This comes from Robert Cohen of notmilk.com!

Gospel of the Vegetarian Christ

I've often wondered what it would have been like to
have lived two thousand years ago and broken bread with
Jesus. What a meal that would have been. Was Jesus a meat
eater, or vegetarian? Who would have butchered the chicken
or calf? Not me. I cannot imagine Jesus taking the life of
any living creature. Snap a chicken's neck? Watch a fish
gasp for breath and die? I just cannot picture Christ
showing that kind of lack of compassion to any living
creature. Can you? Cut a lamb's throat? Separating a
calf from his mother and then taking his life by slicing
through the jugular and carotid as his arterial spray stains
the floor? As there were no refrigerators, where would
meat eaters of biblical times have stored the leftovers?

My vision of that meal includes a table filled with fruits,
and a salad buffet containing marinated vegetables, nuts,
legumes. All of the foods would have been vine ripened,
fresh, colorful,fragrant. Such a meal would be the first
breakfast and the last supper, and all meals in between.

A few years ago, I received a letter from a college
lecturer, philosopher, and animal rights advocate, Gary
Yourofsky. Gary included passages from ancient scrolls which
I found to be fascinating.

Yourofsky cites the teachings of Jesus, according to
Matthew. The Gospel of the Nazarene extends Matthew's
familiar biblical chapter. Having read and studied numerous
religious texts including the Old and New Testaments and Dead
Sea Scrolls, I accept that there are various interpretations
and different levels of belief and rejections of such
texts, according to one's religious philosophy. This is not an
attempt to promote debate. It merely is a sharing of a text
that reflects great compassion. This version meshes with
my own personal vision of universal wisdom.

Should you wish to discuss the following with Yourofsky,
I provide contact info at the conclusion of this column.

____________ _________ _________ _______
The following is attributed to Jesus:
____________ _________ _________ _______

"Verily I say unto you, for this end have
I come into the world: that I may put
away all blood offerings and the eating
of the flesh of the beasts and the birds
that are slain by men.

In the beginning the Creator gave to all
the fruits of the trees, and the seeds
and the herbs for food; but those who
loved themselves more than the Lord
or their fellows, corrupted their ways
and brought diseases into their bodies,
and filled the earth with lust and
violence. Not by the shedding of
innocent blood, therefore, but by living
a righteous life shall you find peace.

Blessed are they who keep this Law, for
the Creator is manifest in all creatures
and all creatures live in the Creator."

The Gospel of the Nazarenes.
75:9-14; the words of Jesus

This verbatim scroll preserved by the Mt. Carmel
branch of the Essenes (Carmelites) was found in
Tibet in the latter part of the first century.
This text pre-dates the writings of the New
Testament.

Confirming texts appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls
which were discovered in 1947.

A current copy of The Gospel of the Nazarenes can be
obtained from Essene Vision Books, P.O. Box 1080,
Patagonia, AZ 85624; 520-394-2060
http://www.treeoflife...

Contact Gary Yourofsky
Garytofu@earthlink. net

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.co...