The Jefferson Lies (12 page)

63

By way of note, Jefferson's reference to the “pseudo-evangelists” and “Fabricius” is almost completely foreign to today's Modernists and therefore is often wrongly assumed to be an attack on the Scriptures or the Epistles. It was not. The term
evangelists
was a concrete and well understood term in the Founding Era, often utilized in courts of law,
¹¹⁷
and specifically meant the four Gospels as written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
¹¹⁸
So what does “pseudo-evangelists” mean? Does it mean the writings of the other Apostles such as Paul and Peter? And who is Fabricius?

64

In 397 AD the Synod of Carthage met and canonized the books that formed the inspired Scriptures.
¹¹⁹
At that time many other books, including what were known as the Gnostic Gospels (such as the Gospel of Marcion, the Gospel of Apelles, the Gospel of Bardesanes, the Gospel of Basilides, and others) were rejected; it was determined that they were not Divinely inspired. They were thus considered to be written by “pseudo evangelists.” In 1713 and 1723 German scholar Johann Albert Fabricius made compilations of the Gnostic Gospels, and just as Jefferson urged Peter to read the canonized Scriptures, he also encouraged him to read and investigate noncanonized books (such as those compiled by Fabricius) in order to understand the debate over which parts of the Bible were actually inspired.

Jefferson was not being antireligious in his letter to Peter; he was simply trying to be neutral so as to encourage Peter to reach his own conclusions. As Jefferson scholar Dr. Mark Beliles accurately points out:

Since Jefferson used in the letter the words “some people believe” when expressing both orthodox and unorthodox opinions, it cannot be proven that he was personally in favor of either. Scholars often quote excerpts from it to prove his unorthodoxy, but one could just as easily quote Jefferson's phrase from this letter which said “Jesus . . . was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended and reversed the laws of nature at will, and ascended bodily into heaven.”
¹²⁰

65

And Jefferson historian Robert Healey points out what he sees as a positive bias toward faith in the letter, explaining that “after saying to Peter Carr, ‘Question with boldness even the existence of a God,' he writes a few lines further on, ‘Your own reason is the only oracle
given you by heaven
'” (emphasis added).
¹²¹
Additionally, in the section of the letter immediately preceding his advice on religion, Jefferson told Peter:

He Who made us would have been a pitiful bungler if He had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. . . . The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man, as his leg or arm.
¹²²

This is a clear declaration by Jefferson that man was created by God and endowed by Him with a conscience—two of the primary tenets of Scottish Common Sense. His statement that our reason was given us by Heaven is yet another of its four precepts. And, as already shown above, Jefferson had no personal doubts about the existence of God; to him, it was self-evident that God existed; it was also a belief held worldwide by what he called a margin of a million to one. So while Jefferson attempted to remain neutral in setting forth the possible options of belief to Peter (and largely succeeded), he definitely held a strong, personal, pro-God position.

Jefferson's advice to Peter about discovering and confirming for himself the foundation for his religious beliefs might just as easily have come from today's leading Christian apologists, whether Josh McDowell, Ray Comfort, Lee Strobel, or Ravi Zacharias. These apologists similarly advise Christians to know
what
they believe,
why
they believe it, and
how
to defend those beliefs.

66

In summary, Jefferson's letter to Peter definitely does
not
prove irreligion on the part of Jefferson, nor can it be used to show Jefferson was promoting secular education among his own family members. Jefferson has a long record of deliberately, purposefully, and intentionally including religious instruction in all educational endeavors in which he took part, and this is especially true concerning his beloved University of Virginia.

67

L
IE
# 3
Thomas Jefferson Wrote His Own Bible and Edited Out the Things He Didn't Agree With

T
he notion that Jefferson so disliked Christianity and the Scriptures that he made his own Bible is commonly bandied about in both secular and religious circles.

Hunched over his desk, penknife in hand, Thomas Jefferson sliced carefully at the pages of Holy Scripture, excising select passages and pasting them together to create a Bible more to his liking. The “Jefferson Bible.” A book he could feel comfortable with. What didn't make it into the Jefferson Bible was anything that conflicted with his personal worldview. Hell? It can't be. The supernatural? Not even worth considering. God's wrath against sin? I don't think so. The very words of God regarded as leftover scraps.
¹

Jefferson . . . wrote his own Bible that excluded all references to miracles, wonders, signs, virgin birth, resurrection, the God-head, and whatever else conflicted with his own religious thought.
²

Jefferson . . . rejected the superstitions and mysticism of Christianity and even went so far as to edit the Gospels, removing the miracles and mysticism of Jesus.
³

68

Thomas Jefferson . . . actually took scissors to the Gospels and cut out all references to anything supernatural.
⁴

Many others make similar claims.
⁵
Are they accurate?

