A Look At Jesus Robert W. Funk
From "Honest To Jesus"
Robert W. Funk is the Founder of the Jesus Seminar as well as the Author of The Five Gospels. Given the controversy that surrounded him, I have to admit I was astonished to read the following portion from his book Honest to Jesus. Quite simply, I found it to contain one of the best examinations of Jesus that I've come across, and I wanted to share it with you in a rather edited form. Should you find it of interest, please seek out Honest To Jesus by Robert W. Funk, published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. You may have strong opinions pro and con about the various ideas you find in the book, but the part these lines are taken from is brilliant, well worth the price of the book.
Jesus was a comic savant. He mixed humor with subversive and troubling knowledge born of direct insight. That was also the technique of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. New truth is easier to embrace if it comes wrapped in humor.
His rhetorical skills bordered on the magical -- he was a word wizard. The combination of his style with the content of his discourse marked him as a social deviant. That may be the reason his mother and brothers thought him daft. It is certainly one of the reasons he was both feared and adored.