make sense of passages such as Rom. 2:6–7, that speak of final judgement in relation to deeds.

The reader can sense Barclay’s pastoral concern throughout the work. The way believers live their lives matters. This is true both individually and corporally, and Barclay’s comments on social practice as the realization of the grace of God in Christ are welcome (see esp. pgs. 435–441). There is no such thing as “cheap grace.” The pastoral implications of Paul and the Gift are many.

Barclay’s work is weakened by the fact that he confines himself to only Romans and Galatians. While entitled Paul and the Gift, the reader is only given a portion representation of Pauline reflection on gift. One wonders what Barclay thinks of Paul’s understanding of the efficacy of grace more broadly. He admits this theme is not heavily present in Galatians, but what to make of other statements such as those in Philippians 2:12–13, where believers are charged to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”? In addition, there is no real work on human gifts, and very little on ‘spiritual gifts’ (although Barclay does allude to the former being part of a latter work).

Paul and the Gift lives up to the hype. In fact, it exceeded this reader’s expectations. John Barclay has demonstrated that though framed and articulated in different ways in various contexts, the articulation of gift is fundamental to theological discourse. This is true in Paul’s day, throughout the history of the church, and today as well. Building upon the work of E. P. Sanders, Barclay has demonstrated that yes, grace was “everywhere present” in first-century Judaism, although not “everywhere the same.” Barclay has cleared the ground and set the foundation for subsequent work on Paul and Judaism, grace and gift, faith and works within the scholarly community. By doing so he has also provided a terrific resource for pastors and church leaders, one that will help them to better articulate the grace of God in Christ, along with its implications for ongoing discipleship.

[Nate Pequette · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot that can be said and discussed about Barclay's book on Paul and the Gift. And I may write more about it later here. But I think it is a book that is important today. In today's world we live for worth. We shape our worth by our identity. Who we are, what family we come from, what job we have, how successful we are, how good we are at faith, how smart I am, how big our church is, etc... These things give us worth. And in today's world there is a striving to have a good sense of self worth. We go to therapy to feel better about one's worth, we teach kids to feel good about their accomplishments. But people continue to struggle with their worth. We have a crises of worth today.

Barclay's argument is that in Paul's day this was just as much of a problem. The Jews found their worth in the following of the Torah. And Gentiles were kept out of the people of God if they didn't follow the law of the Torah. This divided the people of God because of their understanding of worth. Some were worthy to eat with based on ethnicity and following of Torah, especially circumcision, and some were not worthy to eat with.
But Paul argues that Christ's death and resurrection is our only source of worth. God's incongruent gift of Grace in Christ is now the basis of our worth. This Christ-event is the place where God's plan comes to it's fulfillment. And the goal is that a new community of people can now be formed. A new creation is brought to life out of death through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is in our very bodies that this must take place through our habitus, through our behaviour. But it is not just a practice, but a deep change of body and instinct. "New life cannot be said be active within believers unless it is demonstrably acted out by them." These new communities are to be a alternative social way of being where competition and rivalry are replaced by reciprocal support.
"It is as they participate in long-lasting relationships of mutual enrichment that the community is curated and enhanced, and it is the capacity of that community to flout the normal tendencies to aggressive competition that demonstrate what it means to live in accordance with the new creation."

Barclay places all of this in the context of Paul's day and the long history of debate on what Paul meant by grace. He reshapes both the new perspective and the Reformation. There is much to be discussed here with Paul's placement as a Jew steeped in the long Jewish history. Paul definitely places the Christ-event into the story of Israel. Barclay argues that Israel was started with incongruent grace and was not based on the worth of Abraham. With the barrenness of Sarah there was no worth and in fact death reigned there. But God created a people out of nothing, out of death, to be alive as the people of God. This is Paul's arguement in both Galatians and Romans, which Barclay deals with in detail.

Barclay spends a significant amount of pages in Second Temple literature to place Paul in his context. He argues that Paul's message is way more radical then E.P. Sanders, one of the main and early proponent of the new perspective, argues it does. Sanders argued that second temple literature was based mostly on the incongruent grace of God. And so Paul followed that line easily. But Barclay argues that while important, there were a lot more ways in which grace was debated in second temple literature. Paul was another, new voice, in this long debate. And Paul's voice was both shocking and new to the Jews of the time.

And like Luther, Barclay believes in the congruency of God's grace in Christ's death. But unlike Luther, Barclay places this into a formation of a new kind of community. In fact this was an expectation, not just a life lived out of Thanksgiving. Luther kept it between God and the individual believer. Barclay and I believe Paul, says that the incongruencey of God's grace creates and transforms new communities of believers. These are of course short summary points in which Barclay argues and wrestles with the complexities over many pages.

This book takes some time and some work. But it is definitely worth it in hopes that our churchs and communities can be shaped by God's incongruent grace.

