The Jefferson Bible

*This edition of The Jefferson Bible includes Jefferson's original Letter to the Danbury Baptists about the separation of church and state.


The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, as it is properly titled was Thomas Jefferson's version of the New Testament. Jefferson adapted the teachings of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural parts along with areas that he felt were added by the Four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.


Jefferson cut and pasted his arrangement of the remaining verses of the New Testament in chronological order to create a single narrative. 


The Jefferson Bible begins with an account of Jesus’s birth without references to angels or prophecy. Miracles, including the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, and Jesus' resurrection, are also missing from Jefferson’s account. It does, however, include references to Noah's Ark, the Great Flood, the Tribulation, and the Second Coming, as well as Heaven, Hell, and the Devil.