A friend sent me a link to this article about the “Jefferson Bible”. Thomas Jefferson, it seems, once literally cut and pasted select Bible passages of his choice into his own volume. The passages he selected were only from the four gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and no passage containing accounts of anything miraculous or supernatural made the final cut.
I’ve been thinking about this off and on all weekend. I finally decided that it would be interesting to select some quotes from the above article and place them in contrast to some biblical passages that spring to mind, and try to keep my own opinions to a minimum. All quotes are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
The article says, “In Jefferson’s version of the Gospels, for example, Jesus is still wrapped in swaddling clothes after his birth in Bethlehem. But there’s no angel telling shepherds watching their flocks by night that a savior has been born. Jefferson retains Jesus’ crucifixion but ends the text with his burial, not with the resurrection.”
But the Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, an epistle written by Paul:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
The article says, “In a letter to Rush on April 21, 1803, Jefferson said his editing experiment aimed to see whether the ethical teachings of Jesus could be separated from elements he believed were attached to Christianity over the centuries. ‘To the corruption of Christianity I am indeed opposed,’ he wrote to Rush, ‘but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.’” Apparently Jefferson was convinced that any Scriptural accounts of miracles were fables added over the centuries.
But Peter explains otherwise, in his second epistle. 2 Peter 1:16-21 says:
“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Not only were Peter and many others eyewitness to the miracles which Jesus performed but, Peter explains, very many of the events and miracles of Jesus’ life were prophecied about centuries earlier, sometimes in great detail. This is just the tip of the iceberg of a huge topic; I’d encourage anyone interested in this topic to study prophecies about Jesus. Keep in mind the “bible” is actually 66 books (39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament) written by dozens of authors in a period spanning over 1,000 years, and yet is unified by a single plan of redemption with Jesus as the center; Old Testament prophecies predict events which have their fulfillments hundreds of years later in the life of Jesus, as pointed out by numerous New Testament passages, including many by Jesus himself speaking.
Finally, the article quotes Thomas Jefferson as saying, in defense of his volume: “‘Say nothing of my religion,’ Jefferson once said. ‘It is known to myself and my God alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.’”
A couple of scriptures spring to mind. First, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, in Matthew 7:21:
“‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’”
Hebrews 11:6 says:
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
John 20:30-31 says:
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Finally, Acts 4:11-12 says (Peter speaking):
“‘This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’”
