A FORMER Ilkley Baptist minister who taught at Oxford has published an academic study of the New Testament.

Rev Dr John Morgan-Wynne has produced an in-depth study of one of the major speeches of the apostle Paul.

Paul’s Pisidian Antioch Speech (Acts 13) is the third academic New Testament study written by Dr Morgan-Wynne, and published since his retirement in 2002.

The author, who lives in Ilkley and who has pastoral charge of Slack Lane Baptist Church, Oakworth, near Keighley, has also previously written Holy Spirit and Religious Experience in Christian Literature ca. 90 to 200 AD, and The Cross in the Johannine Writings.

Dr Morgan-Wynne taught at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and was then principal of the Baptist College at Bristol, before finishing his full-time ministry at Ilkley Baptist Church from 1994 to 2002.

His latest work, aimed at an academic audience, looks at a speech addressed by Paul to Jews in a synagogue. The speech is one of a trilogy which enables the reader to get a good idea of the preaching of Paul.

Dr Morgan-Wynne became hooked on the topic after reading a book by a leading British New Testament scholar while studying history at Oxford.

“The speeches in Acts as a possible window into the preaching of the early church have fascinated me and I have returned to the study of them from time to time,” he said.

“When I was president of the Bristol Theological Society, I chose this speech of Paul as the topic of my presidential address. In retirement I have expanded that into a book.”

There had not previously been an in-depth study in English of the particular speech.

Dr Morgan-Wynne said: “It is an academic study and seeking to make a contribution to our understanding of what is an influential part of the New Testament – Luke-Acts.”

He added: “For me to ‘listen in’ on how some of the leading figures of the early Christian movement preached and taught is an inspiration – how do we preach the Christian message in an age which, in respect of its scientific knowledge and increasing secular outlook, is so different from the world of Paul and Luke, and yet men and women today in terms of problems are not so different.”

The book is published by Wipf & Stock, £13.70.