[N Perrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his groundbreaking study Paul and the Gif, Barclay goes into extreme detail to recontextualize Paul's use of the GIF within the world of Second Temple Judaism as he engages a number of scholarly debates including the "New Perspective" camp.

Although one would think that the technology would not have existed in 1st century antiquity, Barclay unpacks how Paul's epistle contain prototypical features of Graphics Interchange Format (GIF). While most scholars would associate the invention of the GIF with Steve Wilhite in 1987, Barclay uncovers how Paul's antithetical rhetoric in Galatians and metaphorical language in Romans is analogous to the techniques of LZW data compression and other forms of encoding that Wilhite would later develop to meet the needs of the GIF.

For Barclay, the GIF has six separately perfectible categories: superabundance, singularity, priority, incongruity, efficacy, and non-circularity. (One must wonder with the last one if Barclay is familiar with the literature surrounding Netscape 2.0 and the introduction of the looped GIF which is now so common for sharing on social media platforms and the Fifth Estate.) Paul is unique in his emphasis on the perfected incongruity of the GIF. In other words, a kind of soteriological graphical interface which interrupts and invades the surrounding code, thereby recontextualizing all the surrounding code in light of the in-breaking event.

While I was skeptical about Barclay's Christological hermeneutics of the GIF, I was convinced in his thorough readings of Second Temple texts like 4 Ezra or Philo which emphasize the logical, rational necessity of order within the provision of GIF. However, if Philo had ever spent time on Facebook Messenger, he would be all too aware of the suprarational nature of the inbreaking GIF which is paradoxically both related to and independent of the surrounding context.

Despite his meticulous word studies of phrases like Christ-faith (Gal 2:20) or passages like Romans 9-12 which have puzzled scholars for decades, Barclay is still unable to precisely determine the phonetic nature of the GIF. How is it pronounced? What are the conditions in which the phonemes of the GIF can be identified? That is a question for a later study.

[Mitchell Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul and the Gift was my first dip into a scholarly/academic piece of work and it did not disappoint. I was unbelievably impressed with Barclay's grasp on the subject of grace. It's history, theological implications, and the "perfections" that Paul places on the term.

Barclay finds 6 ways a gift/grace can be perfected by taking an idea to its extreme end. It's superabundance, efficacy, priority, efficacy, incongruity, and non-circulatory. He takes a journey through the history of interpretation to express how grace has been defined, and perfected, by theologians throughout the centuries. He deals a lot with the Lutheran, Augustinian, NPP, and "covenantal nomism" described by E.P. Sanders.

He later goes on to show how grace is perfected by Paul in the letter to the Galatians and Romans where he highlights that Pauls's central theme, and main perfection of grace, is its incongruity. This was incredibly insightful and helpful as a lens on my next read-throughs of these letters and in understanding what the Christ-event did for the world.

His big claim comes in when he states that grace is not "unconditional" as is currently thought, but "unconditioned". That grace is given without regard to someone's worthiness of the gift, but it comes with obligations. This is a hard idea to wrap my mind around, while I agree the Christian life holds to obedience, this idea could lead to work's righteousness. It is important to understand the priority and efficacy of grace as well to understand its subsequent circulatory nature.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a deep dive into grace. Someone looking just for an overview could buy the cheap kindle version and just read the conclusion in the back.

[Steve Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful reviews:
Tom Schreiner: http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.o...
Doug Moo: http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.o...
Peter Orr: https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/art...
Mark Baker: http://www.booksataglance.com/book-re...
Michael Bird: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangel...

Some interactions with Barclay here:
https://syndicate.network/symposia/th...
https://academic.logos.com/when-catho...

Some interviews with Barclay here:
https://youtu.be/Q8ksuZtUlj8
http://onscript.study/podcast/john-m-...

[Scott Kercheville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this the last word on Paul and grace? No. But Barclay’s work is certainly ground-clearing, peace-making, and in my eyes — whether one reads Paul and the Gift or Paul and the Power of Grace (which promises to offer the best insights, to be more accessible, and to move beyond Galatians and Romans) — Barclay on Paul is a must-read. (Ignore reviews which says this book is overrated)

Highlights.
-Barclay demonstrates that grace may be all over Judaism and second-temple, but grace is not everywhere the same. Here he both lauds and critiques the new perspective.
-In Galatians and Romans, Barclay demonstrates that grace is unconditioned (given without regard to worth, social capital, etc.), but it is not unconditional (without any continuing requirements.
-He also demonstrates that grace is prior and superabundant and that it had better be efficacious in our lives — even though it is not always efficacious in the way the Augustinian stream of teaching has taught.
-Because of this, God’s gift actually should grow to be more congruous — eternal life ends up as both an incongruent gift given without regard to worth and a fitting reward towards the righteous. This is what makes God such an amazing gift-giver: his gift brings life from the dead, righteousness out of unrighteousness.

