Posted on 09/22/2011 2:03:39 AM PDT by Cronos
This coming November, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will exhibit a cut-and-paste Bible of a mere 86 pages. Were it the work of David Wojnarowicz (the artist behind the crucifix video) or Andres Serrano (of "Piss Christ" fame), this Bible would doubtless stir up a hornet's nest. But in fact, it was created by Thomas Jefferson.
During the election of 1800, Jefferson was denounced as a "howling atheist" and "a confirmed infidel" known for "vilifying the divine word, and preaching insurrection against God." But the Virginian also revered Jesus as "the first of human Sages" and was, according to one biographer, "the most self-consciously theological of all American presidents."
The book that the Smithsonian is preparing to put on display is actually one of two Jefferson Bibles. Jefferson produced the first over the course of a few days in 1804. Not long after completing the Louisiana Purchase, he sat down in the White House with two Bibles and one razor, intent on dividing the true words of Jesus from those put into his mouth by "the corruptions of schismatising followers."
The result was "The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth": a severely abridged text (now lost) that, like the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, consisted entirely of Jesus' sayings. In this "precious morsel of ethics," as Jefferson put it, Jesus prayed to God and affirmed the afterlife, but he was not born in a manger and did not die to atone for anyone's sins.
... Jefferson claimed in a letter to a friend that it demonstrated his bona fides as a Christian. "It is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
He really detested Christianity.
I was most interested in his writings first cheering on the french revolution, then later utterly horrified at the result. That’s the fruit and endgame of such godless philosophy, predecessor of stalinism and so on
TJ was a smart fellow. He took out all the fiction.
This is probably why Satan came into his life and he formed the Democrat party.
I'll bet "TJ" has a different opinion now that he has gotten the author's opinion of his revision personally.
I’m with you on this.
“he took out all the fiction” — care to elaborate please?
Cheers FRiend. I believe in the morals of Jesus, but organized religion is bullshit.
No I don’t. It’s too obvious and needs no further explanation from me.
When you make Jesus into a mere man and disregard the fact that he is the Son of God who died for our sins and was raised from the dead, you destroy the basis for Christianity. Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian.
For instance -- if one says that the bits that Jefferson cut out were/are fiction, then on what basis does one say the ones left in are not fiction?
Secondly -- even Josephus confirms the stories of the spread of Early Christians -- how can one call that fiction?
Thirdly -- if one says that the Resurrection etc is fiction, then how does one justify this 2000 or 1800 years after the event? What special knowledge does this person centuries after the event have that the people from the 1st century who witnessed this did not have?
The”morals of Jesus” have no power in and of themselves without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even the apostle Paul admitted that:”If there be no resurrection of the dead, then let us eat,drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die”.
Why have a strong moral nation if there be no divine light of eternal inspiration shining thru her precepts and statutes? Should we not then revel in hedomistic godlessness, taking pleasure wherever we can gather it to the point of shedding blood without restraints?
And, more to the point, what establishes the morality of the doctrines of Jesus Christ in the first place?
"Barack knows we've got to change the language ... " (1 Wookie 2:11)
People don't develope, excersize or change language unless they .... (I know this might be too deep, but try to follow along) ...
talk.
Prior to talk is (we hope), thought.
And reading is closer to thinking than talking.
So a man cuts and pastes the actual words of Jesus and leaves everything else out?
That's more like a recorded interview than a rejection of miracles and background.
We've got to be careful about what we read and what and how we comment because the comment required thought, and thoughts are the brginning of change.
"Barack knows we've got to change the language ... "
"Barack knows we've got to change the language ... " (1 Wookie 2:11)
People don't develope, excersize or change language unless they .... (I know this might be too deep, but try to follow along) ...
talk.
Prior to talk is (we hope), thought.
And reading is closer to thinking than talking.
So a man cuts and pastes the actual words of Jesus and leaves everything else out?
That's more like a recorded interview than a rejection of miracles and background.
We've got to be careful about what we read and what and how we comment because the comment required thought, and thoughts are the brginning of change.
"Barack knows we've got to change the language ... "
"Barack knows we've got to change the language ... " (1 Wookie 2:11)
People don't develope, excersize or change language unless they .... (I know this might be too deep, but try to follow along) ...
talk.
Prior to talk is (we hope), thought.
And reading is closer to thinking than talking.
So a man cuts and pastes the actual words of Jesus and leaves everything else out?
That's more like a recorded interview than a rejection of miracles and background.
We've got to be careful about what we read and what and how we comment because the comment required thought, and thoughts are the brginning of change.
"Barack knows we've got to change the language ... "
OK .. I have NO idea how THAT happened.
The apostle Paul said it was the resurrection of Jesus Christ that establishes God’s morality and completes the fulfillment of the Laws of the prophets, of which Christ declared he would do.
This is something homosexuals do.
I think you’ve gotten to the heart of this exercise. We’re supposed to interpret Jefferson’s actions according to the left’s criteria, and as a result reject Jefferson’s wisdom along with Christ’s.
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