- This topic has 2 voices and 1 reply.
-
Posts
-
An LA Times article reports how Jefferson clipped sections from the Christian Bible to form his own source called “The Jefferson Bible”. From the article:
He called the book "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." Friends dubbed it the Jefferson Bible. It remains perhaps the most comprehensive expression of what the nation's third president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence found ethically interesting about the Gospels and their depiction of Jesus.
Jefferson Bible reveals Founding Father's view of God, faithIt's interesting, as the article says, that Jefferson was attempting to find the "truths" in the Bible while eliminating miracles and perhaps other accounts which didn't seem to fit into the scientific world view. I suppose that this might seem natural if one saw the "good" in the Bible but could not think the mystery associated with it could be reconciled with scientific knowledge. But the looming question I see is why Jefferson would have adopted any Biblical precepts if the book was (in the line of CS Lewis' argument) either a work of men who were either mad or liars. The Jefferson Bible is 46 pages long, meaning Jefferson did find quite a bit that he apparently found trustworthy.There's an online copy of the Jefferson Bible here.
If he did believe in God and he was a man of science, it would seem to me that he could have validated in his mind that the miracles could very well have been possible, I mean anything that could create the sun could heal the blind, right?
If he did believe in God and he was a man of science, it would seem to me that he could have validated in his mind that the miracles could very well have been possible, I mean anything that could create the sun could heal the blind, right?
That's a good point. I don't see how splicing the miracles out of the Bible would have been sufficient for him, at least if he wanted to make it consistent with his world view....he would really have to splice the whole thing.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
