You said:
why did jefferson remove the supernaturel from his bible
ChatGPT said:
Thomas Jefferson removed the supernatural elements from the Bible because he was a man of the Enlightenment who valued reason, science, and morality over religious dogma and miracles. He admired the moral teachings of Jesus but rejected the miraculous and divine aspects traditionally associated with Christianity, such as:
- The virgin birth
- Jesus’ divinity
- Miracles (e.g., walking on water, turning water into wine)
- The resurrection
- Heaven and hell
Jefferson believed that these supernatural claims were added by early followers and church leaders and that they obscured the original moral philosophy of Jesus. He once referred to these additions as “the dross of his biographers.”
So, in his version—The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (often called the “Jefferson Bible”)—he literally cut and pasted together only the parts of the Gospels that contained Jesus’s ethical teachings, excluding anything miraculous or supernatural.
It was his attempt to distill Christianity into a rational, ethical philosophy rather than a religion based on faith in the supernatural.