Jesus was and is—a genius. Have you ever thought of him that way? We know him as a friend, Lord, healer, and teacher, Son of God, true God from True God. But genius? Einstein was a genius. Hawking was a genius. Men of science. Men of modernity. Men who created our world.

Jesus? He’s a religious figure. And we don’t associate religion with genius, even when we confess with Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power.’

Peter Williams, however, wants you to consider The Surprising Genius of Jesus (Crossway). He shows readers what the Gospels reveal about the greatest teacher, and he wants you to see the cleverness and wisdom of Jesus.

“The amazing thing with Jesus is to get so much into such a short time. It’s very emotionally intelligent, as well as intellectually intelligent,” Williams told me. “He captures every sort of person, in terms of the family dynamics, in terms of the tendency to run away from authority, with the younger son, in the tendency of the older brother to submit to authority, but resent it.”

Williams is the principal of Tyndale House, Cambridge, and chair of the International Greek New Testament Project. He’s also the author of an excellent little book, Can We Trust the Gospels?, which is similar to The Surprising Genius of Jesus.