William Barclay (5 December 1907, Wick – 24 January 1978, Glasgow) was an author, radio and television presenter, Church of Scotland minister and Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow. 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Location within the British Isles Wick is an estuary town in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland, on the main highway (the A99-A9 road) linking John O Groats with southern Britain. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... The Church of Scotland (C of S, also known informally as The Kirk; until the 17th century officially the Kirk of Scotland) is the Christian national church of Scotland. ... University of Glasgow Founded in 1861 the patron was formally the crown (i. ... The University of Glasgow, founded in 1451, is the largest of the three universities in Glasgow, Scotland. ...

While professor he decided to dedicate his life to "making the best biblical scholarship available to the average reader". The eventual result was the Daily Study Bible, a set of commentaries on the New Testament. Despite the name, these commentaries do not set a program of regular study. Rather, they go verse by verse through Barclay's own translation of the New Testament, listing and examining every possible interpretation known to Barclay and providing all the background information he considered possibly relevant, all in layman's terms. See New Covenant for the concept translated as New Testament in the KJV. The New Testament (Καινή Διαθήκη), sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, and sometimes also New Covenant, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written by various authors c. ...

While this detailed approach is not to everyone's liking, the 17 volumes of the set were all instant best-sellers and continue to be so to this day, both in print and as a CD-ROM. A companion set giving a similar treatment to the Old Testament was endorsed but not written by Barclay. Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh, but not Old Testament, because it does not recognize the concept of a New Testament. ...

Barclay wrote many other popular books, mostly in the same accessible but scholarly 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".

He has been accused of being a liberal theologian, of denying both the inerrancy of scripture and the divinity of Christ. He described himself as a liberal evangelical. In his autobiography, he described himself as a universalist, believing all people will eventually be saved, an unorthodox position. Despite these controversies his books continue to sell well. Christology is that part of Christian theology that studies and defines who Jesus the Christ was and is. ...

A biography of his life was written by Barclay's long-standing friend, Archie Maynard, in 2003. The biography was published by Barclay's son Ronnie.

Books

Barclay's books include:

• The Daily Study Bible (17 volumes covering the entire New Testament)
• The Apostles' Creed
• The Parables of Jesus
• The Ten Commandments
• The plain man looks at the Lord's Prayer
• Discovering Jesus
• At the Last Trumpet: Jesus Christ and the End of Time
• The Mind of Jesus
• A Spiritual Autobiography

External links

• William Barclay home page
• Official site of the William Barclay Trust
• Brief biography at Harper Collins (publishers)
• The Enigmatic William Barclay, article in an online Christian magazine.
• A collection of quotations from William Barclay.