Thomas Jefferson and Religion - Jefferson, Jesus, and The Bible

Jefferson, Jesus, and The Bible

Jefferson's views on Jesus and the Bible were mixed, but were progressively far from what was and is largely considered orthodox in Christianity. Jefferson stated in a letter in 1819, "You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."

On one hand Jefferson affirmed, "We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus, and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses", and that he was "sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others", and that "the doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man". However, Jefferson considered much of the New Testament of the Bible to be false. In a letter to William Short in 1820, he expressed that his intent was to "place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no imposter himself", but that he was not with Jesus "in all his doctrines", Jefferson described many passages as "so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture". In the same letter Jefferson states he is separating "the gold from the dross", and describes the "roguery of others of His disciples", calling this group a "band of dupes and impostors", who wrote "palpable interpolations and falsifications", with Paul being the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus".

Jefferson also denied the divine inspiration of the Book of Revelation, describing it to Alexander Smyth in 1825 as "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams". From his study of the Bible, Jefferson concluded that Jesus never claimed to be God.

In 1803 Jefferson composed a "Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus" of the comparative merits of Christianity, after having read the pamphlet “Socrates and Jesus Compared” by the Materialist philosopher Dr. Joseph Priestley. In this brief work Jefferson affirms Jesus' "moral doctrines, relating to kindred & friends, were more pure & perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews", but asserts that "fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us mutilated, misstated, & often unintelligible", and that "the question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and denied by others is foreign to the present view, which is merely an estimate of the intrinsic merit of his doctrines". He let only a few see it, including Benjamin Rush in 1803 and William Short in 1820. When Rush died in 1813, Jefferson asked the family to return the document to him.

Also while living in the White House, Jefferson began to piece together his own version of the Gospels, with the first draft being "The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth...Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians, Unembarrased with Matters of Fact or Faith beyond the Level of their Comprehensions". This was followed by a compilation titled, The LIFE AND MORALS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH: Extracted Textually from the Gospels Greek, Latin, French, and English, from which he omitted the virgin birth of Jesus, miracles attributed to Jesus, divinity, and the resurrection of Jesus – among many other teachings and events. He retained primarily Jesus' moral philosophy, of which he approved, and also included the Second Coming, a future judgment, Heaven, Hell, and a few other supernatural events.

This compilation was completed about 1820, but Jefferson did not make these works public, acknowledging "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" existence only to a few friends. This work was published after his death and became known as the Jefferson Bible.