The Jefferson Bible

Although modern listings all refer to this book as “The Jefferson Bible” the proper title, the one that the editor, Thomas Jefferson, gave it is “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” I call Jefferson the editor, not the author, for the very good reason that he did not write the book he assembled it. He literally cut and pasted it together from six of his own Bibles, two in English, two in French, and two with both Latin and Greek text printed in parallel. One of the library subject listings for the book explains Jefferson’s intention very succinctly, “Jesus Christ › Biography › Sources, Biblical” Each of the four Gospels tells the same story, the biography of Jesus. Jefferson extracted the biographical information from each and assembled them to tell the story of Jesus’ life in a single unit.

I have had the book on my shelves for several years and was motivated to read it after seeing the very Bibles that Jefferson worked with on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I was also interested in learning, after listening to current politicians, what blasphemy Jefferson had committed. All i found is that In one spot he missed clipping all the words in a phrase and in another he lightly wrote in the margin his understanding of the Roman law the priests charged Jesus with breaking. Jefferson seemed to agree with Pilate on Jesus’ innocence. I found no blasphemy. Except for the notes in the margins every word also found in every modern Bible and I expect that many people write notes in the margins of their Bibles, hoping to clarify their thoughts on passages, without committing blasphemy. The missing words, they are at least a harmless mistake made by a 77 year old man tired after a days work and at worst a venial sin of omission.

My edition of Jefferson’s work has a preface by Forrest Church and a short article by Jaroslav Pelkan, both of which help illuminate Jefferson’s motivation for this project and explain the idea of exploring Jesus as a moral teacher, a project undertaken by several of Jefferson’s contemporaries in several forms as the article explains.

It is the morals of Jesus that most stand out after Jefferson finished with his razor and gluepot. “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” show that Jesus spoke more of virtue than sin, unlike modern Christians. The road to damnation is not traveled by sinners, they can be forgiven. Damnation, according to the words of Jesus, comes from a lack of virtue. (Matthew 25:37-46)

Much of Jefferson’s earlier writings appears to be inspired by the words of Jesus. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” is, in meaning, no different from the text in Matthew cited above. And what is (Matthew 22:20-22) but Jesus saying that God, the Church, is separate from the state, Caesar.?

Jefferson was concerned that the authors of the Gospels wrote many years after the events they told of and that they were carpenters and fishermen, not men of letters. He also worried that translators over the centuries may have introduced errors, either accidentally or otherwise. Jefferson was very aware of the compromises that need to be made when writing as a group, even in a group of well meaning men. He felt that focusing on the words and acts of Jesus would permit him to see the essence of Christ's teaching. If he was successful it appears to me that modern “Christians” have drifted far from what Jesus taught and have become simply Old Testament Gentiles. ( )

This book will be a forever classic. I'm so glad I was able to get a first edition from Amazon. ( )

"We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus. There will be remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."

With this goal, Jefferson set about with razor in hand to extract the true words and actions of Jesus from the enveloping hype and miracle stories of the Gospels. Rejecting the virgin birth, the annunciation, and even the resurrection, Jefferson wanted to dig down to Jesus’ message of absolute love and service. The result is a chronological new Gospel formed by merging select portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

An excellent, concise introduction by Forrest Church and an afterward by Jaroslav Pelikan ([see Whose Bible Is It] http://www.dubiousdisciple.com/2011/05/book-review-whose-bible-is-it.html) round out the book. Jefferson espoused a Unitarian philosophy, subjugating the topic of religion in his library to the category of “moral philosophy.” Pelikan, in his afterward about Jefferson’s contemporaries, classifies Jefferson among the “Enlightenment rationalists.” After reading Jefferson’s Bible, I’d say that’s a fair assessment. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )