Chloe Sikhrangkur - The Jefferson Bible

    The Jefferson Bible is basically a cut-and-paste Bible created by Thomas Jefferson.  He put it together by taking out the parts of the New Testament he didn’t necessarily believe in and only keeping the passages which he thought were reasonable.  Another difference between the Jefferson Bible and a normal Bible is that he puts the passages in his own order.  He is not only trying to rationalize the life of Jesus Christ as our savior, but to map the life of Jesus in a historical manner.  Jefferson was a member of the new school of Deism, which I see as more of a philosophy about religion than an organized religion in itself.  Deists believe in reason above pure faith.  They believe God created the world was created by God and then he stepped back and took no divine intervention after the initial creation. Accordingly, Jefferson removed all seemingly miraculous occurrences from his version of the Bible.  This includes Mary’s virgin birth, all of the miracles Jesus performed, and especially his resurrection.  Since none of these things can be proven in a scientific manner, or by using reason, Jefferson deleted them from his account of the Bible.  To me, the formation of Jefferson’s Bible and the role his Deist beliefs played in it are clear:  if it cannot be proven by reason, common sense, or science, it cannot be found in Jefferson’s Bible.  Also, intervention by God is not seen because of the belief that God did not take an active part in the world once he was finished creating it.