Quotes

Source: AZ Quotes;  https://www.azquotes.com/author/7392-Thomas_Jefferson

"The Constitution freedom of religion [is] the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights."

-- Thomas Jefferson on freedom of religion: Virginia Board of Visitors Minutes, 1819.;

-- Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.593, Library of America

" No man shall be compelled to frequent or support religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matter of religion."

-- Excerpted from "A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom", drafted 1777.

"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."    

-- The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814”, p.248, Princeton University Press.  https://www.azquotes.com/quote/345902

"The whole history of these books (i.e. the Gospels) is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry (sic) into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills."   https://www.azquotes.com/quote/559662

The Jefferson Bible

Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible without Jesus' miracles and the resurrection.

Made for his private use and kept secret for decades, Jefferson’s 84-page Bible was the work of a man who spent much of his life grappling with and doubting religion.

(According to) Edwin S. Gaustad, “Jefferson managed to maintain Jesus’ role as a great moral teacher, not as a shaman or faith healer.” Jefferson didn’t intend for the Bible to be read by others, Gaustad notes. “He composed it for himself,” he writes. “He cherished the diamonds.”

(F)rom 1904 to the 1950s, incoming Senators received their own copy of the Bible. That practice ended once the government-sponsored printing ran out, but in the 1990s, economist Judd W. Patton revived the tradition and began mailing it to each member of Congress.

Today, Jefferson’s secret Bible is held by the Smithsonian Institution, which has digitized the book for anyone to read. 

Source: History.com (Article below)

By: Erin Blakemore; Updated: October 4, 2023 | Original: July 31, 2019

https://www.history.com/news/thomas-jefferson-bible-religious-beliefs