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    The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
    The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
    The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
    Ebook173 pages1 hour

    The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

    By Thomas Jefferson

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    "Question with boldness even the existence of a god," Thomas Jefferson asserted, "because if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." America's third president regarded Jesus as a moral guide rather than a divinity, and in The Jefferson Bible, he highlights Christ's ethical teachings from the Gospels. Discarding the scriptures' supernatural elements and dogma, this volume reflects the deist view of religion, focusing on Jesus' message of absolute love and service.
    Jefferson undertook his self-appointed task in 1794, consulting not only the King James Bible but also Greek, French, and Latin versions. He selected verses from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and arranged them in chronological order to form a single narrative. Although Jefferson shared his interpretation with friends and family, he declined to publish it, in keeping with his conviction that religion is a private matter—and also to avoid providing his political enemies with ammunition. Not until the turn of the twentieth century did the book appear in print, when it became a tradition to present it to new members of Congress. Unique and influential, this volume reflects not only the thinking of one of the nation's most brilliant statesmen, but also the ideology of the Enlightenment era.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 2, 2012
    ISBN9780486112510
    Author

    Thomas Jefferson

    Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd president of the United States. William Peden is professor emeritus of English at the University of Missouri.

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    Reviews for The Jefferson Bible

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    • 4/5
      In his forward, Brent D. Glass writes, “By removing all references to superstition and the supernatural, Jefferson made clear his admiration of Jesus as a great teacher and moral philosopher while, at the same time, reaffirming his belief in and commitment to the power of reason as the basis for understanding life and the natural world” (pg. 7). Since all interpretations of the Bible are now biased by what the reader wants to find within its pages, it’s refreshing to see such an honest edit to a book that has undergone innumerable edits, translations, and other changes. According to Harry R. Rubenstein and Barbara Clark Smith, “Left behind in the source material were those elements that [Jefferson] could not support through reason, that he believed were later embellishments, or that seemed superfluous or repetitious across the Four Evangelists’ accounts. Absent are the annunciation, the resurrection, the water being turned to wine, and the multitudes fed on five loaves of bread and two fishes. It essentially offers what the title indicates: a distillation of the teachings of Jesus the moral reformer, combined with what Jefferson accepted as the historical facts pertaining to Jesus the man” (pg. 30). The main text of this facsimile reprint shows Jefferson’s cut-and-paste technique of removing supernatural elements, cleaning up the text to prevent multiple prepositions on the same sentence, and even allowing Jefferson to compare the original Greek text of the four Gospels, alongside their Latin, French, and English translations (pg. 38-39). For the philologist or those looking to see how meaning changed via translation, the work allows them to follow Jefferson’s scholarship. Further, the work represents an early step in scholarship on the historicity of Jesus, making it a must-read for all religious scholars. Finally, the Jefferson Bible offers the unique opportunity to gain insight into the private thoughts of one of the Founding Fathers of the nation who was among the first to articulate freedom of religion.
    • 5/5
      This book is what it is. No miracles, no supernatural acts. This Jesus of Nazareth speaks with a sparseness and type of authority that convinces better than waiting for water to turn to wine. I place more value in this attempt to uncover the real Christ than I do in the Jesus Seminar theologians "votes." Especially helpful are the citations at the end of the book.
    • 4/5
      Really interesting--not only the history of the book and of Jefferson's philosophy but actually the Bible itself. It's interesting to read the French text alongside the English (unfortunately, I can't read Greek or Latin), and it's also interesting to read just the moral philosophy of Christianity with the supernatural completely removed. I actually found that portion of the book much more engaging than I thought I would. Well worth the read.
    • 3/5
      Basically a "copy and paste" version of the highlights of the four gospels without all the repetition. It is a very short, condensed version of Christ's life starting with the birth of Jesus, goes through his childhood, selecting the diciples, beatitudes, Lord's prayer, and several of the more famous parables - the widow's mite, the adulteress, the good samaritan, the ten virgins. ends with the last supper and the crucifixion. Not a work of scripture that I would study intently or read again, but it was ok for a brief overview of the life of Christ.
    • 5/5
      Inspired by a featured program on History Channel, I purchased this book as a curiosity and as additional Americana for my library. Two introductory articles by members of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History rebroadcast the core information contained on that TV show. An essay by Harry R. Rubenstein (Political Curator) and Barbara Clark Smith (Curator) elaborates upon the history of this publication. Conservation descriptions are expounded by Janice Stagnitto Ellis (Senior Paper Conservator).The subtitle reads: “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English.” Thomas Jefferson had spent years cutting, aligning, and pasting typeset classical language passages against the English version. His patience and precision in amassing this assemblage are amazing. It has been decades since I could read Greek and Latin with understanding, so I was not able to decipher the first three columns on each page; but, I read the King James English text almost like the Cliff’s Notes version of the New Testament. This version is astonishingly clearer in presenting Christ’s messages. Jefferson has eradicated any confusion that might arise through reading the divergent texts of the four gospel writers. Since Jefferson has eliminated all the evangelical editorial remarks and hearsay from this text, Christ’s preaching parables and moral messages are more focused and remarkably more comprehensible.The inclusions of Jefferson’s handwritten bibliography as well as the folded map of the 18th Century Mediterranean area have added precious connections to this work. The reproductions of clippings, smudges, and handwritten marginalia are ribbons that connect us to hours of intensive effort two centuries ago in Monticello. The faux-leather binding and hard plastic book jacket create an elegant addition to any bookshelf. Paradoxically, this book by a U.S. President and sponsored by a renowned American institution was printed in China. I can appreciate why Jefferson used this book for his daily reflections. This work may become a reader’s breviary or a primer in learning classical languages, but certainly it will sit as an antiquarian acquisition on anyone’s bookshelf.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up because it was recommended to me as "Jesus without the magic," which it turns out is not quite what it is (nor quite what I was interested in). But like any "best of" list, the most entertaining part of this is arguing with the selections -- "divorce is adultery" is in (twice!) but not the loaves and the fishes? I get wanting to take out the miracles, but in the process Jefferson's managed to remove everything that made it sound like the guy had a sense of humor. I was prepared to be annoyed by duplication, but it turns out that putting in the same story told in different gospels gives a remarkable effect of veracity.
    • 2/5
      President Kennedy said something during a dinner honoring Nobel laureates about it being the greatest gathering of intelligence in that room since Jefferson dined alone. Mr. Jefferson had a good idea here, cutting out everything he thought to be unnatural (the more common, if incorrect, term is "super"natural). I wonder if he believed anything of his end product, of if he just passed it on without applying critical thinking. He was not without flaws.

