Clearly he expected his readers to be students of theology who needed to be oriented to the ancient world. Dr Barnett also means to write as a historian, but his perspective is very different. He is writing, I suggest, for those who are more at home with history, and using its methods to open the way into the heart of the New Testament phenomenon. In this, I believe, he is a true pioneer. His work will be of compelling interest not only to ancient historians, but to all those who have struggled with the debates over the historicity of the gospel.
History is a method that works within the normal range of human behaviour and emotion.
At those points which the gospel proclaims as revealing the divine action uniquely it reaches the end of the road. Paul Barnett brings you with scrupulous attention through the evidence, and lets it rest there. There is no apologetic, no theologising. His intention is to give full value to the historical evidence in its own right. It may be formulated as a closing of the chronological gaps that have been built into New Testament criticism, and the tracing through historical argument of a continuing of experience from the disciples of Jesus to the churches of St Paul.