The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth - The Jefferson Bible

I was an evangelical Christian from age 15 to age 30. Just this year, my views and beliefs have been drastically changing, and though I've chosen to not label myself any longer, I would fit into the Deist category quite well. A Deist is essentially what Thomas Jefferson, and several of the most famous founders of the US, were (not Theists, as fundamentalist Christians would have everyone believe).

Jesus of Nazareth is the man who lived 2000 years ago, who taught revolutionary spiritual truths to a people in the middle east, and was so influential and impacting in our history that his latter followers deified him and turned him into what he did not claim to be. This book is essentially the story of Jesus, taken verbatim from the Gospels, but stripping away any supernatural filler.

If you seek to learn the pure teachings of Jesus, those principles that can transform a life in a total practical sense, then pick up this book, and enjoy rediscovering Jesus of Nazareth.

The binding feels cheap, but otherwise this is an amazing edition of the Jeffersonian Bible. This even has all four languages (French, Latin, Greek, and English) that have been directly scanned from the original, allowing us to see Jefferson's markings in the margins.

I had heard for years about the Jefferson Bible, so I finally ordered it. It's pretty small, but he included more passages in it--if this is exactly it--than I would have thought. Jefferson's introduction is the most revealing part. It's definitely worth having. For some reason, I thought it would be a full-on Bible with lined-out portions that he found suspect. One wonders what he'd think now, after decades of archeological research has taken place. One has to assume it would have some influence. He includes the birth and death stories, and the parables. I was a little disappointed that he did not elede any of that finger-pointing in the death story, being a creature of the Enlightenment as he was. I'd recommend it.

More than I expected (did not realize it was reproduction of his actual work). Love it. Wish he could have completed more (but he was an old guy at the time). First 45 pages of historical context really added to the wholeness of the story. Book arrived quickly which I appreciated.

First-off, I must preface my remarks with the statement that I'm not a super religiously-minded person. That said, I was interested in this Bible because I had just read something on Facebook about Jefferson which mentioned that he had his own Bible. I was greatly surprised to find that his cutting/selecting only "non-miraculous" text made the Bible much more readable, and that I might actually read it myself.

By Thomas Jefferson's Bible, I can count myself as a Christian even though I don't believe in God!

The Sermon on the Mount and the story of the Good Samaritan are the principles our nation should be built upon.

I saw this book on the History Channel and needed to read it. It is a strange and interesting little book. I have since passed it on to a friend who wanted to read it. it shows Jefferson at his "picky" best. What a piece of work, the time it must have taken.

Nothing new here! Jefferson took it upon himself to physically cut all the miracles out of the New Testament and paste it back together again so he could read it with objectivity. A difficult and time-consuming task to be sure but other then that there's not much to it...in my opinion of course. it's an easy read.
Jan (-:

Provides a valuable insight into some of the thinking of at least one of the creators of our constitution. It's unfortunate that it doesn't include some of the information included in the original and other 'hard' copies that cross reference to books in bible and clear identification of his original source ie. King James version printed by? in the year? also the other historical attributes which are included in other reprints

Jefferson's Bible wasn't simply a copying of information, he cut and pasted in passages like a scrapbook, and here you can see beautifully preserved not just the text, but the actual style of assembly. It looks like they photographed the actual pages of his scrapbook Bible and printed the photos, rather than creating a new manuscript. The construction of the work alone is very inspiring for creatives, even before you get to the staggering intelligence of the reassembled content.

Jesus' story from the New Testament, except extracting all the "miracles" and any references to Jesus being "Son of God". Just treating him as a missionary, basically, and showing that, even if you're not a believer, He did preach some very positive things, and provide a decent moral code to live by.

Jefferson drew wisdom from the pure words and actions of Jesus Christ. Although the words and history surrounding Christ are inspired, by concentrating on just what Jesus said he was able to gain the ability communicate with his successors the importance of the Word of God that resided with mankind 33 years before offering Himself as an example, and Saviour.

Love this recreation of Jefferson's bible, which can be read in image form at the library of congress website for free. But this is just great to carry around to see the disdain in peoples eyes when they recognize it.

Jefferson took a Bible, cut out the many words of Jesus and pasted all of them into a notebook. If one is interested in reading only the phrases spoken by Jesus then this is a concise way to begin. It is a handy book to have on hand.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I wish all of our new ( and existing ) congressmen/women were still given this upon taking oath as they did in the first half of the twentieth century. No religious miracle stuff, just good ol' ethics...brought to us all from our good friend Jesus. Jefferson knew that this country was founded by folks trying to escape the horribly corrupt Christian Church in England at that time.

This reduces the bible to essential events & information about the new testament. A lot different opinions are filtered out, gives historical record to the events occurring at the crucifixion . All Christians should use this to supplement their Bibles.

Jefferson wrote this version of the New Testament because he believed in the teachings of Christ, but not all the "mythology" that surrounds the main message of love and forgiveness. It lets the reader focus in on the wisdom without having to decide whether or not the Immaculate Conception, the Rising from the Dead, turning water into wine, etc is valid or not. These "miracles" are not the point, according to Jefferson; the message brought by Christ is. Regardless of whether or not you agree this thin volume is worth the small purchase price and the small amount of time to see the teachings of Christ presented "undiluted" without the "rest of the story".

The book, presentation, format, easy to read print make this a great buy. As for the content, here are all the positive expressions of Jesus, a great way to become acquainted with the bible, or a refresher.

This is an amazing work of scholarship. To cut and paste without a computer at 70 in the 1800s is awesome. The reader gets some insights into the author of the Declaration of Independence into his value system is rewarding.A must read

The book, presentation, format, easy to read print make this a great buy. As for the content, here are all the positive expressions of Jesus, a great way to become acquainted with the bible, or a refresher.

This is an amazing work of scholarship. To cut and paste without a computer at 70 in the 1800s is awesome. The reader gets some insights into the author of the Declaration of Independence into his value system is rewarding.A must read

Thomas Jefferson was an amazing genius. So when I had a chance to read his view of the New Testament, I grabbed it up. His version of the New Testament, which is devoid of the magic and nonsense, makes for a more intimate understanding of the life of Jesus.

You could do this yourself. Jefferson cut out all the parts of the gospels that described Jesus' life so he could create a biography of the man, aside from the miracles he was supposed to have performed. An excellent method, somewhat akin to Albert Schweitzer's biography of Jesus. Both men wanted to study Jesus to understand him as a human being, which I found quite absorbing.