Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Today I learned...

"Thomas Jefferson cut and pasted from a King James Bible in order to make a condensed version that included the philosophy of Christ the man, with no supernatural events included."
Using a razor, Jefferson cut and pasted his arrangement of selected verses from the King James Version of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in chronological order, putting together excerpts from one text to those of another in order to create a single narrative. Thus he begins with Luke 2 and Luke 3, then follows with Mark 1 and Matthew 3. He provides a record of which verses he selected and of the order in which he arranged them in his "Table of the Texts from the Evangelists employed in this Narrative and of the order of their arrangement".

Consistent with his naturalistic outlook and intent, most supernatural events are not included in Jefferson's heavily edited compilation. Paul K. Conkin states that "For the teachings of Jesus he concentrated on his milder admonitions (the Sermon on the Mount) and his most memorable parables. What resulted is a reasonably coherent, but at places oddly truncated, biography. If necessary to exclude the miraculous, Jefferson would cut the text even in mid-verse." Historian Edwin Scott Gaustad explains, "If a moral lesson was embedded in a miracle, the lesson survived in Jeffersonian scripture, but the miracle did not. Even when this took some rather careful cutting with scissors or razor, Jefferson managed to maintain Jesus' role as a great moral teacher, not as a shaman or faith healer."
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Just my two cents:

I've read most of the new testament and sometimes jokingly say that I am a secular christian. Most of what Jesus says is pretty standard morality and generally the world would be better if people lived that way, but he wasn't a supernatural being.

Obviously this isn't entirely true, but for the most part following the actual teachings of Christ, the man, aren't going to hurt anyone. I think this is what Jefferson was going for. Casting Jesus Christ as a philosopher like Plato whose teachings have been corrupted by their connection to the old testament and the ravings of fanatic followers.

10 comments:

Trooper York said...

He also spent a lot of time cutting out naked portraits of Sally Hemmings.

Trooper York said...

Even worse I heard he bet on baseball.

Chip Ahoy said...

Bless his pea-picking little heart.

Why I declare, having reckoned with similar vexing perplexing conundrums in previous endeavors unrelated to Biblical matters or other concerns of ecclesiastic orthodoxy, and Sugar Plum I don't even know what that means, I have at last and at great length arrived that the sound and solid conclusion that you will need two babbles not one babble for defacement purposes.

Be prepared for it. Be ready to cut up two babbles.

Because you never do know when you might encounter a passage that cannot be excluded but found on the opposite side of the page you already defaced. That is to say Honey Bunch there will be worthy Jesus passages on the recto to your slashed up verso so you need another babble in order to guarantee you don't miss anything Jesus-worthy just for the sake of babble-conservation. You think you're fierce by tearing up a babble? You have to be twice that Peach Cakes.

ricpic said...

"Most of what Jesus says is pretty standard morality....."

If that were the case there wouldn't be such passionate love for and hatred of Jesus. By any definition Jesus was - is, if you are a believer - a radical. The standard morality was present: the Ten Commandments. What wasn't there was salvation. Jesus went way beyond the messiah formulation as it existed and still exists in Judaism by stating that he was much more than the messiah, he was God incarnate and that salvation could only come through belief in the triune God of Jesus/God/Holy Spirit. Even more radical is the sacred rite of Christianity, the Mass, in which the believer takes the actual body of Jesus into his body. If that ain't radical what is? And make no mistake, Jesus is still the great stumbling block to the Obama/Schmendriks of this world. They MUST kill Jesus to realize their Hell.

Chip Ahoy said...

Today I leaned Photobucket is offering 75% off canvas prints.

That's a lot.

A friend emailed and told me Joe has not stopped talking about the ride around the mountains up and over two passes, humping it, as it were, but really seeing things again, the drama of the mountains so dramatically thrust upward and simultaneously attempting to flatten, you can actually see everything trying to flatten while vegetation crawls upward and coats the whole thing if it could, and the mountain cannot car what vegetation coats it, trees, moss, sage, cactus, lichen, mushroom, pine, aspen, anything that will blow over and hold.

So I'm thinking, I do have a few spots that really get me.

The aspen trees are one such, they veritably beacon you to enter them.

So I had that turned into one of those canvas prints that wraps around the frame. They send you the whole thing finished ready to go.

I can have Joe pick one or two or three and have them sent directly. You know, since he's talking about it so much. This is a guy who travels all over the whole f'n world. He's got nothing else better to do. Another 15 day cruise planned for September, and here he is talking it up about our local car tour. Stopping here and there and everywhere for photos.

I learned the lesson of having two cameras. All that switching back and forth is for the birds.

There are a few others that would do nicely. I don't think a regular bloke can can outdo what I've done. I'm talking myself into deciding which ones for myself and just sending them. 75% off, come on. I can hardly resist.

Good thing I saved the NEF files and uploaded to Google+, I can choose elsewhere, redo from raw and guarantee the best results when blown up.

See ya. I gotta do that.

William said...

If you edited the films of Marilyn Monroe so that you could only see her face, you could then appreciate what a great actress she was (or not), but you wouldn't be able to understand what made her a star. The supernatural stuff--the resurrection, redemption, salvation, eternal bliss--is what gave the words of Jesus their topspin. It's a seductive fable. Don't you wish someone was keeping accurate score and, at the end of the game, would award you the laurel and would send those infernal cheaters you had to compete against to their just damnation.......I've lead a reasonably honorable life. Except for that unfortunate incident with the chainsaw at the daycare center, I've committed no felonies. I've gotten pretty much my just desserts in this life, but it's not enough. Future eternal bliss and a pat on the back from our Heavenly Father would be a great motivator the next time I do my taxes.

rcocean said...

The more I read Jefferson the less I like him. He often comes across the 1st Limousine Liberal. He'd talk against slavery but was angry when people wanted to keep it out of Missouri. And he didn't free most of his slaves upon his death (unlike Washington and IRC Madison) because he was in debt up to his eyeballs. Too much French wine and expensive English books.

He also made one of the dumbest remarks ever. "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

One wonders what he would have thought of a Mormon neighbor who practiced Polygamy or a Quaker neighbor who was an abolitionist, or a Orthodox Jewish neighbor who wanted to do business on the Sunday, or an Islamic neighbor who wanted to go on a Jihad.

Chip Ahoy said...

Bueno. That was muy divertido.

Man, is Joe ever going to freak the f out.

Because all of a sudden out of the blue BOOM two perfectly splendid canvas printed photographs, big ones too, and he'll know exactly where they were the photos were taken, the exact time.

And who does that? These token jestersxxxx jesturesxxxx gestures mean a lot to people, even if they stick 'em in a bathroom, a closet, a basement, a garage, or storage or put them up in yard sale having determined they simply don't go.

Chip Ahoy said...

And the thing is, I can determine which two photographs Joe will be having well and most likely better as anyone including Joe. How's that for arrogance?

Methadras said...

Jefferson was an elitist asshole. I think many people and even historians would agree to that. He wasn't a pleasant person when he drank and Washington detested him fairly well. However, his take on government and federalism is preeminent, so...