The Acts of the Apostles. William Barclay

In Ephesus

       Incomplete Christianity (19:1–7)

       The Works of God (19:8–12)

       The Death-blow to Superstition (19:13–20)

       The Purpose of Paul (19:21–2)

       Riot in Ephesus (19:23–41)

       Setting out for Jerusalem (20:1–6)

       A Young Man Falls Asleep (20:7–12)

       Stages on the Way (20:13–16)

       A Sad Farewell (20:17–38)

       No Retreat (21:1–16)

       Compromise in Jerusalem (21:17–26)

       A Slanderous Charge (21:27–36)

       Facing the Fury of the Mob (21:37–40)

       The Defence of Experience (22:1–10)

       Paul Continues his Life Story (22:11–21)

       The Embittered Opposition (22:22–30)

       Paul’s Strategy (23:1–10)

       A Plot Uncovered (23:11–24)

       The Captain’s Letter (23:25–35)

       A Flattering Speech and a False Charge (24:1–9)

       Paul’s Defence (24:10–21)

       Plain Speaking to a Guilty Governor (24:22–7)

       I Appeal to Caesar (25:1–12)

       Festus and Agrippa (25:13–21)

       Festus Seeks Material for his Report (25:22–7)

       The Defence of a Changed Man (26:1–11)

       Surrender for Service (26:12–18)

       A Task Accepted (26:19–23)

       A King is Impressed (26:24–31)

       The Last Journey Begins (27:1–8)

       In Peril on the Sea (27:9–20)

       Be of Good Cheer (27:21–6)

       Hoping for the Day (27:27–38)

       Escape from the Deep (27:39–44)

       Welcome at Malta (28:1–6)

       Help and Healing (28:7–10)

       So we Came to Rome (28:11–15)

       Unsympathetic Jews (28:16–29)

       Freely and without Hindrance (28:30–1)

       SERIES FOREWORD

      (by Ronnie Barclay)

      My father always had a great love for the English language and its literature. As a student at the University of Glasgow, he won a prize in the English class – and I have no doubt that he could have become a Professor of English instead of Divinity and Biblical Criticism. In a pre-computer age, he had a mind like a computer that could store vast numbers of quotations, illustrations, anecdotes and allusions; and, more remarkably still, he could retrieve them at will. The editor of this revision has, where necessary, corrected and attributed the vast majority of these quotations with considerable skill and has enhanced our pleasure as we read quotations from Plato to T. S. Eliot.

      There is another very welcome improvement in the new text. My mother was one of five sisters, and my grandmother was a commanding figure as the Presbyterian minister’s wife in a small village in Ayrshire in Scotland. She ran that small community very efficiently, and I always felt that my father, surrounded by so many women, was more than somewhat overawed by it all! I am sure that this is the reason why his use of English tended to be dominated by the words ‘man’, ‘men’ and so on, with the result that it sounded very male-orientated. Once again, the editor has very skilfully improved my father’s English and made the text much more readable for all of us by amending the often one-sided language.

      It is a well-known fact that William Barclay wrote at breakneck speed and never corrected anything once it was on paper – he took great pride in mentioning this at every possible opportunity! This revision, in removing repetition and correcting the inevitable errors that had slipped through, has produced a text free from all the tell-tale signs of very rapid writing. It is with great pleasure that I commend this revision to readers old and new in the certainty that William Barclay speaks even more clearly to us all with his wonderful appeal in this new version of his much-loved Daily Study Bible.

      Ronnie Barclay

      Bedfordshire

      2001

       GENERAL INTRODUCTION

      (by William Barclay, from the 1975 edition)

      The Daily Study Bible