JEFFERSON BIBLE DEFENDED
While Thomas Jefferson espoused many Christian principles in his thinking and writings, he was by no means an orthodox Christian. In fact, he seemed to fear the systematic theology of any religious organization as that which stifled the free thought of the individual. He admired the simple teachings of Jesus and the complex teachings of Plato. He did not, however, believe in the deity of Jesus Christ or any of the miracles as presented in the Bible. In one of his many letters to William Short, Jefferson explained his position on the supernatural claims of Christianity and his motivation for the creation of the Jefferson Bible that excluded all that which was supernatural and only retained moral teachings. Of Jesus Christ Jefferson wrote, “…the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth.” His motivation for removing the supernatural from the teachings of Jesus was to abstract “what is really his from the rubbish…
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