[.ca] The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of ... (ISBN 0486449211)

Well... just read on:
"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:19) The Jefferson Bible is a book that I read not in search of redemption but out of curiosity. I am a Christian and have been for over eight years. For some time, I revolted against all atheism, and refused to read any literatures against Christianity. But I had discovered as I matured more, that different opinions and beliefs are vital to one's life. I read several books and they were okay, but then I picked up The Jefferson Bible to see what our third President had to offer. I read it open-mindedly; willing to see my convictions changed, as from what I had seen, Jefferson was a brilliant man with much knowledge. The preface provoked me to further curiosity; I found it a bit dry, but it interested me, because of this man's apparent change in life because of this book. As I read "The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson" (Forrest Church), I found his history appealing, although a bit confusing. I had always come to the conclusion John Adams had been a Christian, and yet he encouraged Jefferson's efforts in placing "the character of Jesus in its true and high light." Jefferson had many encouragers of whom I have never heard of too that were not religious, but materialists, socialists, atheists, etc. Anyways, after concluding that the men of the time of Jefferson were more intent on philosophy that spiritualism, I continued on my research. I studied Jefferson efforts, as he, "razor in hand, ... sat editing the Gospels during February, 1804" to make Jesus more of a philosopher than a Redeemer. I found that Jefferson's efforts were poor and very disappointingly researched. Jesus, without His leading us to eternal life, has nothing to offer. He had a very few good morals to teach, but each was linked to the Way, and there was no way Jefferson could have depicted them to fit his intentions. I found that Jefferson's Jesus lacked the ingenuity and flowing of readability. Jefferson attempted to only include Jesus' morals and philosophies, but also included several of Jesus claims to being the Son of God, that I would have assumed he would omit. The main catch was that he allowed the verse where Pilate puts up the sign "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS" in Jesus' crucifixion, and that he left several mentions of the resurrection. I found that without Jesus Christ's teaching of eternal life, that this work of Jefferson has no authority or reference. It leaves Jesus as more of a heretic than anything else. He refers to God as His Father, and this book portrays Him as one who taught well but lost His mind before His death. It is sad that many consider Jefferson's work a masterpiece. I think Jefferson did his best to portray Jesus in the way he wished (as one who was a great philosopher), but failed. I believe that the only reason for men deeming this as truthful is because they are attacking the truth of Jesus, and will resort to any other than the one truth: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He holds to Way to eternal life. It is sad to know how Jefferson and many of his contemporaries end up in the end, condemned to eternal death. For there is no way to Life other than through the Son of God ~ not through "Jesus the philosopher". I would recommend this book to those curious about Jefferson's beliefs, as they are ingeniously portrayed throughout. But if you are looking to see "the true Jesus", I am afraid you will be disappointed. Many atheists will do there best to get the most out of it (after blocking from their minds the mention of Jesus' Father and the resurrection as Jefferson did, because He failed to omit it; the Gospels mean nothing without the Truth.), but there is nothing to learn other that Jefferson was lost and so were the others mentioned in the forward, afterward, etc. Jefferson tried to get rid of all that "supernatural stuff", and though he tried, he only got everything confused. The stuff other than Jefferson's "cuttings" were well written although a little mislead, so I give it three stars. Does it deserve it? Read it and find out. Good luck. "We cannot separate His demands from His love. We cannot dissect Jesus and relate only to the parts we like." --Rebecca Manley Pippert

