The Jefferson Bible.

[calibob]

Question: "What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?"

Answer: The Thomas Jefferson Bible, also known as the Jefferson Bible, and officially titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, is a work of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Jefferson finished his “Bible” in approximately 1819. It is not actually a complete Bible but an attempt at a harmony of the Gospels, with much of the content of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John literally cut and pasted in the order Thomas Jefferson thought best.

The most interesting, and disappointing, aspect of the Thomas Jefferson Bible is the fact that, as a naturalist, Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the supernatural. He therefore removed virtually all the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels. While some references to angels, heaven, hell, and a future eternal life remain, the accounts of Jesus’ miracles, allusions to the deity of Christ, and the story of Jesus’ resurrection are absent.
An earlier version of the Thomas Jefferson Bible was titled The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, Being Extracted from the Account of His Life and Doctrines Given by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians, Uncomplicated with Matters of Fact or Faith Beyond the Level of Their Comprehensions. Thomas Jefferson seemed to have believed that the “true” story of Jesus needed to be extracted from the Gospels and that the miracles were a distraction from Jesus’ philosophical and moral teachings. Jefferson took it upon himself to “uncomplicate” the story by excising the miraculous. In this way, his work resembles that of the Jesus Seminar.

The problem is that Jesus’ miracles and His teachings worked together. Acts 2:22 declares, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.” The miracles attested to the truth of Jesus’ teachings. The wonders and signs demonstrated that Jesus was far more than a great moral and philosophical teacher. In the Thomas Jefferson Bible, Thomas Jefferson made the precise mistake that C. S. Lewis warned of about 150 years later:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (Mere Christianity, pp. 51–52).

IT'S GARBAGE!​

 

[calibob]

Question: "What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?"

IT'S GARBAGE!​

CO: www.gotquestions.org/Thomas-Jefferson-Bible.

 

[Stranger36147]

Question: "What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?"

Answer:

IT'S GARBAGE!​

tl;dr version.

 

[Dan58]

The miracles were confirmation of the Truth, removing them from the gospels turns the Truth into a philosophy. Jefferson in effect edited the inspired Word of God and then concluded Christ was not the Son of God. Obviously, we can't make the gospels uncomplicated by removing parts of them, and then claim they aren't believable. Jefferson may have been a smart man, but not too wise.

 

[Nehemiah6]

Question: "What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?"

One could honestly call it THE DISHONEST BIBLE. For anyone to exclude the fact that Jesus is God and His miracles were divine is plainly dishonest. So no matter how great Thomas Jefferson may have been in other ways, in this matter he was dishonest.

"He omitted passages that he deemed insupportable through reason or that he believed were later embellishments, including references to Jesus' miracles and his resurrection."

 

[KJV1611]

Question: "What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?"

Answer: The Thomas Jefferson Bible, also known as the Jefferson Bible, and officially titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, is a work of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Jefferson finished his “Bible” in approximately 1819. It is not actually a complete Bible but an attempt at a harmony of the Gospels, with much of the content of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John literally cut and pasted in the order Thomas Jefferson thought best.

The most interesting, and disappointing, aspect of the Thomas Jefferson Bible is the fact that, as a naturalist, Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the supernatural. He therefore removed virtually all the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels. While some references to angels, heaven, hell, and a future eternal life remain, the accounts of Jesus’ miracles, allusions to the deity of Christ, and the story of Jesus’ resurrection are absent.
An earlier version of the Thomas Jefferson Bible was titled The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, Being Extracted from the Account of His Life and Doctrines Given by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians, Uncomplicated with Matters of Fact or Faith Beyond the Level of Their Comprehensions. Thomas Jefferson seemed to have believed that the “true” story of Jesus needed to be extracted from the Gospels and that the miracles were a distraction from Jesus’ philosophical and moral teachings. Jefferson took it upon himself to “uncomplicate” the story by excising the miraculous. In this way, his work resembles that of the Jesus Seminar.

The problem is that Jesus’ miracles and His teachings worked together. Acts 2:22 declares, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.” The miracles attested to the truth of Jesus’ teachings. The wonders and signs demonstrated that Jesus was far more than a great moral and philosophical teacher. In the Thomas Jefferson Bible, Thomas Jefferson made the precise mistake that C. S. Lewis warned of about 150 years later:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (Mere Christianity, pp. 51–52).