[John Pawlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on Paul I’ve read so far! It’s pretty hefty, and also dense, but if you get some time over the break and want to really break down the New Perspective stuff I think this is the book. Barclay breaks down the 6 perfections of grace to explain how Paul can use the same term as second temple Jewish texts (and his later interpreters) to mean very different things.

I’ll need to chat with Linebaugh and Thielman to ask some questions after this one! But really a fantastic work. I expect I’ll be forever indebted to his framework even if we don’t always come down at the same point.

For those interested in post-modernism, he also breaks down Luther and the event of grace in a way I find a lot more helpful than proposition-focused understandings of Christ’s work.

[Ryan Storch · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his book, Paul & the Gift, John Barclay provides a fresh and robust understanding of the word grace, particularly the Pauline use. He does so first by extrapolating on the six perfections of grace. He then talks about various approaches to Paul and grace along with Second Temple sources on Grace. Following that he engages with particular Pauline texts. I highly recommend this book to any pastor or seminarian. Even where there may be disagreement with Barclay his thesis is still a profitable one.

[Theo Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was told Paul and the Gift gets good about 400 pages in.
I was hooked from page 1! This whole book has radically reshaped my understanding of Grace in scripture. I would highly recommend this to anyone exploring the concept of Grace, as well as anyone searching for a framework for understanding Paul’s theological depth in the letters of Galatians and Romans.

[Christoffer Techow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nok en af de bøger der har åbnet Paulus allermest op for mig - og den klare overvægt af bogens indhold er spot-on. Han vurderer og kritiserer receptionshistorien nuanceret, og kommer med et nyt indspark, der ikke er bundet af tidligere læsninger, men heller ikke blind for at bibeholde dybe og drivende indsigter, der er givet ved den. En kæmpe anbefaling til alle der kan lide at “nørde” med bibeltekster.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

If it had not been impressed upon me that this was an important piece of Pauline scholarship, I don't think I would have made it through the 50 pages of sociology, the 100 pages of church history, or the 100+ pages surveying several Second Temple sources. That's not a criticism of the book but a warning for potential readers. Those sections make the book what it is. And they are followed by 100+ pages of a fresh reading of Galatians (which is what I read it for) and another 100+ on Romans. Though I'm sure I don't agree with everything in it, it is worth reading every page.

[Christian Wermeskerch · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not very often that I wish a scholarly book was translated into a popular level work. I think this book is an exception. I would love to see his core arguments distilled into more popular conversations, being more accessible apart from this 600 page scholarly work. Extremely helpful grid through which to read Paul which opens new avenues to understand Romans and Galatians. A weighty partner in conversation to the New Perspective.

[Shane Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

2024 reads: 45

Rating: 5 stars

[Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. Barclay, one of the premier Pauline scholars of our day, begins Paul & the Gift by charting the anthropology of the concept of a “gift” (the Greek word often translated as grace) globally and historically. He shows how the conception of a “pure gift,” with no strings attached, is a modern, Western conception. Barclay then outlines 6 different ways that “grace” has historically been “perfected” (drawn out to an extreme end or singular definition). After showing the various ways that “grace” can be perfected, he traces key moments in the historical reception of Paul’s concept of grace/gift (looking at interpretations from theologians like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Sanders, Dunn, Wright, and more), noting how these different thinkers perfected the concept of grace in Paul’s theology. From here, Barclay turns to Paul’s Second Temple Jewish contemporaries (Wisdom of Solomon, Philo, The Qumran Hodayot, Pseudo-Philo, and 4 Ezra) to show that the Second Temple Jewish conception of grace was not monolithic, but was the subject of much discussion and of differing interpretations and understandings. Paul is not perfectly aligned with his contemporaries (as some NPP scholars may suggest), but nor is he wholesale at odds with them (as some Reformed scholars may suggest). Rather, he is both in dialogue with them, and moving beyond them in some significant ways, particularly around the grace/gift of the Christ-event, which radically transcends any prior markers of “worth” and transforms the unworthy recipient into a new human.
Barclay concludes Paul & the Gift with commentaries on Galatians and Romans, focusing on Paul’s theology and conception of grace. These commentary sections are brilliant, as they tie together all of the previous content learned throughout the book and illuminate Paul’s letters in a new and exciting way.

This is a book that I think the church (particularly in America) really needs right now. It is ground-breaking in Pauline studies and has much to offer believers in understanding grace, as well as better understanding Galatians and Romans. However, I think few church members will read it, as it is very technical and requires a base knowledge of the biblical languages- particularly Greek (knowing German and Latin would be helpful too, but I have almost no knowledge of those languages and did not find it to be a hindrance in my reading or understanding of the book), so it falls to the elders and teachers in the church to read and think through what Barclay has presented. Paul & the Gift is academic, theological, and practical. This book will continue to impact my thoughts, my reading, and my social practice as I continue on in my discipleship to Jesus.

