John Barclay has been Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University since 2003. He has served as President of the British New Testament Society, TRS-UK,the umbrella organisation for Subject Associations and Departments of Theology and Religious Studies in the UK), and shortly, the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.

His research is in the history and thought of early Christianity and early Judaism, with special interest in the ancient Jewish Diaspora and in the letters and theology of Paul. Using tools from the social sciences, he has explored the social formation of early Christianity, the ‘postcolonial’ identity of the Jewish historian Josephus, and the practice and theology of gift (‘grace’) in the work of Paul.