IT'S GARBAGE!​

Good info thanks.

 

[Grandpa]

I knew that Thomas Jefferson cut out portions of the bible that he didn't like.

I didn't know he made a new bible out of it and published it.

I guess I see the parallel with that and a bunch of the new versions of the bible that have come out fairly recently.

 

[Adstar]

Revelation 22: KJV
18 "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: {19} And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

If he took out all the miraculous stuff out of the Bible He would have removed a ton of verse from the Book of Revelation.. This book is filled with stuff like that.. Woe woe woe to Thomas Jefferson and all those who have done the same as him..

 

[dcontroversal]

See......many are oblivious to the fact that the funding "FATHERS" were not CHRISTIAN......they were DEISTS and UNBELIEVERS.......some of the statements made were absolutely contrary to the truth......

Thomas Paine was so anti Christian that when he lay on his death bed he had two witnesses sitting there to record with his dying breath his distaste and rejection of JESUS as the savior.....

Ben Franklin said something to the affect that The idea of a sin nature and the imputed righteousness of JESUS to a believer was absurd....

George Washington was a DEIST......and no more Christian than the unbeliever living next door....

TO reject the divinity, miracles and power of JESUS is to reject JESUS himself and his saving power.....

I want everyone to ponder the following truth......

MOST will say this is or was a Christian country because it was founded upon the FREEDOM of RELIGION and the right to WORSHIP GOD AS WE PLEASE. IS that BIBLICAL?

MY bible states that GOD is SPIRIT and they that worship him MUST worship him in SPIRIT and IN TRUTH

To say we can worship HIM as WE PLEASE is NOT of GOD!

 

[Bingo]

( This History composited from a number of sources on the Web )

 

[Lanolin]

Never seen it in the christian bookstores and never come across it in any church library so can safely say its out of print or people have binned it.

 

[Magenta]

Never seen it in the christian bookstores and never come across it in any church library so can safely say its out of print or people have binned it.

The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is one of two religious works constructed by Thomas Jefferson. The first, The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1804, but no copies exist today. The second, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1820 by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's condensed composition excludes all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine.

After completion of the Life and Morals, about 1820, Jefferson shared it with a number of friends, but he never allowed it to be published during his lifetime. However, now the text is in the public domain and is freely available on the internet. source

 

[Lanolin]

I dont think many people are going to read someone elses cut up Bible.

Maybe the Jesus seminar people, as they got nothing better to do, but not ordinary people.

 

[calibob]

I dont think many people are going to read someone elses cut up Bible.

Maybe the Jesus seminar people, as they got nothing better to do, but not ordinary people.

I've seen it post it on CC and never heard of it so I looked it up.

 

[jb]

Jefferson in effect edited the inspired Word of God...

What do you expect, he was a politician!

 

[Nehemiah6]

Good info thanks.

Good info to avoid spiritual poison. Deists had manufactured their own god.

 

[Roughsoul1991]

Question: "What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?"

Answer: The Thomas Jefferson Bible, also known as the Jefferson Bible, and officially titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, is a work of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Jefferson finished his “Bible” in approximately 1819. It is not actually a complete Bible but an attempt at a harmony of the Gospels, with much of the content of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John literally cut and pasted in the order Thomas Jefferson thought best.

The most interesting, and disappointing, aspect of the Thomas Jefferson Bible is the fact that, as a naturalist, Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the supernatural. He therefore removed virtually all the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels. While some references to angels, heaven, hell, and a future eternal life remain, the accounts of Jesus’ miracles, allusions to the deity of Christ, and the story of Jesus’ resurrection are absent.
An earlier version of the Thomas Jefferson Bible was titled The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, Being Extracted from the Account of His Life and Doctrines Given by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians, Uncomplicated with Matters of Fact or Faith Beyond the Level of Their Comprehensions. Thomas Jefferson seemed to have believed that the “true” story of Jesus needed to be extracted from the Gospels and that the miracles were a distraction from Jesus’ philosophical and moral teachings. Jefferson took it upon himself to “uncomplicate” the story by excising the miraculous. In this way, his work resembles that of the Jesus Seminar.

The problem is that Jesus’ miracles and His teachings worked together. Acts 2:22 declares, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.” The miracles attested to the truth of Jesus’ teachings. The wonders and signs demonstrated that Jesus was far more than a great moral and philosophical teacher. In the Thomas Jefferson Bible, Thomas Jefferson made the precise mistake that C. S. Lewis warned of about 150 years later:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (Mere Christianity, pp. 51–52).

