The Jefferson Bible

I wasn’t looking for it when I found it.  In fact, I didn’t even know it existed.  Yet, when it caught my eye, I had to pick it up.

Roaming through the religion section of the Salina Public Library, the title, The Jefferson Bible jumped out at me.  As I started leafing through it, I realized that it was a translation of the Holy Bible by one of our founding fathers and our former President, Thomas Jefferson.

I had always considered Thomas Jefferson a great man.  Most notably, he wrote our amazing Declaration of Independence; served in congress, as Vice President, then again as President; and made the Louisiana Purchase.  How could I know these things about a man so integral to the development and continued sustainability of the United States of America yet not know that this man, who so passionately sought to protect our rights to religious freedom, had himself wrote a translation of the Bible.

Upon reading the introduction, I realized that Jefferson originally began this project to serve as moral instruction to the American Indians.  As he continued his work, this purpose was abandoned and it was obvious that he never intended for the book to be published.  He wrote it for himself and his family. Using Latin and Greek translations of the Gospels, he combined these into one comprehensive work. The title that he originally gave it was, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.”

It would’ve been an interesting endeavor…surely not the first time that Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John were combined.  However, Jefferson did not use his intellect and religious freedom to align the four versions of Christ’s life that were inspired by God.  Instead, he made an abomination of them.

You see, Jefferson told the entire story from birth to death of Christ, but left out the most important components…the virgin birth, his deity, the miracles he worked, his resurrection, and his ascension.  Jefferson’s Bible proclaimed Christ’s teaching, an essential component of Christianity, but failed to include the evidence that revealed the purpose of Christ’s life.  Jefferson did not see him as a Savior…just a good teacher with exceptional moral standards.

The book was bound and stored.  His grandchildren didn’t even know of it until after he had died.  At that time, it was inherited by a grandson who continued to pass it down until it was sold to the National Museum in 1895.  In 1902 Congress ordered that 9,000 copies of the volume be printed; 3,000 for the Senate and 6,000 for the House.  Now they are collector’s items.

Thomas Jefferson believed in God.  He saw himself as a Christian.  In fact, in his notes he states that his “bible” is “a document in proof that I am a real Christian” and asserts that the pieces he pulled out to include were easy to distinguish as the real story of Christ because those excerpts were like “diamonds in a dunghill.”

In Jefferson’s notes, he states that “In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds…”  He describes Jesus as “a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition...”  He states that Jesus’ biographers started by laying “a ground-work of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications.”

How many “Christians” today believe the same thing?  How many of Christ’s followers believe that the man, Jesus, existed--but can’t swallow the miraculous nature of his life or death? 

Well, let’s just think about this for a second. 

If one believes in God

and believes that He is omniscient, transcendent, and sovereign,

and believes that He is the creator of the heavens and the earth;

WHY would he NOT believe that if He chose to send a Savior, his Son,

that the Savior would be conceived under miraculous circumstances,

the Savior would be able to perform miracles to confirm his deity and purpose,

the Savior would not be subject to the human condition of decay after death,

and the Savior would return to his Father in heaven?

If one believes in God, doesn’t he believe that He is capable of doing these things?

And if he believes in God and knows that God is capable, yet doesn’t believe in the miraculous life of Christ, isn’t he relying on the knowledge that we, as humans, have of the world?  Do you really think we know it all?  Do we really think that our puny little brains can even come close to comprehending the knowledge and power that is held by our Creator?

Please do not disregard the Truth because it is miraculous.  Believe in it…believe in Him, because it is miraculous. 

Thomas Jefferson put the fate of his soul on his arrogant faith in his own ability to decide what God can and cannot, would and would not, do. 

Please don’t presume to know the will of God.