---
title: Jesus the Christ
description: "1915 book by James E. Talmage, a Mormon apostle, published by the Mormon Church: a study of the life and mission of Jesus in forty-two chapters, with notes and an index."
authors:
  - Talmage, James Edward
collections:
  - theology
tags:
  - theology
  - christology
  - 20th-century
  - mormon-writings
published: "1915"
publisher: The Deseret News
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
edition: First edition (Salt Lake City, 1915)
language: en
type: book
reference: 'James E. Talmage, *Jesus the Christ* (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1915), "Preface."'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/jesuschriststudy00talm
  identifier: jesuschriststudy00talm
  scan: Internet Archive scan of the 1915 Deseret News edition
  transcription: OCR text of the 1915 scan, with line-break hyphens joined, running heads and page numbers removed and obvious scan errors corrected; printed pagination kept as page markers. Footnotes and the notes at the end of each chapter are kept. Not proofread against the page images.
curator_note: The 1915 first edition; later editions were revised. Treated as a Mormon primary source, included for historical and doctrinal study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: 1915 US publication (Salt Lake City, The Deseret News; copyright notice of 1915); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States
  source: https://archive.org/details/jesuschriststudy00talm
  publication_year: 1915
  note: Publication year of the edition used is 1915; any modern rights notice in the Internet Archive metadata does not apply to this 1915 text.
---

# Preface

The scope of the subject presented in this work is expressed on the title page. It will be readily seen that the author has departed from the course usually followed by writers on the Life of Jesus Christ, which course, as a rule, begins with the birth of Mary's Babe and ends with the ascension of the slain and risen Lord from Olivet. The treatment embodied in these pages, in addition to the narrative of the Lord's life in the flesh comprizes the antemortal existence and activities of the world's Redeemer, the revelations and personal manifestations of the glorified and exalted Son of God during the apostolic period of old and in modern times, the assured nearness of the Lord's second advent, and predicted events beyond — all so far as the Holy Scriptures make plain.

It is particularly congruous and appropriate that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the only Church that affirms authority based on specific revelation and commission to use the Lord's Holy Name as a distinctive designation — should set forth her doctrines concerning the Messiah and His mission.

The author of this volume entered upon his welcome | service under request and appointment from the presiding i authorities of the Church ; and the completed work has been I read to and is approved by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve. It presents, however, the writer's personal belief and profoundest conviction as to the truth of

what he has written. The book is published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A characteristic feature of the work is the guidance \\f afforded by modern scriptures and the explication of the Holy Writ of olden times in the light of present day revelation, which, as a powerful and well directed beam, illumines many dark passages of ancient construction.

The spirit of the sacredness inherent in the subject has been a constant companion of the writer throughout his pleasing labor, and he reverently invokes the same as a minister to the readers of the volume.

James E. Talmage. Salt Lake City, Utah, September, 1915.