Has anyone ever read the Jefferson Bible?

For those that have not heard of it before:

The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was an attempt by Thomas Jefferson to glean the teachings of Jesus from the Christian Gospels. Jefferson wished to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

That was from Wikipedia

Basically Jefferson believed that the moral teachings of Jesus were great, but were distorted with all the him being God stuff.

I like it because I believe the Bible has some excellent moral stories, but it all gets clouded with all the non sense in it.

It can be read online HERE (http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/)

[This message has been edited by jackketch (edited 12-12-2006).]

quote:Originally posted by jackketch:

It can be read online HERE (http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/)



Thanks for putting a link.

Man, that's really cool. I'm going to read that.

Actually, I thought about doing this myself, since I didn't care for all the supernatural rubbish and thought only his ethical teachings mattered. What a nice surprise this is.

It's really an interesting piece of work. When you get a chance, write what you think about it.

Sorry, personally I think it sucked major midget donkey cock (a theologians technical phrase).

But thats probably just me. When I read the Bible I tend to be far more interested in the accuracy of the text than the readability (i read things like the feared Dabhar translation...thats how sad i am!).

And on principle I dislike anything translated or even reworked because of someones personal bias.

Not saying mind, that is ain't worth reading. Just it won't be on my bookshelf.

But its nice to have a thread about a not so well known 'translation', I'll admit i had never heard of it before.

[This message has been edited by jackketch (edited 12-12-2006).]

quote:Originally posted by jackketch:

Sorry, personally I think it sucked major midget donkey cock (a theologians technical phrase).

But thats probably just me. When I read the Bible I tend to be far more interested in the accuracy of the text than the readability (i read things like the feared Dabhar translation...thats how sad i am!).

And on principle I dislike anything translated or even reworked because of someones personal bias.

Not saying mind, that is ain't worth reading. Just it won't be on my bookshelf.

But its nice to have a thread about a not so well known 'translation', I'll admit i had never heard of it before.



I believe that religion would be better for society if there were no Gods in it. As weird as this might sound, I think it would be beneficial.

Throughout the years, there have been countless wars based on whose God's real and whose isn't.

What if we followed a religion for its moral purposes rather then its supernatural ones, would the world not be a better place?

I also dislike texts that were translated and changed in order to fit people's political measures, but isn't the Bible guilty of this itself?

I have serious doubts about whether Jesus said some of the things that were attributed to him.

In closing, I know that religion can be one of the most powerful things in our society today, I'm know for a fact that it has helped billions of people, my only wish is that it's name not me tarnished by the all the evils carried out in it's name.

quote:What if we followed a religion for its moral purposes rather then its supernatural ones, would the world not be a better place?

In other words, Buddhism? I expect, however, that you'd still get a few idiots who will kill people because they disagree with their ethical views.

quote:Originally posted by Raw_Power:

In other words, Buddhism? I expect, however, that you'd still get a few idiots who will kill people because they disagree with their ethical views.

Buddhism is probably the best example, but like you said there will always be a group of idiots.

quote:Originally posted by AnAsTaSiO:



I also dislike texts that were translated and changed in order to fit people's political measures, but isn't the Bible guilty of this itself?

Very very much so, yes. But it is the job of the 'critical' scholar to hunt down the bias that is already in the scriptures , not to add to it.

Although of course every translator brings something of his own bias/personality to translating.

quote:I believe that religion would be better for society if there were no Gods in it.



So basically you'd just want a morally relativistic philosophy, instead of religion.

quote:Throughout the years, there have been countless wars based on whose God's real and whose isn't.



No, those are just false pretenses used to brainwash the masses. The root cause has always been power, pride, and greed.

quote:

What if we followed a religion for its moral purposes rather then its supernatural ones, would the world not be a better place?



You can not seperate the two.

quote:I also dislike texts that were translated and changed in order to fit people's political measures, but isn't the Bible guilty of this itself?



The mainstream once, yes. Read some of the texts that were banned from the bible.

quote:I have serious doubts about whether Jesus said some of the things that were attributed to him.



I have serious doubts about everything.

quote:In closing, I know that religion can be one of the most powerful things in our society today, I'm know for a fact that it has helped billions of people, my only wish is that it's name not me tarnished by the all the evils carried out in it's name.



I agree, except I apply that thinking towards everything.

quote:I have serious doubts about everything.

If you have serious doubts about everything, why are you so quick to say you believe in anything on TOTSE?

quote:Originally posted by AnAsTaSiO:

I believe that religion would be better for society if there were no Gods in it. As weird as this might sound, I think it would be beneficial.



I agree in a sense, in that I understand what you are saying, but you are using the classical definition for god. That is it projects an image of something out there, it introduces duality and seperation between our imagined selves and an imagined god. Thing is God also means: the absolute, or the almighty, the highest ruling power of an individuals mind and all of us have a god in that sense.

Peace http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)