Apostle ­with ­clipped ­wings?

PAUL:
A very brief history
By John M. G. Barclay
SPCK. 92 pages. £7.99.
ISBN 978 0 281 076 079

This little book lives up to its subtitle: it is very brief, and, as advertised, it is a history rather than a theology of Paul.

Barclay is a world-renowned scholar of Paul, and this little book reflects two of his particular interests: the historical and social setting of the New Testament, and the history of NT interpretation.

History and legacy

The book divides into two parts to address these in turn: Part One, ‘History,’ explores the historical background of Paul, the settings of his churches and the wider Roman world. There are hints here of the theology of Paul’s letters, but the focus largely remains on the historical background. Part Two, ‘Legacy,’ reflects Barclay’s interest in the history of the reception of Paul’s ideas by the early Church Fathers, Augustine, Luther and Calvin and more recent discussions.

To my mind, the second part is more illuminating than the first, and offers several cautionary tales about ‘the desire to have Paul articulate whatever our current political agenda would like him to say.’ In Barclay’s book, Paul most clearly emerges as ‘a gadfly, who has the annoying, but fascinating, habit of seeing the world from an unusual perspective’.

Frustrations

There is, of course, much more to Paul than that, but Barclay chooses to focus on Paul’s historical setting and legacy rather than the gospel he proclaimed. The book’s presuppositions are also likely to frustrate readers of en; despite some weakening of the academic consensus, he only treats only seven letters as authentic, and is uncertain about the historical reliability of Acts for building a true picture of Paul.

In summary, then, it is not the first introduction to Paul I would recommend. [F. F. Bruce’s Paul and Jesus is well worth finding secondhand – 87 pages of gold]. Nor is this the ideal introduction to Barclay. For readers who want to get their teeth into something, Barclay’s Paul and the Gift will take them much further towards the heartbeat of Paul in its treatment of grace and gift language. While that book is not very brief, and has its own quirks, it will certainly reward the effort.