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DC Museum Works to Save Thomas Jefferson‘s ’Cut & Paste’ Bible
The Blaze ^ | 3-12-11 | Meredith Jessup

Posted on 03/12/2011 6:50:19 PM PST by STARWISE

By literally cutting and pasting biblical passages demonstrating the life and lessons of Jesus Christ from several Bibles, Thomas Jefferson put together a book that he titled “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” during his retirement in 1820. The former president’s finished product would become known to historians as the Jefferson Bible.

"The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (CNN)

Nearly 200 years later, conservationists at the National Museum of American History are working to carefully preserve the 86-page book and preparing to put it on display in November.

Over time, the book’s brittle paper has become less flexible and prone to easy tears. But paper conservator Janice Stagnitto Ellis told CNN the real problem lies in the book’s binding.

French and English Bible verses pasted side-by-side in the Jefferson Bible (CNN) “Without doing modifications to the binding, we could open the book [to] about a 30-degree angle before the paper would be required to bend, which it couldn’t do,” she said. “It became un-exhibitable.”

The Smithsonian’s goal is to display the book propped opened to a 90-degree angle to allow museum visitors to glimpse Jefferson’s handy work, which includes passages from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in English, French, Latin and Greek — all pasted side by side so Jefferson could compare the various translations of Christ’s work.

“The Jefferson Bible is important today because of the unique insight it provides into the religious beliefs of the author of our Declaration of Independence, and the way in which it vividly reflects Jefferson’s own understanding of the First Amendment to the Constitution as it guarantees ‘freedom of religion,’” the museum’s website states. “At the very least, it is an artifact that resulted from the extraordinary mind of one of the nation’s most important founding fathers and Enlightenment thinkers.”

One of Jefferson's English "source" Bibles shows where the founding father cut out passages (CNN) To construct the Jefferson Bible, the nation’s third president used six different “source” Bibles — two in English, two in French and two that included both Greek and Latin. With an extra copy of each, Jefferson could use the front and back of pages without worrying about missing what‘s on the pages’ reverse side.

Jefferson also used his cut + paste method to alter some biblical grammar.

On one page, he apparently didn’t like the number of prepositions in a verse from Matthew that started, “For as in the days that were before the flood …“ He cut out the word ”as,“ changing the scripture to ”For in the days that were before the flood …”

The Smithsonian originally acquired the Jefferson Bible from his great-granddaughter in 1895 for $400. Starting in 1904, copies of the book were distributed to all newly elected members of Congress. The practice ended during the 1950s.

Also part of the Smithsonian display will be digitally scanned images of the book’s pages.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: bible; godsgravesglyphs; museum; presidents; religion; smithsonian; theframers; thomasjefferson
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VIDEO