“The incongruous and unconditioned gift in Christ is not also unconditional, in the sense of expecting no alteration in the recipients of the gift. God's grace is designed to produce obedience, lives that perform, by heart-inscription, the intent of the Law. God's righteousness is displayed in the midst of human unrighteousness, not because God is morally indifferent (that would undermine his capacity to judge the world, Rom. 3:6), but because he intends to transform the human condition. As apostle to the Gentiles, Paul is perpetually conscious of the incongruity of grace as gift to the ungodly and disobedient; but his goal is not their continuing disobedience, but "the obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:5). Deriving from faith, this obedience is the product of a life created through God's incongruous gift; as obedience, it is committed to patterns of behavior that befit its new allegiance.” (pg. 492)

[Nat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul and the Gift is a study attempting to clarify what Paul means by grace. The continuing debates between Catholics and protestants, Arminians and Calvinists, and before them Pelagians and Augustians are all testament to how much this book is needed. No one has ever denied the necessity or centrality of grace for salvation and yet it has been claimed that only one side in each of these debates truly proclaims a gospel of grace, the other side is condemned as possessing a gospel of works just like the Jews of Pauls day.
Barclays initial observation is that the two Greek words Paul uses for grace are words which mean gift, showing that Gods grace is his gift. This leads Barclay into anthropology where the phenomena of 'gift' has been intensely studied and the fascinating diversity that exists conceptually among different cultures when it comes to the meaning of gift ought to tell us that just because Paul uses the language of gift, that does not in any way imply that Paul is utilising the concept as a modern westerner would.
Barclay then surveys the different ways grace has been defined, based both on culture and theology particularly in Augustine, Luther, Calvin and Sanders. What emerges from this is that grace too within Christian theology has not been a timelessly defined concept, but one that has shifted with culture and perspective.
Barclay then provides 6 different features which grace can be defined on, each of which it can be perfected along, but one perfection does not imply a perfection in the other features. By using this we can analyse the different emphasise different writers put on grace, and see that actually it is often not a question of the presence or absence of grace, but rather of the definition of grace that is employed.
The major payoff was in allowing scholarship to move past the NP, and OP on Paul debates. Sanders had rightly observed the pre-eminence of grace within second temple Judaism. But writers like Carson had shown that this grace did not appear to be much like the Christian concept in many of the texts. But instead of falling back on the reformation language of works righteous, or calling the Jews proto-Pelagians Barclays categories allow us to move past these dichotomies, and see that the real question is exactly how the Jewish writers as well as the Christian writers are defining grace, and which of the features are they perfecting in their view of Gods grace.
Barclays approach allows for far more nuance and brings a huge amount of clarity to 1600 years or so of confusion. An excellent study!

[Jose Ovalle · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Within this debate (on grace), what is distinctive about Paul is not that he believed in the possibility of God’s incongruous grace, but that (a) he identified this phenomenon with a very specific event (the love of God in Christ), that (b) he developed this perfection for the sake of his Gentile mission (founding Jew-Gentile unity on novel terms), and that (c) he thereby rethought Jewish identity itself, tracing from Abraham onwards a narrative trajectory of the power of God that creates ex nihilo and acts in gift or mercy without regard to worth.”

"One could hardly imagine a more effective demonstration of this “rescue” than the physical rite of baptism, which Paul interprets as a transition from death to life performed on and with the body. Henceforth, believers give themselves over to this new life (“as alive from the dead,” 6:13), inasmuch as they “present their organs as weapons of righteousness to God” (6:13; cf. 12:1)—in other words, they are committed to instantiate a new embodied habitus. This commitment could never be a solo affair: while the body is individual, it is also shaped in and by its social interaction. The attempt to break with the old schematizations (μὴ συσχηματίζεσθε τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ, 12:2) and to express a new, transformed νοῦς (12:2) will require collective practices that challenge the old taxonomic systems (the structuring “antinomies” of the present age) and embody new apperceptions and goals. That is why the bodily reorientation described in Romans 6 is given some exemplification in Romans 12–15, which concerns the formation of a community structured by and oriented to the good news."

[Daniel Greiwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were three really significant chapters in this book for me. 1) The anthropological history of gift giving in different cultures and how the vast majority of history differs from our modern understanding of “gifts”. 2) A framework of 6 different “perfections” or ways to define the “essence” of the word grace. 3) The application of these perfections to the great Christian theologians of old (Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth, etc.) to explain why and how all of them could emphasize grace but often came to vastly different theological conclusions.

The rest of the book was also good but very dense and clearly meant for academic audiences. I would recommend most people read Barclay’s “Paul and the Power of Grace” instead of this one. It is on the same topic, only 250 pages instead of 600, and is geared toward non-academic audiences (me). Sounds like it would be a highly potent read and I look forward to talking about it with anyone who takes me up on my recommendation.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took two years to read this book, but it was well worth it.

[Neil Kruger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Equally important for understanding the theology of Paul in his context and the perfections of grace in its reception history.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a tour de force!