IT'S GARBAGE!​

This is mostly false. What progressive liberal website did you repeat this from?

 

[Roughsoul1991]

Here is a expert on this. David Barton who you can find his work in any Christian book store or home school criteria. David was briefly explaining this to Ben Shapiro a conservative talk show host. 8 min video will atleast shed some light on other information to look further into this lie told by our secular education system.

Very briefly Jefferson made a Bible to help Christian missionaries get the idea of Jesus into the minds of the Indian neighbors. As the Jefferson Bible explains in the front of the book. At the most looking at Jefferson's whole life he was definitely not a deist but also probably not a orthodox Christian. His writings have included the trinity and Jesus as Christ but it is also evident just as many Christians today he held some doctrines not everyone agrees with modernaly today.

Dealing with anything historical it helps to read the actual thing being criticized, study the context on when, where, and why was it written. It helps to read it from original sources like letters or journals by Jefferson. And then to fully make a assessment on Jefferson's beliefs you must study his whole life. Just as I wouldn't take King David at his point of failures and say uh oh King David was a adulterer, murderer and terrible father. All true but David had more in his life to judge from that gives us the understanding why David was a man after God's own heart.

 

[calibob]

This is mostly false. What progressive liberal website did you repeat this from?

grace

Dealing with anything historical it helps to read the actual thing being criticized, study the context on when, where, and why was it written. It helps to read it from original sources like letters or journals by Jefferson. And then to fully make a assessment on Jefferson's beliefs you must study his whole life. Just as I wouldn't take King David at his point of failures and say uh oh King David was a adulterer, murderer and terrible father. All true but David had more in his life to judge from that gives us the understanding why David was a man after God's own heart.

I put this in the post,> CO: www.gotquestions.org/Thomas-Jefferson-Bible. And what I am criticizing is the editing of any real translation to the word of God. This is your signature.>
Sometimes we must not be afraid to ask why and question everything we Know!
Don't you ask why and question everything? I Don't support the paraphrasing or abbreviation of any bible then calling the facsimile a Bible as the bible is sacred. I prefer the ESV or the NIV as they of most original translations we have in our modern English language. They are not rewrites of the King James or any thing like it. I would come against the Readers Digest or Good News versions on a christian site also. But in checking out Barton, he's just another crackpot nationalistic right wing fanatic. I'm familiar with Ben Shapiro of course.

 

[Roughsoul1991]

grace



I put this in the post,> CO: www.gotquestions.org/Thomas-Jefferson-Bible. And what I am criticizing is the editing of any real translation to the word of God. This is your signature.>
Sometimes we must not be afraid to ask why and question everything we Know!
Don't you ask why and question everything? I Don't support the paraphrasing or abbreviation of any bible then calling the facsimile a Bible as the bible is sacred. I prefer the ESV or the NIV as they of most original translations we have in our modern English language. They are not rewrites of the King James or any thing like it. I would come against the Readers Digest or Good News versions on a christian site also. But in checking out Barton, he's just another crackpot nationalistic right wing fanatic. I'm familiar with Ben Shapiro of course.

You better throw out all of the children's Bibles also because they leave out much detail and also puts the scriptures in very short sentences. Point is translations or study material that is Biblically accurate in lesson and thought like children's Bibles are just as helpful for the audience it is directed at. The Indians barely could speak English and was having to rewire centuries of pagan thought.

Your speaking of two translations ESV and NIV. Have you compared every translation, verse by verse to the original Hebrew and Greek? I doubt it, so to say those two are the most original translations in modern English is your opinion.

You mentioned the KJV but what about the great Bible or the Geneva Bible that came before the KJV? My cross translations of the KJV in my opinion isnt far off the original language. But if your fear is that it was printed under the command of King James then you need to start a cross examination of the Geneva Bible that came into formation as the reformation began to sweep across Europe.

But back on point. You haven't given me counter evidence to show my original comment was wrong. Instead you switched gears and decided to attack the idea that the Jefferson Bible wasn't in your mind what you would of gave the Indians.

You also make the claim that Barton is a crackpot with no supporting evidence.

So far you have many holes to plug in order to keep your thought afloat.