Jefferson's Bible

[Drich]

By his own standards, maybe..Drich..but I doubt he ever A/S/Ked.....

What are you talking about everything mention here is apart of Asking...
1Thess 5:21 "Question all things and hold on to what is Good!"
This does not mean question only the questionable, this also means question the foundational, which includes everything you think you know about God and even if God is real and is 'good.' I did this very thing with an emphasis on Hell. God answered my questions. To me the jefferson quote following this is his version of what I did.. This is about of Ask and Seeking.

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.

-Thomas Jefferson

You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.

-Thomas Jefferson
I can say the same thing here.. I am not a Calvinist, and while I do go to a given church I have not given myself over to it. I am a 'sect unto myself.' (or do you see alot of people say Roman catholics teaching what i teach?) Which again is exactly what Christianity is supposed to be about. In that we are to worship God with all of our being, this means this worship with vary from person to person. If Jefferson lived in a world with only a handful of 'sects' then it is possible his worship would not be like any other form.

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

-Thomas Jefferson

Almost feel bad that we let him down on the last one, almost......slave-driving jesusite prick ,lol.  At least the superstitious beliefs of our current faithful provide them with plausible cover for the worst hobgoblins of their minds.

what makes me sick is how people like you are trying to rewrite History. Here are some other letters and thoughts of Jefferson and unlike you I will provide a legitmate link to back up my claims:
1803 April 21. (Jefferson to Benjamin Rush). "To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other."10

1814 September 26. (Jefferson to Miles King). "I must ever believe that religion substantially good which produces an honest life, and we have been authorized by One whom you and I equally respect, to judge of the tree by its fruit. Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our God alone. I inquire after no man's, and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether your or mine, our friends or our foes, are exactly the right.

1816 January 9.  (Jefferson to Charles Thomson).  "I too have made a wee little book, from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus. it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. a more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen. it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel, and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what it’s Author never said nor saw. they have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to return on earth, would not recognise one feature. if I had time I would add to my little book the Greek, Latin and French texts, in columns side by side, and I wish I could subjoin a translation of Gassendi’s Syntagma of the doctrines of Epicurus, which, notwithstanding the calumnies of the Stoics, and caricatures of Cicero, is the most rational system remaining of the philosophy of the ancients, as frugal of vicious indulgence, and fruitful of virtue as the hyperbolical extravagancies of his rival sects."13

and then their your hacked up quote:
1823 April 11. (Jefferson to John Adams). "The truth is that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors."15

I bet if you felt like you let thomas Jefferson down before when you thought he was an atheist I bet you really let him down now knowing he is a christian and you misquoted him trying to make him look like an atheist!
It is the couple of sentence before you quote that tell what Jefferson is in disgust with... It is the interpretation of Christ being marketed through the religion of his day that Jefferson takes issue with. Not the idological worship of Christ or God. Jefferson simply did not trust the church's interpretation of the bible not did he agree with it's lack of answers..

Got to frame his belief in what was going on at the time. The reformation movement happened just on or two generations prior, which means he probably knew people who remember the shock and betrayal of finding out the R/C church via the latin vulgate was little more than a propaganda peice the church used to control people. that it had very little to do with what was actually written in the greek.. That for a 1000+ years the church hid the doctrines of the bible, and replaced them with their own papal decrees and doctrines.

It is with this same despondency and suspicion that men like jefferson approached the (new) church. they needed 'proof' that what they were being told could be backed by several sources. as they only had one codices to reference at the time, and because the ministers/church authority could not answer their questions.. much of what was said was taken with a grain of salt, by men who could see the power/abuse of power in the church.

But again despite this Jefferson remain and identified himself as a devout Christian.
https://www.monticello.org/site/research...15_7z8aoki

In all honesty If i were in Jefferson's situation I'd probably have come to the same limited conclusions based on the available data.