THOMAS JEFFERSON, HILLEL AND JESUS
this post will be a little topical.
Was this on my list?
Well, you know that Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers of America, and of the concept of the noble striving for freedom. (Warning, I am not checking my facts, only relying on my memory and what I've read and heard. That will be the case here, unless I refer to a source. I will definitely give scripture references.) One piece of trivia I've heard about Jefferson is that he didn't like the miracles in the Bible-thought of them as myths, I guess. The story is that he snipped out of his Bible all the miracles that were mentioned.(Smithsonian Magazine had a picture of the Bible. It looked like swiss cheese.)
Also, the word "civil religion" is associated with him in my mind, meaning that he encouraged people to live fine, upstanding, moral lives, without making religious convictions an unpleasant, strife-causing divider of people. (Mind you, we are talking about Mr. Jefferson's ideals, not the way in which he actually conducted himself. I can testify to the difficulty of walking the talk that one wants to talk/ integrating ideals with practical integrity.)
You may not know that Hillel was a jewish scholar that lived and taught about 100 years before Jesus. Unfortunately, the only thing I know of Hillel's theology is that when he was asked by a heckler to give the substance of the Torah while standing on one foot, his response was "do not do to others what you yourself would find oppressive." I think Hillel left out a very important aspect of the Torah. I think Jesus was addressing that omission when he said similar things 100 years later.
Yours truly, Joan Mazzu
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