" JEFFERSON BIBLE "
bucke...@nospam.net
Somewhat as a result of the campaogn waged against him during the 1800
presidential campaign by many of the New England establishment and clergy
Jefferson took a new look at Christianity
Three things resulted from that
(1) In April 1803 Jefferson WROTE an outline which he titled:
*** Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus,
compared with those of others***
and he sent a copy of this syllabus to Dr. Ben Rush on April 21, 1800, his
two daughters, Levi Lincoln, possibly a couple other close friends and
Joseph Priestly.
The Syllabus was approx 4 pages long.
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(2) In 1804 Jefferson COMPILED his "wee little book" which he titled
***The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, Extracted from the account of his
life and doctrines as given by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Being an
abridgement of the New testament for the use of the Indians unembarrassed
with matters of fact or faith beyond their comprehensions.***
The Philosophy was 46 pages long. It consisted of sections cut from the
various Gospels of two Bibles and then glued to blank paper.
This particular creation was not done in four languages.
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(3) Sometime after 1816, probably nearer to 1820 Jefferson COMPILED what
he titled
***The life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth extracted textually from the
Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English.***
This creation was approx 100 pages or so long. This version was similar to
the earlier version, but did have some different extracts added to it and
some that appeared only in it. In addition, it was done in the four
languages.
No one knew Jefferson had created this so called "Bible" until after his
death. He told no one about it, not even members of his family. This
version was bound in leather with gold lettering. It was discovered in his
library after his death.
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In 1816 Jefferson gave Van der Kemp permission to publish in England the
"Syllabus" and the accompanying 21 April 1803 letter to Benjamin Rush,
subject to the stipulation that the authorship of both documents be
concealed.
NOTE: it was the 4 page SYLLABUS that was published, not the 46 page
Philosophy or the 100 or so page "Gospels, which hadn't been created yet.
Despite all of Jefferson's efforts, Van der Kemp bitterly disappointed his
expectations. He did arrange for the publication of the "Syllabus" and the
letter to Rush, both suitably altered to conceal the identity of their
author, in the October 1816 issue of the Monthly Repository of Theology and
General Literature, an English Unitarian periodical. Contrary to
Jefferson's hopes, however, they failed to elicit any comment in England,
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TO SUM UP
The SYLLABUS was published as part of Rush's letter in this country in the
4 volume set of books compiled by Thomas Jefferson Randolph, titled
The Memoirs, Correspondence and Micellanies from the papers of Thomas
Jefferson, which were published in 1829.
------ ------ ------ ------ -----
The SYLLABUS (as u can see above) is what Jefferson actually WROTE in 1803
and is only a very short outline
It was this that was published in Europe in 1816 by Van der Kemp, with
Jefferson's permission.
The PHILOSOPHY, which Jefferson compiled in 1804 is not something Jefferson
actually wrote, but is 46 pages of sections that he cut out of two Bibles
and glued on blank pieces of paper.
This was in two columns per page and was not done in four languages.
Which Jefferson did give permission to van der Kemp to publish this as
well, but neither Van der Kemp, nor anyone else ever published it.
It still existed in 1826 but sometime between then and the 1850s the
original disappeared.
In 1983 Dickson W. Adams published a reconstructed version in his book
Jefferson's Extracts from the Gospels
[based on the historical data that is available, most feel that the
reconstruction, while not perfect perhaps, is probably pretty accurate.]
Sometime between 1816 and 1820, with the weight of evidence now pointing
to around the 1820 time period Jefferson compiled the MORALS. It was this
particular item that is known as the Jefferson Bible, and it was this that
was done in four languages, not the PHILOSOPHY. Again, it was not something
Jefferson actually wrote, but instead was clippings of passages from
Bibles, in English, Latin, Greek, and French.
So, bottom line is, Amos is correct only in that "something" was published
in 1816, he is off bases on the other things he said. Not very good
considering he apparently had the exact some information in front of him
that I just used to tell you this.
The SYLLABUS was published in 1816 (written 1803)
The PHILOSOPHY (original version) was never published. (compiled 1804)
The reconstructed version was published in 1983
The LIFE AND MORALS (Gospels) was first published in the 1902-1904 time
frame. (compiled around 1820)
The following is done insofar as the "Bible" is concerned. However, this
is the rough draft and I still have to add the cites for the various
sources that the information came from.
"JEFFERSON BIBLE"
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the
Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English
[English version only]
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/meetup/jefbible.pdf
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
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. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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