Thomas Jefferson's Edited Bible
One of my favorite blogs, Things You Wouldn't Know If We Didn't Blog Intermittently, highlights Thomas Jefferson's edited Bible:
Jefferson wasn't a conventional Christian, but a Deist -- someone who believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ, but not in his divinity. Using a razor, Jefferson went through the Bible, removing the wisdom he thought worth preserving, and leaving all of the miraculous and supernatural occurrences behind. Then he pasted the parts he'd selected into a blank book. He gave his new book a pointedly secular title: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. (You can browse the whole book online.)
Jefferson began the project while he was in office, in 1803, but finished it afterward, in 1820. It was never published during his lifetime. More at TYWKIWDBI.
Kevin Hartnett is a writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His last article for Ideas was about choosing Congress by lottery.
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Guest blogger Elizabeth Manus is a writer living in New York City. She has been a book review editor at the Boston Phoenix, and a columnist for The New York Observer and Metro.
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Guest blogger Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, publisher, and freelance semiotician. He was the original Brainiac blogger, and is currently editor of the blog HiLobrow, publisher of a series of Radium Age science fiction novels, and co-author/co-editor of several books, including the story collection "Significant Objects" and the kids' field guide to life "Unbored."
Guest blogger Ruth Graham is a freelance journalist in New Hampshire, and a frequent Ideas contributor. She is a former features editor for the New York Sun, and has written for publications including Slate and the Wall Street Journal.
Joshua Rothman is a graduate student and Teaching Fellow in the Harvard English department, and an Instructor in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He teaches novels and political writing.







