William Barclay

William Barclay (5 December 1907 – 24 January 1978) 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 set of Bible commentaries on the New Testament that sold 1.5 million copies. before studying divinity. He studied at the university during the year 1932–33. After being ordained in the Church of Scotland in 1933, he was minister at Trinity Church in Renfrew from 1933 to 1946, afterwards returning to the University of Glasgow as lecturer in the New Testament from 1947, and as Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism from 1963. Barclay expressed his personal views in his A Spiritual Autobiography, and Clive L. Rawlins elaborates in William Barclay: prophet of goodwill: the authorised biography (1998). They included: belief in universal salvation: pacifism: "war is mass murder". evolution: "We believe in evolution, the slow climb upwards of man from the level of the beasts. Jesus is the end and climax of the evolutionary process because in Him men met God."

The journalist James Douglas suggested Barclay was also "reticent about the inspiration of Scripture, critical of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, and given to views about the virgin birth and miracles which conservatives would find either heretical or imprecise." A companion set giving a similar treatment to the Old Testament was endorsed but not written by Barclay. In 2008 Saint Andrew Press began taking the content of the New Daily Study Bibles and producing pocket-sized thematic titles called Insights. The Insights books are introduced by contemporary authors, broadcasters and scholars, including Nick Baines and Diane-Louise Jordan.

Barclay wrote many other popular books, always drawing on scholarship but written in a highly accessible style. In The Mind of Jesus (1960) he states that his aim was "to make the figure of Jesus more vividly alive, so that we may know him better and love him more".

Barclay's books on the gospels and Jesus include:

The Gospels and Acts: Matthew, Mark and Luke The Gospels and Acts: John and Acts Discovering Jesus Jesus of Nazareth (a companion to the miniseries) Jesus As They Saw Him Crucified and Crowned The Mind of Jesus The Parables of Jesus The Plain Man Looks at the Beatitudes The Plain Man Looks at the Lord's Prayer The Old Law and the New Law And He Had Compassion: The Miracles of Jesus (Judson Press) We Have Seen the Lord! The Master's Men Fishers of Men

Barclay's books on New Testament studies include:

The New Testament: A New Translation A Beginner's Guide to the New Testament The New Daily Study Bible (17 volumes covering the entire New Testament) Insights (Series currently extending to 8 titles) Good Tidings of Great Joy God's Young Church The Mind of St. Paul Many Witnesses, One Lord Flesh And Spirit: An Examination of Galatians 5:19–23 Letters to the Seven Churches The Men, The Meaning, The Message of the Books Great Themes of the New Testament New Testament Words

Barclay also wrote two books on Old Testament passages:

The Ten Commandments The Lord is My Shepherd

Barclay's theological introductions include:

The Apostles' Creed Conversion The Promise of the Spirit The Lord's Supper Ethics in a Permissive Society At the Last Trumpet: Jesus Christ and the End of Time

Barclay's other books include:

Introducing the Bible Growing in Christian Faith The Plain Man's Book of Prayers Communicating the Gospel (reprinted as Meditations on Communicating the Gospel) A Spiritual Autobiography