Where can I find Jesus’ messages without the bias of differing Christian denominations?
I know as soon as I try to google this, I’m going to be flooded with Christian bullshit. I don’t want the bullshit–I just want to know exactly what Jesus said way back when…
Please help! 
(If you’re a Christian who leads me astray from the Word of God, then I will find you and dig graves for you and your family, or at least hope that somebody else does…) 
Just read the Gospels. It’s not hard. There’s four of them, and they don’t differ by denomination, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Study Greek!
The Gospels are written in it. I think the oldest Gospel is attributed to Mark (60 CE? or less), I’m not sure if the original papyri (or whatever they wrote it in) is available in the net.
The distortion was first done when St. Jerome translated it to Latin from Greek and Aramaic (hence the first translation The Vulgate, which is latin for vulgar or common because the common language in the Empire was Latin then). But do not think that translation was done with malice, remember that translation always betray the original text, which is very sad.
Now if you don’t know Greek or Latin (I don’t but I know little Latin which I still suck haha) you can go to any translation in English. Personally I think the Jerusalem Bible is a good translation. Tolkien is one of the editors in it that’s why I’m in love with that Bible!!! Haha.
Reading texts in the original language is the best route except that it is limited by one’s knowledge of such language. There is an online resource called Bible Gateway that has a host of translations to choose from. You can also get a greek interlinear version of the New Testament that will enable you to do a word for word comparison of each greek word with an English translation. As far as what Jesus actually said there is less than 100% agreement about that among Bible scholars. But there is a large core of sayings about which there is a consensus. Even disputed verses reflect something about what the emergent church believed about Jesus.
Thanks–if somebody has a good link too, then let me know.
www.blueletterbible.com Is what I use when I want to see multiple translations/languages/editions side by side. Has links to commentary and stuff too.
Which texts are the Gospels? These were the closest things to Jesus’ verbal words?
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. First four books of the New Testament. They contain lots of stuff that aren’t the words of Jesus too, like the author describing Jesus’ actions and people’s reactions to them. I won’t get into all the historical issues, but it boils down to three basic ways you can go:
1.) Most Biblical Scholars, all Christians, and pretty much anyone else that matters will agree that the Gospels are the best source of information on the life of Jesus, and access to the stuff He said. So read the Gospels.
2.) Some people will tell you that because of history, bias, and so on, there’s no way to know what Jesus said, because the Church manipulated everything. If you believe that, then give up and don’t read anything. Or, read the Gospels anyway, because they’re still the best we have, even if ‘best’ isn’t very good.
3.) You can find a couple kooks on the internet who will say that some other text besides the Gospels is more reliable. Usually it’s the Gospel of Thomas. Wouldn’t kill ya to read that too, just be aware that it’s probably a second-century forgery.
Have you tried YouTube or FaceBook yet?
“Hey… Peter?”
“Yes lord?”
“I can see your house from here.”
This is what I believe–the Church manipulated a lot of it, but perhaps not everything. I don’t want to read anything if this is the case, because Jesus’ original words were invaluable. Since they were so powerful, they were lost in translation. And because they were so powerful, other people were almost guaranteed to be corrupted by them…
What I want… is to find the best English translation of his spoken words with the least amount of Christian bias… :-&
Maybe I’m asking for too much; I could be. In fact, I believe the Christian religion was built on slavery that came out of misinterpreting Jesus’ words. I would not trust a Christian drone to lead me to Jesus’ words. 
I really don’t know what to do. ](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7c349bf1053f368a5729d053e1e91215f22ce66c.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
You pretty much are stuck, then. The only source for Jesus works is the Gospels, and it’s the source that Christians use. If it being something that Christianity endorses automatically excludes it from consideration for you, then I don’t know what to tell ya. But, you are talking about Jesus, after all.
Hmmmm 
I guess I’ll read the Christian slander then if it’s the only thing that’s out there. The problem with Jesus is/was that his words are/were so powerful, which means that kind of power can (and does) easily corrupt a person. That is why I doubt Christian bias–most Christians I personally meet are not honest (one in particular, a baptist, even made it a point to me to be a good liar).
realunoriginal –
I notice that you have a couple of Socrates quotations in your signature line. Like Jesus, he never wrote anything down that we know of. So all you have to go by are the writings of his contemporaries. Somehow that hasn’t prevented you from quoting him.
Here’s a solution, read all the translations, compare them to the earliest manuscripts and make your own mind up about which is more faithful to the original.
How do you know Jesus’ words were powerful if you don’t know what he said?
Are most of the non-Christians you meet honest?
You’re right, but that doesn’t contradict my searching for Jesus’ original interpretations. I am just more wary now then I used to be; I see religion as having a lot more at stake in misinterpretation than Socrates’ philosophies. Because on the contrary, many people don’t see Socrates’ words as having extreme power compared to Jesus’ words amongst the ignorant and indolent masses…
Like you, my time is limited. I’m asking people here, because I believe they (you) can lead me to where I need to go appropriately with respect to both my and your biases.
I know that Jesus’ words were powerful, because they have shaped the world into how it exists now.
Most of the people I meet are dishonest, so my generalization was a bad one. However, Christians in particular, have a lot at stake when leading me to knowledge. This is what I meant…
So here’s my question again:
Of the 4 Gospels, which English-translation sources should I go to that have been least corrupted (in your opinion) outside of Christian secular bias. This question that I am asking is necessarily a difficult one to answer, because it means a lot to both you and me if you and me care about what Jesus had to say. I am confident that Christians do care about what he had to say, which is why I feel it’s important that I’m not led astray in these matters.
Just read the Gospels already. You ought to at least know what all the fuss is about. 
I don’t know which source I should read them from. What do you recommend (I could not find the Gospels in the site you recommended earlier)?
The way you’d want to do it is to Type in Matthew 1:1 into the search, which will take you to the beginning of the first gospel, and there you go. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll see you can change versions and translations by hitting a button. If you mess with that, you’ll soon see that there’s not a very big difference between them, default is the KJV.
Once you finish Matthew, do the same with Mark, then Luke, then John. You can hit “Next book” at the end of one to read the next if you want, all four are next to each other in the Bible in the order I listed right there.
Thanks!
Except that humanity has dealt with the hell of Platonism for 2500 years. And platonism lays the groundwork for Christianity.