Ambassador for Christ: The Life and Teaching of Paul

by William Barclay

This book tells afresh the amazing story of those dedicated followers of Jesus who went out to win every man in the world for Christ.

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 1973

About the author

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.

Reviews

[James]

This is a reading assignment for the Ambassadors group. I struggled to read it at first, mainly because I had other books on my mind, but once I put my mind to it I finished in about two weeks. This is a book about the apostle Paul. The begginning of the book is background to who Paul was and what times he lived in. The middle is a narrative of his conversion, his travels, an expanded version of the book of Acts, if you will. It is mostly chronological and it fills in details on the various scenes Paul was part of. The book closes with a few chapters on Paul's themes, how he thought about God, his contributions to Christian thought, and his legacy. Overall this is a great book and it is a nice narrative on his life and his impact. It is digestable and has short chapters, which makes for easy reading. This is not an exhaustive study on Paul, as the author does not go into depth on Paul's letters. I wrote a book report on this book for more detail. Great read!

[Josef Komensky]

Great book about life of Apostole paul

[Reid]

Barclay is know for his historical research not necessarily for his interpretation of the Bible, being more a universalist than a orthodox Christian.

I found his biographical sketch of the Apostle Paul to be interesting and useful.

He describes Paul as
- the man that God used to spread Christianity from little Palestine to halfway across Europe to Rome in a time of persecution
- traveled 6000 miles on foot
-having some sort of disability: eye problems? epilepsy? blinding headaches?
- a good 'mixer': able to engage, interact with scholars and great men, simple and humble people, rich and poor people, Jew and Gentile

He was ....
- a Jew and proud of it
- a Pharisee
- highly educated under Gamaliel , a scholar
- a rabbi
- from a cosmopolitan background, in Tarsus
- a Roman citizen
- a skilled craftsman
- able to be 'all things to all people' 1 Corinthians 9:22–23 (ESV) — 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

The stage was set in world for the spread of Christianity; there was....
- one language, koine Greek
- community structures for him to have an audience wherever he went (synagogue, public market)
- a Roman world,an overarching culture, no political or nation bariers,no passports needed
- Roman roads for travel for ease and speed
- Roman peace, a rare time of peace in that world
- a world ripe to hear and embrace the Gospel; rich and decadent, poor and helpless (60 million slaves)
- a Roman peace, Pax Romana

Paul appears on the scene in as
- a hater and persecutor of the church
1. because Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of God (greater than Romans, greater than Jewish Pharisees)
2. if Christians were right,Jesus was the Messiah, every orthodox Jew was wrong and no longer 'special'
--- all were humbled before Him, no one able to be proud before Him
--- all were equal before the Cross
--- all had equal inheritance, future with God

"Paul sincerely thought that he was truly serving God when he sought to obliterate Christianity."

He was an apostle of the Sanhedrin and on the road to Damascus, he became an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Barclay goes on to track the travels of Paul and gives his various interpretations of Paul's comments and some of his theology which I did not find as engaging...Interesting, but not as engaging for me.