One of Jefferson's English "source" Bibles shows where the founding father cut out passages (CNN)

~~~

Notably, as learned and wordly as many of our Founders were, Jefferson included scriptural passages in French.

Yes, our blessed, brilliant and amazing Founding Fathers were indeed desirous of and guided by Judeo-Christian values in creating this most wonderful, and unique precious Republic .. if we can keep it. Please pray for America .. and for God's protection on us and on our brave military.

1 posted on 03/12/2011 6:50:21 PM PST by STARWISE
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To: STARWISE

Nobody is “brilliant” who takes a pair of scissors to God’s Word.


2 posted on 03/12/2011 6:53:04 PM PST by BenLurkin (This post is not a statement of fact. It is merely a personal opinion -- or humor -- or both)
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To: BenLurkin

So if he were a”Deist” why would he bother doing that?


3 posted on 03/12/2011 6:56:26 PM PST by Mmogamer (I refudiate the lamestream media, leftists and their prevaricutions.)
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To: onyx; penelopesire; maggief; hoosiermama; SE Mom; Fred Nerks; Red Steel; seekthetruth; ...

.. Ping!


4 posted on 03/12/2011 6:57:49 PM PST by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: BenLurkin

You’ve never cut and pasted a verse before?


5 posted on 03/12/2011 6:59:38 PM PST by ocean
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To: ocean

I think this version contains Christ’s ethical teachings but deletes the supernatural aspects.


6 posted on 03/12/2011 7:02:08 PM PST by TheDingoAteMyBaby
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**Note

The video purposely has NO sound


7 posted on 03/12/2011 7:04:42 PM PST by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: STARWISE; Pharmboy

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach ·
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Thanks STARWISE.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
 

· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword ·
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8 posted on 03/12/2011 7:04:43 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: STARWISE

All great men have blind spots. Deliberately ignoring the miracles and deity of Jesus Christ was Jefferson’s.


9 posted on 03/12/2011 7:04:57 PM PST by backwoods-engineer (Any politician who holds that the state accords rights is an oathbreaker and an "enemy... domestic.")
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To: STARWISE
BTTT!
Help us preserve the Jefferson Bible.
Your tax-deductible contribution will help the Museum complete a full conservation treatment of the Jefferson Bible, a real national treasure.

10 posted on 03/12/2011 7:06:31 PM PST by RedMDer (restoration of our honor, dignity, and freedoms will save America. - Sarah Palin)
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To: BenLurkin

Judge not ... If he’d had a word processor and several online versions of the bible would it have been OK to cut and paste?

Strikes me that he might have been trying to distill the fundamental truths he’d found in the bible - perhaps for dolts like me that haven’t read the bible in years but might in a short compendium find salvation. Huh. Ya never know. ;-)


11 posted on 03/12/2011 7:08:44 PM PST by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ;-)
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To: STARWISE
Bible's broken; contradictions, false logistics. Doesn't make sense.

Don't flame me, just posting a picture and comment that I thought relevant.

12 posted on 03/12/2011 7:12:51 PM PST by listenhillary (Social Justice is the epitome of injustice.)
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To: RedMDer

Thanks, Red !

One of the comments on The Blaze, which is reasonable to me:

“It is not a Bible. It is a collection of scriptures for his own use and study. Come on people, everyone of us do the same thing. The only difference is you or I are not famous.

Our “notes” will be thrown away, Jefferson’s “notes” are to be saved.”


13 posted on 03/12/2011 7:15:49 PM PST by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: TheDingoAteMyBaby

Since Jefferson cut and pasted passages of Jesus speaking about the Father, God, he doesn’t appear to be editing out what secularists consider the supernatural God. It appears Thomas Jeffereson took the Bible quite literally and certainly applied the laws of God and the teachings of Jesus the Son to the founding of this country.


14 posted on 03/12/2011 7:16:16 PM PST by RowdyFFC (.)
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To: RedMDer; All

A pdf of the Jefferson Bible

http://www.pattonhq.com/links/uccministry/jeffbible.pdf


15 posted on 03/12/2011 7:17:07 PM PST by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: Tunehead54; ocean
Sadly, Jefferson's edits were made to satisfy and reflect his own personal rejection of Our Lord as God. He removed all references to Christ's resurrection, miracles and virgin birth, etc.

As one commentator says: "According to Jefferson, when Jesus left the man who had been blind since birth (John 9) the man was still blind, Malchus was left with his ear cut off and Lazarus was left rotting in the tomb."

16 posted on 03/12/2011 7:17:47 PM PST by BenLurkin (This post is not a statement of fact. It is merely a personal opinion -- or humor -- or both)
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To: STARWISE

Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18
Categories: God
Date: 1781
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.

Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address
Categories: Religion and Morality
Date: April 4, 1801
[B]enign religion, professed, in deed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring and overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter


17 posted on 03/12/2011 7:22:12 PM PST by patlin (Ignorance is Bliss for those who choose to wear rose colored glasses)
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To: BenLurkin

Source or link, please?


18 posted on 03/12/2011 7:27:32 PM PST by FreedomOfExpression
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To: FreedomOfExpression

http://www.discoveret.org/lcoc/news/00n0504.htm

see also:

Smithsonian undertakes $225,000 effort to restore the Jefferson Bible
Posted on March 11, 2011

When Thomas Jefferson was 77, he went back to a project he had been thinking about for decades. Sitting in Monticello, using candlelight and a knife, he cut New Testament verses in four different languages from six books to create his own bible. Jefferson, saying he was selecting his own “morsels of morality,” removed verses on any miracles, as well as the Resurrection.

http://zionica.com/2011/03/11/smithsonian-undertakes-225000-effort-to-restore-the-jefferson-bible/

Basically the same articel here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/10/AR2011031005821.html

And see also:

Separating ‘Diamonds’ from the ‘Dunghill’; The fascinating history of the ‘Jefferson Bible’

Done with his official work for the day, Thomas Jefferson sat in the new presidential mansion in Washington in 1804, and opened his Bible -— not to pray, but to cut.

He scoured the text for Jesus’ greatest teachings, sliced out his favorite portions and glued them into an empty volume. He called it “The Philosophy of Jesus.” In 1819, he started over and created a new version called “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” often referred to now as The Jefferson Bible.

In Jefferson’s version, Jesus was not divine:

The virgin birth - gone.
Christ’s bodily resurrection - gone.
The miracles of the loaves, walking on water, raising Lazarus - none of them made Jefferson’s book.

Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Faith-Tools/The-Founding-Faith-Archive/Separating-Diamonds-From-The-Dunghill.aspx#ixzz1GRl5t3VD


19 posted on 03/12/2011 7:36:16 PM PST by BenLurkin (This post is not a statement of fact. It is merely a personal opinion -- or humor -- or both)
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To: STARWISE
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, 1803:

My views of (the Christian religion)... are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be - sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other.

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Charles Thomson, 1816:

I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus - very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all the characteristic dogmas from what its Author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the hethen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great Reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were He to return on earth, would not recognize one feature.

Raven6:

So, he chose to focus on the pure teachings of Jesus Christ... and to carry with him those teachings in what he considered to be the most pure form available - by removing all but the words of Jesus Christ. I will not fault him for that, for in my eyes it is no different than carrying a "red letter" version of the KJV so that the reader may more readily view the words of the savior.

I once was very amused by a bumper sticker I saw that said "If it is not the King James Version, it is not the Bible!" I so terribly wanted to ask the driver "Well what was it then when it was still in Greek and in Hebrew?" The bible has been translated over the years in order to allow man to better understand God's word... I consider the message to be the inspired word of God, but I do not consider the paper and ink itself to be "holy." That does not mean that I treat a physical bible with disrespect... (I treat all bound books with respect - I treasure my books!) It just means I understand the difference between the message and the media that transmits it. (The religion of peace, on the other hand, goes ballistic if you let a koran touch the floor.)

For a good biography on Jefferson, along with a good source of quotes from him on a variety of subjects, I suggest: The Real Thomas Jefferson; Allison, Maxfield, Cook and, Skousen; National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1983, 2008. This is part of a series I consider most valuable: The American Classic Series. The other two books of the series cover George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

Regards,
Raven6

20 posted on 03/12/2011 7:41:52 PM PST by Raven6 (The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.)
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