When Peter Williams announces a forthcoming book, it’s an automatic preorder for me. I can’t think of an author that I’m more excited to read these days. You might not be familiar with Dr. Williams or his work. He is the principal and CEO of Tyndale House, Cambridge — one of the most prestigious Bible research institutes in the world. He is also an expert in biblical Greek and served as a member of the translation committee for the ESV Bible. The man is an overflowing storehouse of biblical insight, yet he has an uncanny appeal to normal folks who don’t share his academic achievements or his brilliant mind. His previous book, Can We Trust the Gospels? was one of the best popular-level apologetics books I’ve ever read, and his online lectures are fascinating. This lecture from 2011 is just fantastic: New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eye Witness Accounts.
Just out from Crossway is his newest work, The Surprising Genius of Jesus: What the Gospels Reveal About the Greatest Teacher (2023). In this book, Williams seeks to show that Jesus was indeed a genius in the way that he taught and communicated. Most Christians today see Jesus’s intelligence as simply the necessary by-product of him being God in the flesh. We don’t tend to think of his genius; instead we focus on his effectiveness in starting the world’s largest religion. However, Williams convincingly shows that we find the genius of Jesus clearly displayed in his recorded words, most especially his stories.
Most of the book is spent on an extended look at Jesus’s most famous parable, the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. For those of us who have grown up in the church, we can tend to get bored with this story. We’ve heard it a thousand times. We’ve heard it preached and taught a thousand times. Surely there’s nothing new to be gained here. O, how wrong an assumption that would be! I won’t give away all the details here, but I will say this book is the most fresh and insightful treatment of the story of the prodigal son I think I have ever read or heard. As a preacher, this will now be my go-to resource/commentary any time I teach or preach on this passage.
As I hinted at before, what’s great about the way Peter Williams speaks and writes is that it’s simple enough for normal folks. The insights he brings out are fascinating, meaty, and indeed brilliant, but he serves them up in a way that almost anyone can easily digest, and in a way that keeps you engaged and interested. This is no dry, academic dissertation. Williams is writing for the church, and in my opinion he is establishing himself as one of its most precious resources. If you want to grow in your understanding and appreciation for Jesus’s teaching and his stories, especially the story of the two sons (as Williams suggests it should be called), pick up this book, grab your Bible and a pencil, and get ready to learn!
Editor’s Note: This title was received by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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