[Timothy Bertolet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book examining the concept of 'grace' in Second Temple Judaism. Then examines Galatians and Romans. Barclay offers a corrective and advancement to the New Perspective on Paul. He takes its strengths and avoid its weaknesses. He is a first rate scholar and this book certainly advances the discussion in Pauline studies.

[Eric Yap · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up a few years ago when my New Testament prof was raving about it, as well as having read Douglas Moo's and Tom Schreiner's reviews of it on Themelios (if you are keen to read the best review, skip mine altogether and head over to Moo's review on Themelios, which I think it's the most comprehensive in scope, as he also traced the debate of Pauline scholarship for us). Many reviewers dubbed this the most important work on Pauline scholarship in the last two decades: if E.P. Sanders' "Paul and Palestinian Judaism", along with James Dunn and N.T. Wright's works on the "New Perspective on Paul," was the paradigm-shattering and defining forces in the previous two decades of Pauline scholarship, then Barclay's Paul and the Gift is the next Copernican revolution that will bring about the next paradigm shift in Pauline scholarship.

Is such high praise veracious? Personally, I would think so. Even though I do not agree with all of Barclay's conclusions, nor do I think that he was able to chart paradigm-shifting significant progress forward between the "New and Old Perspectives" debate as much as reviewers and Barclay himself claimed. But it is the comprehensive depth and scope of Barclay's research that makes this work one of the most elucidating, and my current favourite guide on the Pauline corpus and the motif of grace in the exegesis of Galatians and Romans.

The book moves through six large sections. Firstly, Barclay builds on the anthropological research of Marcel Mauss: in his essay "The Gift," which explores the dynamics of gifting and its social/relational function in archaic society. Barclay also argues that the "gift-grace" semantics (his appendix explores the overlapping lexicon range of "gift" and "grace") warrants us to understand the concept of "grace" as a "gift" as well. Taking his cues from Mauss, Barclay also explores the dynamics of gifting and its social-relational functions in the Roman and Judaism context. All that to conclude that the notion of "pure gift," i.e. a kind of gifting that has entirely no social-relational function or purpose (e.g. to build relationships, to acknowledge worth, to create reciprocity, etc.) is a Western-modern creation and idea, and simply does not exist in the antiquity context nor does it realistically reflect our current context as well.

Next, Barclay postulates six facets of "grace" and proposes that much of the confusion in Pauline scholarship and debate is due to the error of not clarifying what facets of "grace" is in view in the discussion. The six facets are 1) Superabundance (the size and significance of the gift), 2) Singularity (the spirit of the giver, either it is purely benevolent or purely just), 3) Priority (the initiative and timing of the gift), 4) Incongruity (the taking into account the worth of the receiver against the value of the gift, 5) Efficacy (the effect of the gift), and 6) Non-circularity (or circularity, where it escapes or generates reciprocity). Barclay posits that both 2nd Temple Judaism and Pauline scholarship tend to "perfect" one or more of these facets of grace and that some of these can coexist (e.g. incongruity and priority), while some interpretation of grace has "perfected" to extreme ends to make them mutually exclusive, and hence resulting in confusion and disagreement in the history of Pauline interpretation.

In section 3, Barclay surveys the major players of Pauline theology and interpretation throughout history to clarify which facets of grace are perfected/not perfected in their interpretation (Marcion, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth, Bultmann, Kasemann, Martyn, Sanders and the New Perspective-Wright, Badiou). In section 4, Barclay surveys the major theological influence of 2nd Temple Judaism to demonstrate that the theology of gift-grace is not a homogenous stream but they have perfected the motif of gift-grace in diversity (Wisdom of Solomon, Philo of Alexandria, Qumran Hodayot, Psuedo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum and 4 Ezra). This perhaps is the most devasting feedback to the New Perspectives, as Sanders' work on Judaism is to insist that Paul does not disagree with 2nd Temple Judaism about "grace" but about the inclusivity of God's covenant community, changing justification from the language of soteriology (vertical relation to God) to mainly ecclesiology (horizontal relationship with each other). Barclay's survey demonstrates that Sanders' reflection of "gift-grace" in 2nd Temple Judaism is perhaps too reductionistic, and to borrow Barclay's own quote "Augustine did not believe in grace more than Pelagius; he simply believed in it differently," so it is with 2nd Temple Judaism and Paul. They both believed in grace, but they believed in it differently.

In sections 5 and 6, Barclay exegetes the book of Galatians and Romans through the grace-gift motif respectively. He concludes that for Paul, it is the incongruity of grace that is perfected, whereas there is an absence or contradiction of singularity (since the Christ-gift involves both benevolence and judgment, as Christ is judged on our behalf) and non-circulatory/non-reciprocity (no such "pure gift" since grace elicits obedience and response) in Paul's motif of gift-grace. However, there are facets of priority (predestinarian), efficacy (sanctifying effects) and superabundance (the enormous weight of the Christ-gift) that are featured but are downplayed by Barclay as not essential to the book of Romans and Galatians.

