Posted on 01/22/2023 3:57:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
There is a concerted effort to destroy the very foundations of our constitutional republic. Public schools have been ground zero of this attack for decades, though it has been hidden from view from those not paying attention. But it is now out in full view, with the radical advancement of Critical Race Theory and the rewriting of American History.
Fake History’s ultimate target is the foundation of the United States and the Founders themselves. If you can discredit or marginalize the Founders, you can marginalize their ideas and principles and then discard them.
As we just passed Religious Freedom Day, January 16th, which celebrates the Religious Freedom Statutes of 1786 signed by then Governor Thomas Jefferson, I want to take a moment to debunk a hoax created about Thomas Jefferson that began to get real traction toward the end of the last century. The purpose of this hoax is to marginalize Thomas Jefferson in the minds of the public, but particularly in the eyes of people of faith, so that in turn his ideas can be marginalized and thereafter nullified and discarded.
The essence of the Jefferson Bible Hoax is this:
“Thomas Jefferson was very irreligious. He dismissed the divinity of Jesus. He hated the idea of miracles. So he took a Bible, cut out all the miracles and pasted the new pages together to create his own Bible and then named it the Jefferson Bible.”
Here are some samples from modern historians propagating this hoax:
“Hunched over his desk, penknife in hand, Thomas Jefferson sliced carefully at the pages of Holy Scripture, excising select passages and pasting them together to create a Bible more to his liking. The "Jefferson Bible." A book he could feel comfortable with.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The "Jefferson Bible." A book he could feel comfortable with. What didn't make it into the Jefferson Bible was anything that conflicted with his personal worldview. Hell? It can't be. The supernatural? Not even worth considering. God's wrath against sin? I don't think so. The very words of God regarded as leftover scraps.” -- C.J. Mahanaey, ed., Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen WorldJefferson... wrote his own Bible that excluded all references to miracles, wonders, signs, virgin birth, resurrection, the Godhead, and whatever else conflicted with his own religious thought.” -- Robert S. Alley, The Real Jefferson on Religion.
“Jefferson... rejected the superstitions and mysticism of Christianity and even went so far as to edit the Gospels, removing the miracles and mysticism of Jesus.” -- Jim Walker, "Thomas Jefferson on Christianity & Religion”
“ Thomas Jefferson... actually took scissors to the Gospels and cut out all references to anything supernatural.” -- Don Landis, "Jonah and the Great Fish"
Assuming that pages were printed on both sides, what if Jefferson encountered something he didn't like on one side of the page but something he liked on the other?
Tough choice. To cut or not to cut?
He merely distilled what he thought was some of the best moral principles Yeshua laid out in the new testament, and not to dispute the scriptures or Yeshua but to give some understanding, from a moral philosophy perspective, to those unfamiliar with all that Yeshua said.
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“Jefferson never referred to his work as a Bible, and the full title of this 1804 version was The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, being Extracted from the Account of His Life and Doctrines Given by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians, Unembarrased [uncomplicated] with Matters of Fact or Faith beyond the Level of their Comprehensions.[11]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
Quick wiki article reading and looking at the cover tells me it was no bible. Just a collection of Jefferson's on exactly what it says, Life and Morals. Almost like a personal bible study by a man who was helping to form a new country and wanted to be as righteous as possible about it and Jesus, the man, was the best candidate to study since Jefferson had no capabilities beyond just a man. What good would putting walking on water or feeding the masses with one fish have done Jefferson?
Wasn’t there a Nicolas Cage movie about this? National Treasure - Jefferson Bible? I may have the title wrong.
In fact, in 1902, it was felt that there was so much corruption in the federal government that Congress commissioned a printing of 9,000 copies of Jefferson's The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth at government expense to be distributed to every U.S. senator, U.S. representative and all their staff.
So much for the modern dogma of Separation of Church and State where government can have no connection to anything religious. (That was created by the Supreme Court in 1947 by Chief Justice Hugo Black and the rest of the justices, but that is for another time.)
For the next 50 years (1902-1952), a copy of The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth was given to every U.S. senator and U.S. representative at his or her swearing in.
Where does that leave us today?
Most of today's scholars and writers either unwittingly or intentionally propagate this hoax. Even museums have been weaponized, including Jefferson’s home at Monticello (Monticello Goes Woke) and at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., all with the intended purpose of diminishing Thomas Jefferson’s beliefs to the general public and particularly the faith community.
What is conveniently omitted and disregarded are other well-documented historical facts about Jefferson, showing a person of conviction and a belief in the importance of faith:
The book exists. He made it. The book isn’t a hoax.
The Monticello website has a blurb on this:
He apparently compiled it from Gospels in several languages.
I don’t see this as ‘negating’ the miraculous aspects; but as centering on the philosophy.
Interesting.
Sometimes I take a red letter Bible and just read through Jesus’ words.
Red letter Bibles were not available in TJ time.
Flaws and all...he has always been one of my favorite presidents.
Do you see a goblet or two faces? Did Jefferson select the passages of Jesus's moral teachings or did he exclude the passages that referred to His divinity? Maybe both?
RE: The book exists. He made it. The book isn’t a hoax.
It’s not the existence of the book that is the hoax, it’s the allegation that Jefferson dislikes the Narratives of Miracles in the Bible so much that he sought to excise them from its pages.
I think the Smithsonian has his Bible.
In a letter to William Short in 1820, Jefferson described many biblical passages as "so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture". In the same letter Jefferson states he describes Paul as the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus". source
So what is the origin of the Jefferson Bible Hoax and the charge that Jefferson hated the Bible and therefore made his own?
Historian David Barton dug into the matter and found that those who have propagated this hoax, “have been almost universally… secular in their approach, and their introductions to the book have... misrepresented Jefferson's motivations and beliefs to conform to their own theological assumptions or agendas.”
Thomas Jefferson even said to Dr. Benjamin Rush, a dear friend and co-signer of the Declaration of Independence: "My views... [are] very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions."
Revisionist historians are still attempting to do this today.
Allegations by whom, exactly.
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