Brooke Koppenhaver The Jefferson Bible

Deism is considered an alternative outlook and twist on Christianity. Deists still believe in God and believe in some of the teachings of the Bible, however they have made many changes and interpret these teachings in a much different way than Christians. Deists believe that God is our creator but they believe that is the extent of his role in our everyday lives. They think God has almost no influence on our lives and does not make any interventions. They also have a hard time believing in any of the miracles that Jesus was said to perform during his time on earth. Although deists live by the morals and sayings of Jesus, they see him as a great philosopher and nothing more than that. Thomas Jefferson was a huge advocate of Deism and created a Bible, which included only the information and says that Deists thought to be true. His Bible was based on Jesus’s sayings and teachings rather than his divinity. Jefferson didn’t even consider including the Old Testament, he didn’t think any of it was relevant and cut out many passages in the New Testament as well. His Bible doesn’t include anything that makes Jesus look like anything more than a human. For example he didn’t include the resurrection because this makes Jesus look like divine and therefore is unrealistic to deists. Jefferson also didn’t include the miracles Jesus preformed because that would seem unrealistic. Jefferson only included stories that seemed like they could be realistic.