Clark Driver- The Jefferson Bible

Jefferson practiced and believed in Deism, which was a relatively new method of thinking that arose from the enlightenment period.  Put simply, Deism puts emphasis on reason over religion.  In the old method of learning, people recognized the bible as an “absolute truth” where everything in it was correct and true.  Only some people (such as priests) were able to read and interpret the bible and what the bible’s meaning is for our lives.  This implies that there is a correct method of reading the bible.  New learning puts emphasis on reason and logic.  Through the use of inductive reasoning, this logical way of reading the bible began to reject some things the church was teaching about miracles and resurrection of Jesus.  People such as Lock, Bacon, and Newton supported these ideas.  Jefferson, being a Deist, decided to reject all of the stories in the bible that couldn’t be considered logical and realistic.  By cutting out all of the miracle stories, resurrection story etc., Jefferson believed he was getting at the true story of Jesus, putting Jesus in his true and high light by keeping all of his sayings.  The story of Jesus’ life and sayings from beginning to end develops into a story of how Jefferson believed we were to live morally correct.  Jefferson believed that good moral behavior was of utmost importance.