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Introduction

Most of us know the basics of the Easter story, but the details and the characters of this drama are surprising.

Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey which, as we all know, showed that he came meek and lowly. Yet in those days, as William Barclay points out, ‘when a king went to war he rode on a horse, when he came in peace he rode on a donkey.’ In one simple gesture, Jesus upset the expectations of the people, who were hoping for a warrior king, yet he also struck fear into the hearts of the ruling establishment, who saw him arriving as a king. Insights such as these turn the familiar story into something much more challenging and revealing.

In the Bible, each of the four gospels has its own description of events. In Insights: Easter, we have selected passages from each – and from the Acts of the Apostles and the First Letter to the Corinthians – to create a gripping account of a tense drama played out by a cast of fascinating characters. Pontius Pilate has to play his cards carefully in a dangerous political game, with his Roman masters on one side and the Jewish authorities on the other. Judas, who betrays Jesus, can be seen as either evil personified or as deserving our understanding. Why was Joseph from Arimathea called the ‘secret disciple’? Who were the Sanhedrin, and why were they so against Jesus? Was Thomas’s doubt a sign of weakness or strength? Who was the mysterious young man who appears in Mark’s gospel, but in none of the other gospels, on the night of Jesus’ arrest?

William Barclay offers explanations for all of these and more in Insights: Easter. Each story is animated with anecdotes and enlightening comments, all written to help us to understand the Bible in new ways. There is, of course, insufficient room in this book to cover Barclay’s full commentary on each gospel’s version. If you want to read more about the Easter stories, you can find them in Barclay’s New Daily Study Bible series, in the following volumes: Matthew vol. 2, Mark, Luke and John vol. 2. Barclay’s full commentary on the Acts of the Apostles describes what happened to the early church. These are all available from Saint Andrew Press.