JEFFERSON ON ST. PAUL, GOSPEL ACCT.

At 01:56 AM 7/6/98 EDT, you wrote:
>Sir,
>
>     I have heard it said that the words of the Apostle Paul were
purposely
>omitted from the Jefferson bible, and furthermore that President
Jefferson
>actually had a quote of some rather disparaging remarks about Paul.
Is this
>so?  A local "Reverend" from an alternative church declared it as such
on the
>local access channel and I was looking for the facts.  Any assistance
would be
>greatly appreciated.

The book known as "The Jefferson Bible" was orignally titled by Thomas
Jefferson, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually
from the Gospels."  It was not intended to be an extract of the whole
Bible or even of the New Testament.  Jefferson intended it to be an
outline of the life of Jesus, including his moral teachings.  Since Paul is
not mentioned in the Gospels, he is also not mentioned in The Jefferson
Bible.

It is true that Jefferson did not think much of Paul, though he did quote
him on one or two occasions.  He placed Paul among the corrupters of
the true message of Jesus, as in the following passage:

"Among the sayings and discourses imputed to Him [Jesus] by His
biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality,
and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much
ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and
imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should
have proceeded from the same Being.  I separate, therefore, the gold
from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the
stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples.  Of this band of
dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus [i.e., leader of a
school of thought], and first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus.  These
palpable interpolations and falsifications of His doctrines, led me to try to
sift them apart.  I found the work obvious and easy, and that His past
composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to
us by man." --Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1820.  ME 15:244

Thus, the "Reverend" was somewhat misleading when he said The
Jefferson Bible does not mention Paul, since it was only intended to be a
life of Jesus.  He was correct in saying that Jefferson had made some
rather disparaging remarks about Paul.

Best wishes,

Eyler Coates