Thomas Jefferson & Jesus

I was reminded today, by a friend's post on Facebook, that it is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. So, I had a little party on my own of watching two documentaries on him through Netflix Instant.

There is much I admire about Jefferson, there is much I dislike. He is polarizing figure. Besides the owning of slaves, the second most odious character flaw was his castration of the New Testament. See my slice of his slicing. Live by the razor, die by the razor. I did learn a cool new word call Amphiboligism which means ambiguity.

The arrogance of Jefferson is astounding as if he had a more accurate vantage point of Jesus after 17 centuries than Jesus's own contemporaries and colleagues. In an empirical and scientific sense, he is at a considerable disadvantage in his postulations.

When my wife and I visited Monticello on our Honeymoon, the most memorable moment there --besides my downing a can of Pringles all at once (in my own version of the "Pursuit of Happiness" which made my wife wonder what she had gotten herself into by marrying me)-- was me searching out the lone tree on the property that had been living when Jefferson resided at Monticello. The tree is ailing and is not long for this world. It was a sad but profound moment, imbued with meaning about the vanity of life without God.

Although the book was titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, Jefferson's work concludes with the burial of Jesus...death has the final say. Jefferson, if he was honest, should have titled his efforts, The Life, Death, and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. According to Jefferson, Jesus's life ended in death, just like the tree at Monticello. That is very depressing and I don't consider it surprising that Jefferson's life ended in despair. Ultimately, when people cut down the Gospel to Moralism, what is destroyed is not ambiguity, but life, hope, and meaning.

Revelation 22:19

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Jefferson had it right. The best recent scholarship on the New Testament reveals both the virgin birth and the resurrection as later grafts onto what the apostles could possibly have known of Jesus, given that hey didn’t even meet him until he was 30 years old and couldn’t identify him after he’d supposedly risen from the dead. And then there’s Paul’s wholesale appropriation and perversion of the Jesus narrative for his own purposes. Contrary to this drivel, all that matters about Jesus is the philosophy he espoused while he lived. That’s what defined his ministry. The rest is 1st century carnival barking.
October 31, 2023 at 10:24 PM
Anonymous said…
Needless to say, modern scholarship about the New Testament assumes that miracles are impossible. The Apostle Paul knew all of the Apostles including Peter who preached the Gospel. Including the resurrection of Jesus. You are going to have to do a lot better then that. I have a Ph.D. In Educational Psychology from a reputable university. I am well-versed in research.
November 1, 2023 at 7:14 AM
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