Logic would tell us that if Jefferson wrote his own Bible, he would do so only if he were thoroughly dissatisfied with the traditional Bible, especially its inclusion of the supernatural. Evidence definitively shows that this was
not
Jefferson's view. As noted in previous chapters of this book, Jefferson made frequent, positive use of Bible references and passages in his own writings.
⁶

Perhaps even more important, Jefferson was an active member of the Virginia Bible Society.
⁷
This was an organization that distributed the full, unedited text of the Bible, including all its supernatural references. He also gave Bibles as gifts to members of his family, including his grandchildren,
⁸
and contributed liberally to the distribution of the full Bible. In fact, during a period of personal economic crisis so severe that he arranged a personal loan
⁹
and even offered to sell his own cherished private library to Congress to raise additional funds,
¹⁰
he made a very generous contribution to the Virginia Bible Society, explaining:

I had not supposed there was a family in this State not possessing a Bible. . . . I therefore enclose you cheerfully an order . . . for the purposes of the Society.
¹¹

Furthermore, in 1798 Jefferson personally helped finance the printing of one of America's groundbreaking editions of the Bible.
¹²
That Bible was a massive, two-volume folio set that was not only the largest Bible ever published in America to that time, but it was also America's first hot-pressed Bible.
¹³
President John Adams, several signers of the Constitution and Declaration, and other major Founders joined with Jefferson to help fund that Bible.
¹⁴

69

Jefferson personally possessed and studied many complete Bibles, including some exceptionally famous ones, such as:

• the Eliot Bible, printed in 1661 in the Algonquin Indian language by John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians (the first Bible printed in America in any language)

• the Bible in the Nattick Indian language (1666)

• the earliest Latin Bible printed in England (1580)

• the earliest French Geneva Bible printed in England (1687)

Jefferson owned many other full, uncut Bibles.
¹⁵

And if we continue to follow the financial trail, we find that he also volunteered to help finance the 1808 publishing of Thomson's Bible—the first American translation of the Greek Septuagint into English.
¹⁶
Upon receiving the finished work, Jefferson told Thomson that he was thrilled with it and would “use it with great satisfaction,” grateful for “the aid you have now given me”
¹⁷
through his scholarly translation of the Bible. Recall Jesus' axiom in Luke 12:34 that “where your treasure [money] is, there will your heart be also.” Jefferson spent and offered to spend significant amounts of money on the full Bible, thus providing a glimpse into his heart and into what he felt was important.

So . . . Jefferson owned
many
Bibles, belonged to a Bible society and contributed to it, gave out copies of the full, unedited text of the traditional Bible, and assisted in publishing and distributing Bibles. In each of these situations, Jefferson had opportunity to indicate his personal displeasure with the Bible or at least to refrain from participating, but he did not do so.

Then what is the so-called Jefferson Bible that has received so much attention?

There actually is
no
Jefferson Bible, but modern spin is usually directed at one of two religious works that Jefferson prepared about Jesus. He compiled the first in 1804 and the second around 1820. Jefferson assigned an explicit title to each, accurately describing its scope and purpose. Neither was a “Bible,” and Jefferson would have strenuously objected to that characterization. In his mind each was nothing more than what he said it was in its title.

70

Jefferson's title for his 1804 work about Jesus was:

The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, being Extracted from the Account of His Life and Doctrines Given by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians, Unembarrassed [Uncomplicated] with Matters of Fact or Faith beyond the Level of their Comprehensions
.
¹⁸

Notice several important points. First, this work was prepared for the use of Indians. Second, it was a work about Jesus drawn solely from the four Gospels. Third, it was not a Bible but rather an abridgment of the major doctrines of Jesus in the Gospels, and as will be seen below, it included
many
references to the miraculous and supernatural.

It is not surprising that Jefferson should have prepared such a work for Indians. For years preceding its compilation, Jefferson had shown a keen interest and taken an active role in promoting Christianity among various tribes. Recall that he owned several Bibles in differing Indian languages, and from 1798 to 1800 he corresponded with religious leaders and ministers such as the Reverend William Linn and the Reverend Samuel Miller on the subject of promoting Indian missions.
¹⁹
In 1802 while president, he signed a law authorizing the Society of the United Brethren to “propagat[e] the Gospel among the Heathen” in which he provided federal funds for churches, missionaries, and Christian schools among the Indians in the Northwest Territory.
²⁰

71

Shortly after signing that act, Edward Dowse, one of Jefferson's longtime friends, sent him a copy of a sermon preached in Scotland by the evangelical minister Reverend William Bennet in which he addressed the importance of promoting Christian knowledge among Indians of North America.
²¹
The Reverend Bennet advocated teaching Christianity to Indians by using just the simple teachings of Jesus—that is, using
only
Jesus' words and avoiding the many doctrines that caused conflict between groups of Christians. Concerning that sermon, Dowse, who knew Jefferson well, told him:

[I]t seemed to me to have a claim to your attention. At any rate, the idea struck me that you will find it of use and perhaps may see fit to cause some copies of it to be reprinted, at your own charge, to distribute among our Indian missionaries.
²²

Jefferson replied to Dowse, telling him, “I . . . perused it with attention” and “I concur with the author.”
²³
Of this exchange between the two, one scholar accurately observed:

Mr. Dowse apparently understood Jefferson's interest in Christian missions to the Native Americans in a way that many modern scholars have dismissed as irrelevant. This dismissal has led to the misunderstanding of Jefferson's motives for his compilation of Christ's teachings. Jefferson had a deep, genuine commitment to missionary efforts among the Indians. His account books show that he consistently donated his own money to missionaries and to societies that distributed Bibles to both Americans and Indians.
²⁴

In 1803 President Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe to provide them Christian ministry and teaching.
²⁵
Of that treaty US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist explained:

72

Jefferson's treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians . . . provided annual cash support for the Tribe's Roman Catholic priest and church. . . . The treaty stated in part: “And whereas the greater part of said Tribe have been baptized and received into the Catholic church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually for seven years one hundred dollars towards the support of a priest of that religion . . . [a]nd . . . three hundred dollars to assist the said Tribe in the erection of a church.”
²⁶