WIlliam Barclay was a Scottish author, radio and television presenter, Church of Scotland minister, and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow. He wrote a popular set of Bible commentaries on the New Testament that sold 1.5 million copies.
Great read. The only part where I think Barclay dropped the ball is at the end of chapter 7 where he says that we shouldn’t think Jesus picked a man to be is disciple whom he knew would commit such a mortal sin. Definitely has an Arminian lean there, but the real issue I took was where he tried to make a case for Judas’ suicide as being an attempt for him to be with Jesus to ask for forgiveness. That was way off, but other than that the rest showed good scholarship.
Barclay is good. I really appreciated this work. Sometimes it seemed that he gave more information than I wanted, or that he sort of rambled, but he does so in an intelligent way.
There is a lot of background information on the culture that Barclay provided or quoted from historical sources that was beneficial. Perhaps the best chapter was on Judas Iscariot.
Good, short read. Would recommend to other ministerial friends.
I enjoy reading the extra-biblically stories about these apostles and the development as more 3 dimensional characters. A good read. And a re-read. Good rabbit trails to early church writings. Interesting.