The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

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The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was an attempt by Thomas Jefferson to glean the teachings of Jesus from the Christian Gospels. Jefferson wished to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

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After completion of the "Life and Morals", Jefferson shared it with a number of friends, but he never allowed it to be published during his lifetime. His reluctance appears to be based upon his conviction that religion was a private matter as well as his desire to avoid slander and criticism.

The book was first published in 1903 for the United States Congress. For many years copies were given to new members of Congress. The text is now freely available on the Internet since it is in the public domain.

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The Jefferson Bible


About the Bible

Here we go again. This'll be in Fight Club soon.

Thats interesting but doesnt actually prove Jefferson was a Christian or wanted it to be a theocracy like so many claim. You can get a lot of life lessons from the Bible no matter your religion.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Thats interesting but doesnt actually prove Jefferson was a Christian...

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I wan't trying to prove he was, more so kind of going in the opposite direction. If someone came out and wrote something like this today men like Bill O'Riley would blast it as a campaign on the "secular progressive movement" to destroy America's traditional values.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

That... doesnt actually prove Jefferson... wanted it to be a theocracy like so many claim.

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"His reluctance [to release it in his lifetime] appears to be based upon his conviction that religion was a private matter as well as his desire to avoid slander and criticism."

again I think we're on the same page...

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Thats interesting but doesnt actually prove Jefferson was a Christian or wanted it to be a theocracy like so many claim. You can get a lot of life lessons from the Bible no matter your religion.

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If they were or were not christians doesn't really matter. None of the important founders were orthodox christians by todays standards. Many were deist(sp?), gnostics, quakers, mystics, and agnostic. To be honest I can't really think of one that got a lot of say that had beliefs that matched those of today's more popular churches.

Hell old Ben had more in common with our Josh than any bible beater living.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Thats interesting but doesnt actually prove Jefferson was a Christian or wanted it to be a theocracy like so many claim. You can get a lot of life lessons from the Bible no matter your religion.

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He wasn't a christian and he did not want a theocracy. In fact I think this further proves that.

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Jefferson wished to extract the doctrine of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

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I'm pretty sure this book takes out all the son of god stuff and just leaves the teachings of love and all the other positive things that Jesus taught. Very non christian, but positive all the same.

Jefferson kicked ass.

Between Jefferson and "Voodoo" Ben Franklin, it's no wonder America is awesome.

I demand a return to traditional American values!

James

I like his Bible. King James can suck a dick.