      I've decided that part of my reading track for 2016 will be Books I Should Have Read Already. This is the first. Am I enriched? Not very. I've already read the source material (not primary source material...those don't exist) in multiple versions.
    • 5/5
      This book will be a forever classic. I'm so glad I was able to get a first edition from Amazon.
    • 5/5
      Truly a fast read. I think all the essentials for following in Christ's path can be found here. I have always thought Jefferson was a little misunderstood by those who have generally read history, and much maligned by those who didn't dig deeper. Those who didn't dig deeper really don't have much of an understanding of theism and its break from religion and religious practices.
    • 4/5
      It's been awhile since I read the New Testament, and I didn't remember Jesus' message being this culty. I guess I'm just more familiar with cult tactics now.
    • 1/5
      The Jefferson Bible is basically a distilling of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, removing (most of) the miraculous acts and focusing instead on the words and teachings of Jesus. In this it succeeds quite well, though the language is old and in some places a little hard to follow. The one thing I felt really hampered the book was the amount of repetition; when reading the New Testament, you don't really get a feel for how often Jesus says the same things over and over again, but nearly each parable related is told twice, making it a tad bit monotonous.Over all, it is a good, short refining for those more interested in the message Jesus spent his life trying to convey; almost an early American "Cliff's Notes" of the Bible, more than a treatise on the scripture itself. I would like to see it modernized a bit, with the language brought up to date and the repetition cut down.
    • 3/5
      Finally, I have finished The Jefferson Bible, only took me two years to read a 169 page book. It's not for the lack on content or boring subject, I just kept losing my place over and over and over again... It's hard to find any organization that the original text had since Jefferson literally did a cut and paste job to produce this book, so I kept getting lost trying to follow the chapter verse layout.Thomas Jefferson worked for a couple restless nights in Washington carefully extracting bible passages from the gospels to revile the true essence of religion; collecting them into a single common sense gospel narrative. A brilliant and enlightening take on the essential heart of the teachings of Jesus of absolute love and service to others. Mr. Jefferson eliminated the virgin birth, the miraculous healings, and the resurrection, leaving only the essential teachings and a very human biography of Jesus.I found it fascinating to see which passages Jefferson felt were the correct telling of Jesus's life and what could be discarded. Then to try to piece those passages into a coherent biography. I think Jefferson did an admirable job, but parts still don't seem to fit quite right, often redundant information is conveyed in several places. I think that has far more to do with the structure of the gospels themselves then with Jefferson's edits. Overall, I feel this is one of the best ways to understand and grasp the true teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
    • 4/5
      The Smithsonian Edition provides a nicely-done facsimile of the original "Jefferson Bible," accompanied by a historical essay by Harry Rubenstein and Barbara Clark Smith and a piece on the conservation of the volume by Janice Stagnitto Ellis. Rubenstein and Smith provide useful background on Jefferson's project and its origins, and Ellis offers a neat perspective on the steps taken to preserve the original volume and make it accessible for exhibition and research. Much different from other editions of the work I've seen, this facsimile helpfully provides the original context, showing the Greek, Latin, French, and English versions side-by-side as Jefferson placed them.
    • 4/5
      The gospels according to noted deist, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson took the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, arranged them in chronological order to form a single narrative and expunged the miracles, creating an interpretation of the life of Jesus as a guide and teacher, not necessarily as the son incarnate. There's virtually no introduction to this edition; no historical context provided by the editor. Would've been nice to have one.
    • 4/5
      Thomas Jefferson was a Deist who believed in a distant "watchmaker" God. He revered Jesus as a great teacher, but rejected the supernatural events added to the gospels by authors who lived after Jesus died and never met him. "I hold the precepts of Jesus, as delivered by himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man," Jefferson wrote. "I adhere to the principles of the first age; and consider all subsequent innovations as corruptions of his religion, having no foundation in what came from him."Jefferson endeavored to find a way to read Jesus's teachings without being irritated by the parts of the Bible he considered false. So with scissors and paste he cut the gospels up and made his own version of the Bible that included only the words attributed to Jesus, without the miracles or other supernatural trappings. The result is a small book of elegant simplicity and much worth.