With all that summarized, it is hard to argue against the sheer force of Barclay's work. Firstly, the anthropology of gift-grace and the semantic motif of grace as "gift" is a theologically pregnant and helpful exegetical motif. Secondly, the six facets of gift-grace are helpful to elucidate the reading of the gift-grace motif, whether in 2nd Temple Judaism, in Paul, or in Paul's interpreters. Thirdly, the survey of Paul's interpreters and 2nd Temple Judaism was also hugely educational, as this is the first time I am exposed to such a comprehensive depth of analysis on the materials of 2nd Temple Judaism, as Barclays commits length to exegete and read these materials. Fourthly, Barclays sets out intentionally to draw closer both strands of the "soteriology" Protestant-Reformation reading of Paul, and the "ecclesiology" New Perspective reading of Paul, and I do think that his incongruous gift-grace motif has achieved it saliently and strengthened the relationship between Paul's soteriology, ethics and ecclesiology: the Christ-gift is incongruous, given without consideration to the worth of the receivers; yet it does not leave them as they are but transforms them according to new criteria of worth and therefore baptized them into new social relations along with new modes of obedience towards God (reciprocity of gift).

However, I do think Barclay is not the foremost or original contributor to the harmonizing of "soteriology" and "ecclesiology" in Paul. In his reading of Calvin, Barclay notes that Calvin uniquely emphasizes the incongruity, efficacy, and priority of grace, and does not perfect grace as singular and non-circularity (Barclay does not mention the facet of superabundance, but I do believe on my own reading of Calvin, superabundance is present in Calvin's theology of grace). This reading is acutely close to Barclay's own reading. Hence, I do think that the Reformed tradition of reading Paul, along with Calvin's axis of the "duplex gratia" through union with Christ, is presently available to help us balance the "soteriology" and "ecclesiology, " of the “ethics” and the “covenant community” of Paul. At the same time, it does not confuse "justification" and "covenant community" in Paul as the New Perspective movement does. To think of the Protestant-Reformation reading of Paul as only the "Lutheran-purely justification" sense is then to be to reductionistic in understanding the various strands of Reformation contribution to Pauline theology. "Grace" in Luther has tended to be only for justification, but for Calvin, and his theological heirs, "grace" is both for justification and sanctification, generating new ethics and new community in a way that has not conflated the duplex gratia, as all manner of "gift-grace" and salvific benefits flow out of our Spirit-bonded, faith-union with Christ. Tom Schreiner, in his review also noted that historical theology has always been aware that different traditions understood "grace" differently, most evidently in the way Rome understood grace as "infuse" through the sacraments, while the Reformers argued that grace is the gift of righteousness (hence against proving that the Reformed are quite accurate on the grace-gift motif), so Barclay's elucidating on the six facets of grace is hardly original, but a further improvement. Additionally, I also disagree with Barclay's deemphasizing the priority and efficacy of grace in Paul. Barclay seems too enthusiastic to draw a "third way" between the New Perspective and the Reformed reading, keeping clear of the full "Calvinistic" reading of Romans. This results, as Schreiner notes as well, unnecessary qualifying of implications in Barclay's reading of Paul. For example, Barclay insists that Paul does not speak against work righteousness per se, but Torah righteousness. Though the clarifying delineation is helpful, I do not feel that Luther was wrong to draw the negation of work righteousness as an implication of Paul speaking against Torah righteousness, and it would be Barclay's reductionistic understanding to accuse Luther of misreading Paul. Such unnecessary qualifying of implications is persistent throughout Barclay's reading of Paul.

In conclusion, Barclay's work is magisterial. I have learnt a lot from it, including the different facets of grace and how different Pauline interpreters have perfected it, the different motifs of grace in 2nd Temple Judaism, and especially the motif of "gift-grace" to read Galatians and Romans, which in my opinion, do not weaken the Reformed (especially Calvin and his heirs) reading but substantiates and even strengthens it. Even in our context, the polemics between the New Perspectives and the Reformed reading have been less sharp, there are various strands of New Perspective reading, and there are various strands of Reformed reading (Luther, Calvin, Barth), and Doug Moo, who positions himself in the Reformed tradition, notes that there is much to learn from the other sides and traditions to help strengthen our own tradition. All that said, Barclay's work is a magnum opus that any serious Pauline reader and scholar should engage with and would undeniably strengthen one's reading of Paul, as Paul presents the incongruous, superabundant gift of Christ, that is given without consideration of worth, but reconstitutes us to new criteria of worth according to God's gift of righteousness, generating new life and obedience of faith through the eschatological-life giving Spirit.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barclay adds helpful correctives to the New Perspective on Paul and to the Reformation's view on Paul while also affirming some truths from both of these sides. Probably the most helpful aspect of this book is the clarification on the different forms of grace, which is also its most significant contribution to Pauline scholarship. Though I don't agree with all of Barclay's methods and conclusions, this book is both interesting and helpful for thinking about Paul's theology of grace/gift in his letters of Romans and Galatians.

