Christianity: Details about 'Jefferson Bible'
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The Jefferson Bible, or The Life And Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted textually from the Gospels as it is formally titled, was an attempt by Thomas Jefferson to glean the teachings of Jesus from the Christian Gospels. A deist, Jefferson wished to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.
Intent and Initial AttemptPrior to the "Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," Jefferson had made an earlier abstraction of the words of Jesus entitled "The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth," the purpose of which he mentions in a letter to John Adams dated 13 October, 1813: "In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their logos and demiurgos, aeons and daemons, male and female, with a long train of … or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill." Jefferson frequently expressed discontentment with this earlier version, however. "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" represents the fulfillment of his desire to produce a more carefully assembled edition. ContentJefferson arranges selected verses from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in chronological order, mingling excerpts from one next to those of another in an attempt to unite them in a single narrative. Thus he begins with Luke 2 and Luke 3, then follows with Mark 1 and Matthew 3. He provides a record of which verses he selected and of the order in which he arranged them in his "Table of the Texts from the Evangelists employed in this Narrative and of the order of their arrangement." Miracles and references to the holy Trinity and the Divinity of Christ are notably absent from the Jefferson Bible. The Bible begins with an account of Jesus's birth without references to angels, genealogy, or prophecy. The work ends with the words: "Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus. And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed." There is no mention of the resurrection. Purpose and UseAfter completion of the "Life and Morals", Jefferson shared it with a number of friends, but he never let it be published during his lifetime. His reluctance appears to be based upon his conviction that religion was a private matter as well as his desire to avoid slander and criticism. The book was first published in 1903 for the United States Congress. For many years copies were given to new members of Congress. The text is now freely available on the Internet since it is in the public domain. See Also
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