Monday, August 27, 2012

The Jefferson Bible on NPR

I heard a great discussion of the Jefferson Bible on NPR yesterday (third one down) by Mitch Horowitz, the editor of a new edition of the book. I always thought about the Jefferson Bible the way a lot of people do, I think: semi-closeted deist Thomas Jefferson, frustrated with the clerics, cut the things out of the New Testament that he didn't like. Horowitz presents a very different view of a Jefferson that does not think of himself as a deist at all, and most importantly as someone engaged in a constructive rather than a destructive project - rescuing the Gospels from additions that others had made. It's a subtle difference that some people may consider no difference at all, but the interview is worth listening to.

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