The Life & Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

[cleanhippie]

Otherwise known as the Jefferson Bible.

Done with his official work for the day, Thomas Jefferson sat in the new presidential mansion in Washington in 1803 and opened his Bible--not to pray, but to cut. He scoured the text for Jesus' greatest teachings, sliced out his favorite portions, and glued them into an empty volume. He called it "The Philosophy of Jesus." That book was lost to history.

In 1819, he started over and created a new version called "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," commonly referred to now as the Jefferson Bible. This volume was kept largely secret and passed among Jefferson's relatives until 1895, when it was discovered by the librarian at the Smithsonian. In 1904, it was published by Congress. (Cleanhippie comment: Can you imagine if it had remained secret and was discovered in recent times! It would NEVER have been published by Congress.)

What follows is, for the first time online, the complete Jefferson Bible--plus links to many of his key deletions. You'll see that Jefferson cut out miracles and signs or declarations of Jesus' divinity. As you read through the Jefferson Bible, click on the little scissors icons and you'll see what Jefferson deleted.

http://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/docs/62/The_Jefferson_Bible_The_Life__Morals_of_Jesus_of_Nazareth_1.html

[veganlush]

1. awesome

Thanks for posting this!

[Tumbulu]

2. This is exactly what I was referring to about a month ago

I bought a hard copy at the Smithsonian- it is quite interesting.

[cleanhippie]

3. Is it thin?

Ive heard that pared it down to almost nothing.

[pansypoo53219]

4. no. i have copy. but it smallish.

but then it is only 4 books in the bible

[Tumbulu]

8. The one I bought is a lovely ~1" thick nicely bound book

with a great deal of commentary by various scholars, which I find very interesting (as I am not a religious or Jeffersonian or Deist scholar). It has lots of things clipped in and added on...it really has the feel of coming upon a notebook with things cut and pasted into it- literally.

It was pricey for me, but an interesting addition to my life.

[rug]

5. It has one of the saddest endings in literature.

Matthew 27

60: And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. Eh? I'm fairly certain that there is lots of literature where the main character dies

at the end.

I've heard a rumor that we all die.

[rug]

7. This is not Shane.

Jefferson took from the Gospel only what he thought factual. Was it a literary exercise, an acceptance of these facts, or something else? Who knows?

But, certainly for me if not for you, if you contrast what Jefferson took from the Gospels as fact with the promise in the rest of the Gospels, it is profoundly sad.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. I thought the ending of "old yeller" was the saddest ending ever.

But then again I was six. I was also fascinated with the ending of GB Shaw's St Joan, at more or less the same time. That wasn't as sad as it was horrific. Nice religion you've got there. But even by then I'd realized we all get to die. Even Jesus. And there is no happy ever after. That isn't profoundly sad, it is liberating.

[cleanhippie]

10. "That isn't profoundly sad, it is liberating."

Bingo. That's what believers just cannot seem to wrap their brains around, the fact that we see death as just another part of the natural cycle of life. We are not special, we are just like every other organic lifeform, we are simply just more evolved.

Carl Sagan said it best, it's my signature line.

[rug]

11. Liberating from what?

I know what Marcus Aurelius says about it but what do you find liberating about death?

[Leontius]

12. That's the only thing in his writing that I really remember

the only thing that really made an impression.

[rug]

14. "Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good."

One of his many thoughts on death.

The last true philosopher king.

Still, liberating is not the word that comes to mind.

[Leontius]

16. Yes and no as, he says if those who have no belief in eternal life have no fear of death

way should we who believe have any fear. I find that quite liberating. An end to or a beginning of another journey what is to be feared.

[rug]

17. I find fear of death easier to shed than the sadness and loss of death.

Belief or no belief.

Death

It is not death, that sometime in a sigh
This eloquent breath shall take its speechless flight;
That sometime these bright stars, that now reply
In sunlight to the sun, shall set in night;
That this warm conscious flesh shall perish quite,
And all life's ruddy springs forget to flow;
That thoughts shall cease, and the immortal sprite
Be lapped in alien clay and laid below;
It is not death to know this,--but to know
That pious thoughts, which visit at new graves
In tender pilgrimage, will cease to go
So duly and so oft,--and when grass waves
Over the past-away, there may be then
No resurrection in the minds of men.

- a sonnet by Thomas Hood

[Warren Stupidity]

13. Wait what?

You forgot the gratuitous insult.

[rug]

15. Sorry, I charge for them now.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. fair enough

Therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For there is nothing fearful in living for those who thoroughly grasp that there is nothing fearful in not living.

Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus.

[rug]

20. It is possible to do both.

A hope of an afterlife does not diminish either the enjoyment or appreciation of life.

[trotsky]

21. Maybe public shaming works after all.

There's hope yet.

[rug]

22. Is that what you try to do?

[trotsky]

23. Trying to appeal to your human decency sure hasn't worked.

So that was worth a try.

[rug]

24. I'll try to be better.

[onager]

19. Good documentary on this...

"Jefferson's Secret Bible"

The Smithsonian Channel ran it a few months ago. I'm sure it will be on again, or it may be hanging around the Internetz.

Outstanding! About half the show deals with the restoration of the ORIGINAL Jefferson Bible. It stayed (quietly!) in Jefferson's family until 1895, when the Smithsonian bought it from Jefferson's great-granddaughter.

Jefferson assembled his "Bible" from four different New Testaments - in English, French, Greek and Latin. He cut these apart and pasted the snippets onto blank paper. When he finished, he had the whole thing bound in high-quality leather.

It's amazing the book has stayed in such good shape. And watching the painstaking restoration of it is really interesting.

Jefferson's Secret Bible

Relatively few people know that along with authoring the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson also compiled his own text, drawn carefully from passages extracted out of the New Testament, that he titled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." The book, which focused on the ethical teachings of Jesus, was a private undertaking for Jefferson and never made public in his lifetime. Now, experts at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History are meticulously conserving this fragile volume, page by brittle page. Along the way, they discover subtle hidden clues to Jefferson himself.

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?show=140747

[madrchsod]

26. this was on last week....

it certainly was worth watching. now i know how to take care of some of my 150 yr old books.

[SarahM32]

25. Thanks. Good to see more people aware of it. But you should also know this.

"The writings of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Paine and Franklin were particularly adamant about religious freedom and freedom from theocracy. Their writings also show they were very wary and disapproving of religious superstition, bigotry, intolerance, hypocrisy, imposition, and persecution. They were very critical of certain right-wing Christian leaders in that regard.

Jefferson especially felt that preachers should not use their pulpit as a partisan political soap box, especially when their personal beliefs and opinions were presented as divine truth. Jefferson stood up to their political grandstanding cloaked in religion, and he rebuked their 'tyrannical' aggression and imposition. And they hated him for it.

However, Jefferson was only against the 'corruptions' of Christianity, and against religious bigotry and hypocrisy. Jefferson loved the actual teachings of Jesus. In fact, Jefferson wrote that: 'Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.'

Jefferson even compiled a reformed version of the gospels to rescue the philosophy of Jesus and the 'pure principles which he taught,' from the 'corruptions and artificial vestments' which were established as 'instruments of riches and power' for church patriarchs.

Jefferson correctly concluded that Jesus never claimed to be God, and he regarded some of the New Testament as having been corrupted with 'palpable falsifications.' (His work is called The Jefferson Bible.)"

(Excerpted from Ignored American History.)

That site also has an article titled Quotes From the Founding Fathers Regarding Religion, which contains quotes that refute what "Christian Right" revisionist "historians" like Pat Robertson and David Barton are claiming.