Staff Profile

Prof John Barclay

Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion

Biography

I have been in Durham since 2003, when I was appointed Lightfoot Professor of Divinity (succeeding Professor James D.G. Dunn). Here I am delighted to be part of a very strong New Testament team, alongside Professor Loren Stuckenbruck, Dr. Stephen Barton and Dr. William Telford. Combining our expertise we are able to offer supervision at postgraduate level (PhD and Masters) on most aspects of the New Testament, including both its Jewish and its Graeco-Roman contexts. We have a strong body of New Testament research students, who meet weekly in term time for the New Testament seminar, and we encourage and enable as much interaction as possible among both staff and postgraduate students.

In my current research I am just about to complete a new translation and commentary on Josephus' 'Against Apion', a project which has taken me most of the last 6 years, but brought me immense satisfaction, not least by reinvigorating my early training in Classics. This will be published (possibly in 2006) in the Brill series of Josephus commentaries, edited by Steve Mason. There have been several spin-offs from this project over the last few years, not least in developing some fresh thinking about ancient anti-Judaism and exploring the value of postcolonial theory in analysis of Josephus. I hope the commentary will not only provide a resource for scholarship on one of the most important texts from early Judaism, but also stimulate fresh ways of thinking about Josephus and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world.

My research path began with work on Paul (Obeying the Truth, T & T Clark: 1986) and explored the social history of early (especially Pauline) Christianity, in a series of essays (which I hope soon to republish together). I then realised how much more I needed to know about Diaspora Judaism, which took me into a 10-year project culminating in Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora (T & T Clark: 1996). From there, I delved into Josephus and Against Apion, but the curve of my research track is now taking me back into Paul, and specifically Pauline theology. I have recently made a number of forays into the theme of gift and grace in Paul (in dialogue with recent anthropological, philosophical and theological reflection on “gift”), and my next project will be a new study of Pauline theology from this angle of approach. This will build on but definitely move beyond my days in the world of the “new perspective” on Paul: I think there are new things to be said about grace in Paul, an old theological theme but one whose theologically (and socially) subversive potential has yet to be fully explored. At the same time, there are several aspects of early Christian social self-definition which I am exploring (such as attitudes to “age”), and I hope to work more also on the early history of interpretation of Paul (e.g., in the second to fourth centuries).

At undergraduate and Masters level I teach a number of topics in the New Testament and early Christianity- gospel passion narratives, Pauline theology, the social formation of the early church, and (at Masters level) the history of interpretation of Paul (from the beginning to today). At PhD level I supervise a number of doctorates. Since starting my academic career (in Glasgow University, from 1984, then Durham since 2003) I have supervised 17 PhDs to successful conclusion, and presently supervise doctorates in: the Pauline collection for Jerusalem and ancient attitudes to wealth and poverty; Gentile leadership in Pauline churches and the Antioch Dispute; Paul's message of the cross and 'body-language' in antiquity; Paul's construction of the self and 2 Corinthians 1-5; ethnicity and the letter to the Romans; Paul and prophetic critique of Israel; Jesus in the memory of the church as Son of David; Josephus and Paul on power and politics; Luke and Paul on conversion. I am always willing to enter into discussion with prospective PhD students and we are continually looking to increase our research community in New Testament and related themes. For those interested in working on Second Temple Judaism, the combination of expertise represented by Professor Stuckenbruck, Professor Hayward and myself also makes Durham an excellent place to pursue research in this field (fostered by a regular seminar on Judaism in Antiquity).

Among other research activities, I co-chair the Pauline Epistles Seminar at SBL. I also worked with Dr. Simon Gathercole (from Aberdeen) in staging a conference on 'Divine and Human Agency in Paul and his Cultural Context.” The essays from that conference will be published in 2006 (Continuum) and represent our desire to reopen discussion on a central but recently neglected theme in Pauline theology and ethics. Out of the study, I enjoy cycling, music, watching rugby and my family (not in that order!).

Publications

Essays in edited volumes

Barclay, J. M. G. 2006. 'By the Grace of God I Am what I Am: Grace and Agency in Philo and Paul. In Divine and Human Agency in Paul and His Cultural Environment. Barclay, J. M. G. & Gathercole, S. J. London.: T & T Clark. 140-157. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Barclay, J. M. G. 2004. The politics of contempt Judeans and Egyptians in Josephus’ against Apion. In Negotiating diaspora Jewish strategies in the Roman Empire. Barclay, J. M. G. London: T&T Clark. 109-127. (Additional information)
Barclay, J. 2003. “That you may not grieve, as do the rest, who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13) death and early Christian identity. In Not in the word alone the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. Hooker, M. D. Rome: Benedictina Publishing. 15: 131-153. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Barclay, J. 2002. Paul’s story theology as testimony. In Narrative dynamics in Paul a critical assessment. Longenecker, B. W. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press. 133-156. (Additional information) (View publication online)

Journal papers: academic

Barclay, John M.G. 2007. There is Neither Old Nor Young? Early Christianity and Ancient Ideologies of Age. New Testament Studies 53(2): 225-241. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Barclay, J. 2001. Ordinary but Different: Colossians and Hidden Moral Identity. Australian Biblical Review 49: 34-52.

Monographs

Barclay, John M. G. 2007. Flavius Josephus translation and commentary. Leiden: Brill. (View publication online)