She studied theology at the University of Cambridge, after which she has devoted her life to research in ancient Christianity.
She was president of the Society for Old Testament Study in 1998,[2] and in July 2008 she was awarded the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
According to this view Temple Theology has been influential in moulding the roots of Christianity as well as, or even more than, Hellenistic or synagogue culture.
[6] According to Barker, the main ideas of Temple Theology are the following:[7] Margaret Barker works from all the available sources (the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea scrolls, the New Testament, the Jewish and Christian Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Gnostic texts, and other early writings and artwork).
They contain numerous surprising as well as brilliant insights, but all in all create a new syncretistic religion that avoids any and all chronological, geographic, and literary differentiations.