[Cliff Kvidahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barclay has published a fresh work on the grace/gift of God that will most certainly provide scholars and students with much to discuss for years to come. Well researched, enjoyable prose, and creative in its conclusions, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy and find a few days to sit with this tome. You will not be disappointed.

[Guilherme Nunes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um dos mais importantes livros sobre teologia paulina das últimas duas décadas.

[Martijn Vsho · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agree with many scholars who call this one of the most important books in biblical studies in the past 50 years. Barclay has written a convincing, methodologically-sound, and nuanced book on what grace/gift is, how this helps us understand scholarship on grace/gift in Paul, and what grace/gift is in the Greco-Roman world, Second Temple Judaism, Galatians, and Romans.

Barclay begins by looking at what anthropology has said about the definition, meaning, and purpose of gifts in archaic cultures. This leads him to conclude that modern definitions of grace and gift are different from archaic definitions. He then looks at gifts in the Greco-Roman world, followed by how this changed into our modern Western definition of gift. Having led his readers through an historical overview of gifts, Barclay then puts forward a new way of understanding gifts. He argues that there are 6 'perfections' of gifts, that is, there are 6 ways for gifts to be drawn out into an extreme. These are:
(1) superabundance (the magnitude of the gift);
(2) singularity (the gift is given solely in benevolence or goodness);
(3) priority (the gift is given spontaneously without any prior initiative from the recipient);
(4) incongruity (the gift is given without regard to the worth of the recipient);
(5) efficacy (the gift achieves what it is meant to do); and
(6) non-circularity (the gift is given for the sake of the other, not out of an expectation for a return gift).

Different people and cultures will understand gifts in different ways by emphasizing different perfections. Furthermore, emphasizing one perfection doesn't mean that other perfections are also emphasized; they are not a package deal.

Having laid out the groundwork, Barclay then applies his taxonomy of gift to how key people through church history have understood grace in Paul's letters: Marcion, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Barth, Bultmann, Käsemann, Martyn, Sanders, the New Perspective, after the New Perspective, Alain Badiou, and new research in grace and benefactions in the Roman World. He shows how perceptions on grace in Paul often follow cultural understandings of gifts. His taxonomy highlights how each of these has defined grace according to certain perfections which has led to disagreement and misunderstanding.

The rest of the book is more exegetical. Following on the work of Sanders, Barclay looks at texts within Second Temple Judaism to see whether grace is as uniform as Sanders claimed. What he finds instead is that, while grace is everywhere in Second Temple Judaism, the texts often emphasize different perfections of God's grace. He does this by looking at 5 texts: Wisdom of Solomon, Philo, Qumran Hodayot, Pseudo-Philo's LAB, and 4 Ezra.

Having finished looking at Second Temple Judaism, Barclay is finally ready to look at Paul. He first looks at Galatians and then at Romans. In both, Paul's main focus is on the incongruity of God's grace. The difference is that in Galatians he focuses on novelty of the Christ event, in Romans he focuses on God's continuing mercy in the Christ event. In Galatians Paul also shows that God's grace is not non-circular, in other words, it expects the believes to act according to the good news. Thus, while a modern understanding of grace might think that grace never expects a return, Barclay shows that this was early the case in ancient cultures and that even God expects a sort of return (i.e., lives transformed by the gospel) in his gracious gift of Jesus's death and resurrection.

It is clear that Barclay's book is a monumental study, not only for Pauline Studies but also Biblical Studies. In nuancing different perfections of gift/grace, Barclay clears up confusion and allows scholars to be much more precise in their discussions. This will be very useful in further conversations around the new perspective on Paul. But even more importantly, Barclay has given a great example of how important it is to understand texts and authors on their own terms. While they may use the same language, they could mean vastly different things. It is important that we do not import meaning from elsewhere but try to understand the texts and authors themselves before making comparisons with other texts and authors.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In theology, as well as science, some of the most important discoveries are made when fundamental assumptions are challenged and re-examined.

John M.G. Barclay has provided such a service in terms of understanding grace and the gift in Paul & the Gift.

The nature of grace and how God bestows grace has been one of the major points of contention within Christian theology for at least 1500 years. Barclay began by carefully defining his terms: he considered grace in terms of the anthropological category of gift. He deeply explored the ancient context to bring out elements of their understanding of giving and receiving gifts and the social obligations of gifts which may seem foreign and strange to modern Westerners but were common currency in Biblical times. He explored the ways in which grace and the gift, especially as manifest in Paul’s letters, was understood throughout the ages, and deeply explored what grace and the gift looked like in Second Temple Jewish literature. Having done all of this, Barclay then focused on interpretations of Galatians and Romans to better understand how Paul conceived of the gift, or grace of God in Christ, and how it influenced his theology.