"For who is in a position to condemn. NO, not one.":
Yes, Jesus is our redeemer. (And to the Atheist: He is our friend and savior. He does not condone slavery or abuse or war. As said in the t.v. series Joan of Arcadia when Joan asks Him if He is so good then why all this suffering? Why all these wars "in His name". To which He replies, "That is politics. Not me." God asks that we follow Him, yes, but not blindly. I am a Christian, but I do believe in all human rights and do not condone abuse or slavery. Yes, it is sad some use the Bible for hate when He is the God of love. Hopefully, you can meet some Christians that exemplify God's love rather than hatred. We do exist. And so do some of the churches. I am sorry that you have had to endure hypocrisy and hatred. That is not what Jesus or the Christian church is about) THAT said. I think some of the "reviewers" forgot: "Who is in a position to condemn. NO, not one!" NOONE has the authority to tell anyone they are going to Hell becaue they didn't like the way a book was written. THAT is God's desicion alone. I will admit that reading the reviews about "taking a razor," put me off guard, but I would imagine it is being taken out of context. And again we need to be careful that we do not worship a book. We don't worship a book. We worship Jesus. This was shown in a sermon to which the minister tried to get people to understand by saying that "is this what you worship? If so, you need to throw it out the window". I am paraphrasing, but the message was we need to worship Jesus and what He taught us and teaches us. It is our relationship with Him and worship of Him not a book. I am NOT saying the Bible doesn't matter. It does very much, but sometimes many paradoxically can have such an idolotry for the book that they forget about Jesus. If Jefferson committed his life to the Lord, that cannot be broken. "Nothing on Heaven or on earth can seperate us from the Love of God." Perhaps that is why we have so many atheists and agnostics or other non-belivers in the world, because like the atheist "reviewer" they don't see God's love exemplified in the world. Does it mean we accept anything? No, of course not. Yes, I do believe God rose from the dead and that Jesus cannot be reduced to just a nice guy. HOWEVER, are there not other books that focus on just Jesus's words? Yes, there are books which quote his promises only. Books that only have Jesus's words in them abound. Do we condem the authors to Hell because it only contains His words??? Of course not. They are not saying they don't believe in God. They are just helping people to see what Jesus was about in a more condensed version. Prayerfully this can be more of a witness helping them to go to the Bible but more importantly having a relationship with Jesus. Yes the Bible is important but it is God who came in human form. Who healed us, befriended us, saved us. THAT is what is important. OH and if we are talking about taking out....who took out what happened to Jesus between his infancy and his adult ministry? Granted, I am Protestant and I understand that his ministry in the gospels is what is important. However, I would say that is a big chunk taken out. What about devotionals? They have just a section of God's word. They have an interpretation of the scriptures. What about music? So much is in tune with God's word but they might take out a bit here or there or add for the music's sake. Are they going to Hell? NO! Whosoever believes in Him will NOT die but have ever lasting life. If Jefferson believed in the Lord, NOT ONE of you can take that away.

The Good Parts New Testament:
Did you ever wonder what the Gospels would be like without all that supernatural stuff? Thomas Jefferson did, and he found out \oin around 1820\c by using multiple copies of the Bible and a razor blade. The result was The Life and Morals Of Jesus of Nazareth in four languages. The Jefferson Bible reprints the english version of The Life And Morals along with an excellent introductory essay by Forrest Church, Unitarian minister and son of Senator Frank Church, and a decent closing essay by Jaroslav Pelikan. I have known about the Jefferson Bible for years, but finally read it this year on Easter \oit seemed like a good thing for an atheist and rationalist to do\c. Jesus said some pretty cool things \oand some pretty spacey things\c, and the force of the teachings come out more when divorced from everything else that appears with them in the New Testament. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the teachings of Jesus, or the mind and the religion of the writer of the Declaration of Independence. And if your neighbor starts telling you that the public schools should start teaching the religion of the Founding Fathers, you can give them a copy of the Jefferson Bible.

Jefferson's genius shines through!!:
If you want to see Jesus in his own words. You must read this. Jefferson applied reason and science to break the Gospels down to just that which is directly attributed to Jesus Christ, You'll be surprised at how much more you can learn from this book than from the Bible.

Arlen Williams: I've got a bridge to sell you....:
To put it in its simplest words.... you are a big sucker. You have been suckered in by the "Christian religion". I can't believe that in today's world that anyone could still believe the bible. There have been more people murdered, by far, in the bible than any other book in history!!! Just for your information, the world is not flat, woman are not equal to "half a man", children should not be "stoned to death" for disrespecting their parents, and no, it is not okay to sell your daughter into slavery (I don't care what Moses says).