Religion: What Jesus Said

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The words of Christ have had more influence on the world than any other words in recorded history. But though all His reported words total only 36,450 (less than half the length of an average novel), they are scattered through the New Testament, and in consequence relatively few people have read them all.

A few laymen have felt that the context of the New Testament obscured, if it did not confuse, the words of Christ. One of them was Leo Tolstoy, who made his own translation of the Gospels; another was Thomas Jefferson, who made his own (somewhat arbitrarily eclectic) anthology of Christ's words.

This Lent a pocket-sized book, a simplified collection of Christ's words, has reappeared.* The Complete Sayings of Jesus (John C. Winston Co.; $1) claims to be the first attempt to extract the sayings of Christ—with chronological notes and just enough of the Biblical context to bridge the transition between Christ's sayings. Its purpose: "With the world in flames, a little book which makes it possible to read in two short hours every recorded word Christ ever spoke is a vital contribution toward what our people need, want and are receptive to right now."

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At 21 U.S. bases abroad, rabbis this week will conduct the Seder ceremonies of Passover for Jews in the armed forces. To the six bases without rabbis (Alaska, Newfoundland, Trinidad, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Cuba), the Jewish Welfare Board assigned civilian rabbis from the U.S.