I had never heard of the Jefferson Bible until a catalogue of "enlightening" gifts arrived in the mail... I plan to order it at the library- anyone else read it? While digging about I came across some info and i took a fancy to this quote by Percival Everett:
I am always intrigued to find that the things we do today have been being done did for quite some time now... nothing new under the sun as one fella used to say.
"Jefferson's recasting of the four Gospels of the New
Testament…was an interesting (or not) bit of play intellectualism. Many claim
his "translation" amounts to little more than a paraphrasing of the parts of the
Bible with which he agreed. In fact, a glance at [several earlier translations
of the Bible] might lead one to agree with this assertion. Still, he took it
upon himself to do it, whatever it was he did. He decided that the rules of the
club to which he wished to belong were not the rules he wanted to play by. So
instead of changing clubs, he changed the rule book by literally cutting and
pasting together only the sections that he found relevant to his
interpretation."
I am always intrigued to find that the things we do today have been being done did for quite some time now... nothing new under the sun as one fella used to say.