THOMAS JEFFERSON, third president of the United States, most wanted to be remembered as the author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. The author lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
LIBRARY JOURNAL, Starred Review
This is a painstakingly produced full-color facsimile of the
original volume that Jefferson created, now at the Smithsonian,
where it received top-level conservation treatment prior to its
high-resolution reproduction here. Jefferson created his version of
the New Testament by cutting and pasting from Greek, Latin, French,
and English printed texts of the Gospels, which he placed in four
parallel columns and accompanied with his marginal notes. This
edition also contains two essays: "The History of the Jefferson
Bible," in which curators at the Smithsonian's National Museum of
American History explain Jefferson's intent and his methods, and an
essay on the volume's extensive conservation. The passages that
Jefferson selected and pasted together present a much-edited,
single chronological account of Jesus's life, teachings, and
death—ending with Jesus's burial and avoiding redundancies. The
passages are those that Jefferson deemed to be supportable by
reason. The "History" essay draws parallels between the way
Jefferson revised Virginia's laws and the way he revised the Bible.
VERDICT Jefferson's Bible has been published before, but never in
full facsimile with all its contents. With great cultural
importance for all readers from preteens through scholars in
American studies, biblical studies, or the Enlightenment, as well
as general readers. Also a handsome gift.—Carolyn M. Craft,
formerly with Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA
BOOKLIST
The most famous single book in America was recently taken apart and
put back together to retard its further deterioration. In the
process, it was digitally photographed cover to cover, which is why
this edition exists. Better than those based on normal photography,
this full-color reproduction of The Life and Morals of Jesus of
Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin,
French & English, as its compiler, Thomas Jefferson, calls it on
the handwritten title page, shows what it really looks like. As the
three authors of the accompanying essays on the history and the
conservation of the DIY parallel-text edition concur, its tidiness
is a tribute to the third president’s steady hand and keen eye at
age 77. Intellectually, it embodies his rationalist respect for
Christianity as a moral system, not a religion. Excluding
everything miraculous in the Gospels, thereby sifting, Jefferson
said, “diamonds” from “a dunghill,” it establishes that one
Founding Father, at least, was not a biblical inerrantist. A lovely
addition to thoroughgoing Americana collections.— Ray Olson
CHOICE
In 1820, former president Thomas Jefferson completed The Life and
Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. Popularly known as "Jefferson's
Bible," it comprises 82 pages, each with the Greek, Latin, French,
and English texts of the New Testament passages that Jefferson
viewed as authentic purveyors of Jesus's life and ethical
teachings. Jefferson literally cut and pasted this material onto
blank sheets of paper. Casting out all passages that were, in his
opinion, contrary to reason, he ended up with the one form of
religion in which he believed. The largest part of this 2011 book
is an exquisitely reproduced full-color facsimile of this older
work--the result of painstaking efforts by conservators at the
Smithsonian and elsewhere, described in considerable detail in a
chapter titled "Conservation." A preceding chapter, "History of the
Jefferson Bible," puts this work within the context of Jefferson's
life and the lives of contemporaries such as Benjamin Rush, Thomas
Paine, and Joseph Priestley. Everything in this volume shows great
care and erudition, and it deserves a place in almost every
library. Nonetheless, readers might wish that more attention had
been paid to the overall teachings of Jefferson's Bible and their
influence on subsequent generations upto today. Summing Up:
Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through
researchers/faculty; general readers. --L. J. Greenspoon, Creighton
University
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