It would be nearly impossible to do full justice to this investigation in only a few words, but Barclay’s conclusions about these matters are compelling and should provide the new standard of understanding regarding grace and the gift, especially in Pauline literature. Barclay well demonstrated how Greco-Roman and Jewish conceptions of gift giving were to the end of reciprocal relations and was not understood in terms of our conception of the ideal “gift” without any obligations. It seems strange to us to consider a gift given but the receiver has obligations to honor the giver; it would not be strange in the ancient world to understand how a gift was “unconditioned without being unconditional”. This understanding goes a long way to clarifying the major conundrum which Protestantism has never well resolved since its assumptive priors about grace and obedience are late medieval: neither Jesus nor Paul nor anyone else in early Christianity had any difficulty with the idea of God’s gift in Christ being completely freely given and “incongruous” in every way, completely undeserved and beyond anything we could ever imagine, and yet in receiving it we are under obligation, “under grace,” to be obedient in faith, living by the Spirit as well attested in Romans 6:1-8:39.

The other major element regarding grace and the gift which Barclay highlighted was that premise of incongruity: in the ancient world gifts were normally proportional to the “standing” and “worth” of the recipient. Yet what has astonished and overwhelmed Paul was the great incongruity of the gift, or grace, which God has bestowed upon us in Christ: we are completely unworthy, and it remains possible to accuse God of cheapening justice because of the mercy He demonstrates in Jesus. Such “incongruity” has often been assumed in modern theological discourse about the gift/grace, but Barclay did well to point out how dangerous this kind of grace would have seemed back in the day. He would like to unsettle our easy reduction of grace as “unmerited favor,” not because we somehow do deserve or merit it, but to understand how more often than not, in both ancient and modern worlds, the display of grace/the gift is more attuned to honor, merit, and standing. The Gospel, especially as understood by Paul, is extravagant by comparison.

And this is what Barclay wishes to stress from Galatians and Romans: he argued Paul did not attempt to make sense of the gift of God in Christ in terms of the greater story, but instead Paul was completely transformed by the gift God had given in Christ, and that transformation led to a complete re-conceptualization of the story from beginning to end. The incredibly incongruous gift was the Christ event, Jesus living, dying, and rising again, and it changed everything, and forced a theological re-evaluation of anything and everything which Second Temple Jewish people would have believed and understood, and Paul was working that out in his writings. And that transformation would be lived out in Christian community, with men and women of different backgrounds and classes reconciled to God and one another by means of this incongruous and shocking gift of what God had accomplished in Jesus.

This book deserves the accolades it has received and would be good for anyone with a decent handle on the historical and theological basics of grace/the gift, Second Temple Judaism, and Christianity to consider.

[Caleb Burkhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a reason why this book is one of the most paradigm shifting works in Pauline studies within the last decade. Even if one disagrees with his heuristic device of perfections of divine grace, or some of his exegetical conclusions, there are many insights worth chewing on.

Barclay uses anthropological insights on gift giving in the ancient world as a lens for understanding how Paul utilizes such language to describe the "Christ-event." From his readings and overview, he gives six perfections of grace, which can but do not need to necessitate one-another. They are, superabundance, incongruity, singularity, priority, efficacy, and non-circularity. Barclay helpfully reminds the reader that the idea of a "pure gift" is a modern invention of the West, something that was not expected or even much of a concept in the ancient world. After giving his taxonomy on different perfections, Barclay gives a concise but detailed summary of how some of the giants in Pauline interpretation throughout the history of the church understood God's theology of grace

One of the most insightful portions of the book was his overview of how "grace" and "gift" language is used in 2nd Temple Judaism (2TJ). Unlike the conclusions from Sanders and many within the NPP, grace is not monolithic in 2TJ. Though grace is surely present in 2TJ, and the NPP in some sense was right to call 2TJ a religion of grace, it is certainly not everywhere the same through the various 2TJ writings. Barclay's heuristic device reveals this, showing that where priority exists for some, elsewhere incongruity and singularity take the forefront.

Due to the space, Barclay's work primarily focuses on Galatians and Romans. There are times where he overgeneralizes the OPP view on Paul, particularly when discussing the distinction between grace and works. His main perfection that he holds on to, and where he finds a lot of formal agreement with the OPP, is incongruity. But he disagrees with the OPP when they think that "the object of Paul's critique is not the content of the works but the 'doing' of them, not the criteria by which worth is measured, but the purported achievement of worth" (572). Barclay wants to find Paul critiquing the ethnic division marked by Torah, to which the Christ-event does away with (403). However, Barclay seems to conflate how Torah functioned in 2TJ with its purpose as given by God in the OT, which seems to be the fault of many within the NPP.

Overall, this is an extremely well written, helpful work on Paul and his theology of grace. It leaves ample room for continual engagement with not only Barclay's work, but other Pauline texts that Barclay did not engage with.