    Book preview

    The Jefferson Bible - Thomas Jefferson

    burial.

    Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

    —Thomas Jefferson.

    Religious Views of Thomas Jefferson

    IN a letter to his daughter, written in 1803, Mr. Jefferson said: A promise made to a friend some years ago, but executed only lately, has placed my religious creed on paper. I have thought it just that my family, by possessing this, should be enabled to estimate the libels published against me on this, as on every other possible subject. The religious creed to which he referred was a comparison of the doctrines of Jesus with those of others, prepared in fulfillment of a promise made to Dr. Benjamin Rush. This paper, with the letter to Dr. Rush which accompanied it, is a fit introduction to the Jefferson Bible.

    Washington, April 21, 1803.

    Dear Sir: In some of the delightful conversations with you, in the evenings of 1798–99, and which served as an anodyne to the afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then laboring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic; and I then promised you that one day or other, I would give you my views of it. They are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that Anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other.

    At the short intervals since these conversations, when I could justifiably abstract my mind from public affairs, this subject has been under my contemplation; but the more I considered it, the more it expanded beyond the measure of either my time or information. In the moment of my late departure from Monticello, I received from Dr. Priestly his little treatise of Socrates and Jesus Compared. This being a section of the general view I had taken of the field, it became a subject of reflection while on the road, and unoccupied otherwise. The result was to arrange in my mind a syllabus, or outline, of such an estimate of the comparative merits of Christianity, as I wished to see executed by some one of more leisure and information for the task than myself. This I now send you, as the only discharge of my promise I can probably ever execute. And in confiding it to you, I know it will not be exposed to the malignant perversions of those who make every word from me a text for new misrepresentations and calumnies.

    I am moreover averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public; because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience which the laws have so justly proscribed. It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself to resist invasions of it in the case of others, or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the right of independent opinion by answering questions of faith, which the laws have left between God and himself.

    Accept my affectionate salutations.

    * * * * * *

    SYLLABUS OF AN ESTIMATE OF THE DOCTRINES OF

    JESUS, COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHERS

    In a comparative view of the ethics of the enlightened nations of antiquity, of the Jews, and of Jesus, no notice should be taken of the corruptions of reason among the ancients, to wit, the idolatry and superstition of the vulgar, nor of the corruptions of Christianity by the learned among its professors. Let a just view be taken of the moral principles inculcated by the most esteemed of the sects of ancient philosophy, or of their individuals; particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus.

    I.

    PHILOSOPHERS

    1. Their precepts related chiefly to ourselves, and the government of those passions which, unrestrained, would disturb our tranquility of mind. In this branch of philosophy they were really great.

    2. In developing our duties to others, they were short and defective. They embraced indeed the circles of kindred and friends, and inculcated patriotism, or the love of country in the aggregate, as a primary obligation: towards our neighbors and countrymen they taught justice, but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of benevolence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity, and love to our fellow-men, or embraced with benevolence the whole family of mankind.

    II.

    JEWS

    1. Their system was Deism, that is, the belief in one only God; but their ideas of him and of his attributes were degrading and injurious.

    2. Their ethics were not only imperfect, but often irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason and morality, as they respect intercourse with those around us; and repulsive and anti-social as respecting other nations. They needed reformation, therefore, in an eminent degree.

    III.

    JESUS

    In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus appeared. His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his education null; his natural endowments great; his life correct and innocent. He was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, and of the sublimest eloquence. The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are remarkable.

    1. Like Socrates and Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.

    2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for him. I name not Plato, who only used the name of Socrates to cover the whimsies of his own brain.

    On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors should undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing of his life and doctrines fell on unlettered and ignorant men; who wrote, too, from memory, and not till long after the transactions had passed.

    3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy and combination of the altar and the throne, at about 33 years of age, his reason having not yet attained the maximum of its energy, nor the course of his preaching, which was but of three years at most, presented occasions for developing a complete system of morals.

    4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were defective, as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us mutilated, misstated, and often unintelligible.

    5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatizing followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating and perverting the simple doctrines he taught, by engrafting on them the mysticisms of a Grecian Sophist (Plato), frittering them into subtilties and obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, and to view Jesus himself as an impostor. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to us which, if filled up in the true style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man. The question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an estimate of the intrinsic merits of his doctrines.

    1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their belief of only one god, and giving them juster notions of his attributes and government.

    2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and friends, were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews; and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others.

    3. The

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