The Sprunt Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, February 1982.
The men of the Bible did not themselves have a Bible to be their supreme guide and authority. This book discusses the way in which the canon of scripture was formed and the effects that it has.

Part of The Hensley Henson Lectures for 1997 delivered to the University of Oxford.
Focusing on the Old Testament and the history of Israel, this book brings together aspects of controversy about the Bible at the end of the millennium. Author James Barr examines the nature of biblical narrative, asking whether the Bible expresses actual historical events or the ideological and religious aspirations of writers in much later times.

T. E. Lawrence s classic Seven Pillars of Wisdom made the Arab revolt a legend and helped turn him into the mythical Lawrence of Arabia. Setting the Desert on Fire is both a masterly account of the intrigue behind the revolt and its startling consequences for the present-day Middle East and a portrait of Lawrence that brings fresh insight to the true nature of the master mythmaker."

In the twentieth century, while fighting a common enemy in Europe, Britain and France were locked in a clandestine struggle for power in the Middle East. From the first agreement to divide the region between them to the birth of Israel, A Line in the Sand is a gripping narrative of the last gasp of imperialism, with tales of unscrupulous double-dealing, cynical manipulation, and all-too-frequent violence that continues to the present day.

This is the third volume of a three volume collection which collates the most important published papers of James Barr (1924-2006). The papers deal with questions of theology (especially biblical theology), biblical interpretation and ideas about biblical inspiration and authority, and questions to do with biblical Hebrew and Greek, along with several lexicographical studies, essays and obituaries on major figures in the history of biblical interpretation, and a number of important reviews. Many of pieces collected here have hitherto been available only in journals and hard-to-access...

This is the second volume of three volume collection which collates the most important published papers of James Barr (1924-2006). The papers deal with questions of theology (especially biblical theology), biblical interpretation and ideas about biblical inspiration and authority, and questions to do with biblical Hebrew and Greek, along with several lexicographical studies, essays and obituaries on major figures in the history of biblical interpretation, and a number of important reviews. Many of pieces collected here have hitherto been available only in journals and hard-to-access...

This is the first volume of a three volume collection which collates the most important published papers of James Barr (1924-2006). The papers deal with questions of theology (especially biblical theology), biblical interpretation and ideas about biblical inspiration and authority, and questions to do with biblical Hebrew and Greek, along with several lexicographical studies, essays and obituaries on major figures in the history of biblical interpretation, and a number of important reviews. Many of pieces collected here have hitherto been available only in journals and hard-to-access...

This is a pastoral rather than a controversial book. Its main aim is not to show fundamentalists that they are wrong, but rather to help those who have grown up in the world of fundamentalism or have become committed to it but in the end have come to feel that it is a prison from which they must escape.