The news & observer., 1904-12-11
JEFFERSON'S BIBLE.

l
At the last session of Congress a
| esolution was adopted providing for
the publication of Thomas Jeffer-
sons Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
AMI 5000 copies were ordered for the
Senate and 5000 copies for the House
The book has been published with an
introduction by Cyrus Adler, Libra
rian of the Smithsonian Institutions
1t is elegantly gotten up, bound in
morocco, and this paper is indebted to
Senator Overman for a copy.
There was nnuch discussion in tho
press when the resolution was first
adopted to print this volume 1t
would be difficult to find any warrant
in the Constitution for the publication
Of this or any like book at public ex-
pense. Mr. Jefferson would never
have voted for such use of the public
money for he did not believe that
Congress could take any acton re-
specting religion. He would have re-
garded the Morals of Jesus" which
he prepared. but not for publication,
public expense. That view ought to
have obtained in congress when the
proposition to print the book was
made. There is no more reason why
Congress should publish Jefferson's s
Morals Of Jesus than any treatise
Cn the Bible by any other great man.
OF course, as a curiosity in literature,
many men will be glad to have it in
their libraries, but why should Con-
gress go into the business of publish :
that should be left to private enter
prise.
1t has been objected by leading di-
vines that the government ought not
to publish this book for general dis
tribution because it would have a ten
dency to make converts to Unitarian
ism. Though Mr.. Jefferson was not a
Unitarian, he did not, GER
tainly when he prepared 'The Nor
ais of Jesus believe in the
divinity of Christ. That objection by
able and honest divines ought to
have been sufficient to have defeated
the appropriation, whether as a mat
ter of fact it could help to propagate
Unitarianism or not. There are those
who have gathered the idea that Mr..
Jefferson prepared this book for the
purpose of propagating the doubts he
entertained of the divinity of Jesus.
Nothing could be further from the
facts. His original idea, according to
Miss Randolph, was to have the life
ard teachings of the Savior, told in
similar excerpts, prepared for the In
dams, thinking this simple form
would suit them best But, abandon
ing this, the formal execution OF his
plan took the shape of cutting the
| texts out of printed copies
of Greek, Latin, French and English
Testaments and pasting them
with his own hands in book of
| blank pages, which was handsomely
bound in red morocco, orramented in
| gilt and titled on the back in gilt let
ters "The Morals of Jesus" He used
the four languages that he might
| have the texts in them side by side,
convenient for comparison. In the
! book he pasted a map of the ancient
world and the Holy Land, with which
he studied the New Testament
Jefferson never intended this little
book to be printed, for in a letter to
DR.. Benjamin Rush in April, 1903,
sending him the syllabus, Mr.. Jeffer-
son said: "And in confiding it to you,
I know it will not be exposed to the
malignant perversions of those who
make every word from me text for
new misrepresentation and calum-
mics. I am, moreover, averse to the
communication of any religious ten
cts to the public, because it would
countenance the presumption of those
who have endeavored to draw them
before that tribunal and to seduce
public opinion to erect ltselI
| into that inquest over the rights of
conscience, which the laws have SO
justly prescribed"
In letter to Adams, written from
Monticello, Jefferson SAID that he
would "reduce our volume to the
simple English Evangelists" and that
"paring off the amphiboligisms
"lhere will be found remaining the
most sublime and benevolent code of
m orals that has ever been offered to
man.
In letter to Charles Clay he said
the fragments he had collected
were fragments of the most sublime
edifice of morality which had ever
been exhibited to man."
To Charles Thompson he wrote:
more beautiful CT precious morsel of
ethics I have never seen; it is docu-
ment in proof that | am a real Chris
tian, that is to say a disciple of the
doctrine of Jesus
| Those who believe that the publi-
cation will tend to make Unitarians
are probably in error Those who
think that Jefferson wished 10 de-
stroy the faith of any man in the di-