Reddit mentions of The Jefferson Bible, Smithsonian Edition: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

Free PDF here: http://uuhouston.org/files/The_Jefferson_Bible.pdf

Or the big evil Amazon option: http://www.amazon.com/The-Jefferson-Bible-Smithsonian-Edition/dp/158834312X

I bought the Jefferson Bible about two months ago. I went for the nicer "Smithsonian Edition". So worth it. Each page is a high resolution scan of Jefferson's handwritten notes, and annotations. And you can see how Jefferson literally cut paragraphs and sentences out form the King James bible and pasted it into his own "bible".

Example of the differences between the traditional King James Version, and Jefferson's Bible: The Story of Finding Young Jesus in the Market Preaching to the to the old Scholars.

KJV/NIV Version: The story goes that Joseph and Mary left the city of Bethleham, and realize they left Jesus behind (people in those days travelled in caravans and kids were running around everywhere I guess). So they travel back to the city and search for young Jesus. They find him in the Temple preaching to the old Scholars, who were blown away by Jesus's teachings. Mary goes up to young Jesus and says, "why'd you leave us? Don't you know how worried we were?". Young Jesus famously responds: "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Jefferson's Version: Same as above...Mary goes into the Temple, finds young Jesus talking to the old Scholars of the city, who all seem blown away by how smart Jesus is. . Mary goes "don't you know you worried us?" ...No response from Jesus. Jefferson cut out the God-like sounding "Don't you know you were in my Father's house?", but left the fact that Jesus was in fact found in the the Temple and that the old smart guys were blown away by the intellect of Young Jesus.

The Jefferson Bible is fascinating. I recommend everyone get a copy if they have the slightest interest/background in Catholicism/Christianity.

Btw, Jefferson didn't call it his "Bible". He called it "The Morals of Jesus Christ".

Fun trivia fact: Jefferson thought Paul the Apostle was a quack.

Source: I'm more or less an Atheist, and think Jesus was an insanely smart prodigy for his time who was very wise and said peaceful nice things that made good/common sense. I believe all the miracles/magic were added to the Bible by later people to make it seem more inspiring and awesome. All that stuff is bullshit. (I heard Jefferson thought that too, so I bought his compiled book, aka: The Jefferson Bible.)

EDIT: The version I bought: http://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-Bible-Smithsonian-Morals-Nazareth/dp/158834312X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449859239&sr=8-2&keywords=jefferson+bible

There is also a Kindle Version that is super cheap (99 cents I think). Pretty sure you can just google it and find PDF versions.

Try the Jefferson Bible. Good writer and he did very similar to what you suggest.

http://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-Bible-Smithsonian-Morals-Nazareth/dp/158834312X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317942974&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/158834312X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511497080&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=smithsonian+jefferson+bible&dpPl=1&dpID=51ynes2125L&ref=plSrch

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>How are VOSLs of different faiths redundant

If you had actually read the Holy Bible, the Thomas Jefferson Bible, and the Tanakh ...you might know.

You could probably get a copy from the Library. Otherwise, they're not that terribly expensive depending on how you go.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Jefferson+Bible

This is the one I have, and it's a scanned copy of the original with notes, and other documents. Well worth the extra investment.

http://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-Bible-Smithsonian-Morals-Nazareth/dp/158834312X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450106577&sr=8-2&keywords=Jefferson+Bible

Well, I agree with you that the Jesus according to the Gospels was not the wonderful person that he is chalked up to be. Keep in mind though that the earliest Gospel wasn't written until roughly 65CE some 3 decades after Jesus was supposedly crucified. Thomas Jefferson actually made up a bible where he cut out all the hocus pocus and simply incorporates Jesus' points on how to treat one another. It's called the Jeffersonian bible and you can get it here

It does Jesus more justice than the absurdity of the Gospels.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Jefferson-Bible-Smithsonian-Edition/dp/158834312X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375154191&sr=8-1&keywords=jefferson+bible

Buy one of these. It's the important parts of the new testament's morals, with the miracles taken out, and with the old testament never mentioned. Which basically sums up the "ideology" of christianity somewhat, without the dubious parts.

Don't hate on Jesus, even Jefferson so potential in a person with good intentions: https://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-Bible-Smithsonian-Morals-Nazareth/dp/158834312X/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/137-8229286-4014834?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=158834312X&pd_rd_r=026db146-55ee-4501-afda-bb9c85c7cf81&pd_rd_w=2P2nc&pd_rd_wg=rMtNZ&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=A0ZWKTDSZ77J7CP4R6HB&psc=1&refRID=A0ZWKTDSZ77J7CP4R6HB