The Undiscovered Teachings of Jesus: The Thomas Jefferson Bible: Volume 2 (A Seat of Knowledge Series) (in English)
Synopsis "The Undiscovered Teachings of Jesus: The Thomas Jefferson Bible: Volume 2 (A Seat of Knowledge Series) (in English)"
This is not a facsimile reproduction nor is it the Jefferson Bible that you may be familiar with. Originally edited by Henry E. Jackson in 1923 and titled "The Jefferson Bible - The Undiscovered Teachings of Jesus," he instead interpreted the version of Richard Francis Weymouth's - Jefferson's Bible translation in the form of prose. It is quite simply a hand book on applicable common sense governance for individuals as well as government and world affairs. Jackson's contribution to the Weymouth translation is in fact a book in and of itself. In finding Jackson's work fascinating and after subsequent research on his background, we find there is very little that sheds any light on Jackson. The miniscule amount that is available explains how and why Jackson was able to elucidate the selections in the manner he did, truly making this the "Undiscovered Teachings of Jesus." Henry E. Jackson was an American clergyman, born on February 21, 1869 in Chester County, PA., the son of Oliver Cloud and Margaret (Hamilton) Jackson. He was Educated at York (Pennsylvania) Collegiate Institute, 1889 - 1890, a Bachelor of Arts, Lafayette College - 1893, as well as an M.A. from Princeton in 1896, finally Graduating Princeton Theological Seminary, 1896. He was an Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1896. He was the founder and pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Swarthmore, PA., from 1896 - 1907. He was Pastor of Christian Union Congressional Church, Upper Montclair, N.J. from 1907 - 1915. Interestingly, Jackson was a special lecturer to the students of China, under appointment of a committee of Princeton University, 1915. Further, he was a Special Agent in community organization for the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, D.C. from 1916-1920. Of note, there was one book review article written in the year the book was originally published which follows: The hard-shelled mind of the eighteenth century, that only a heavy hammer and a stone could open, speaks in this book to the paper-shelled twentieth that can be split by the pressure of a child's two thumbs. To read the Thomas Jefferson Bible is an excursion in a closed carriage, sedately driven, to the house of a Roman tetrarch in the center of ancient Jerusalem. Outside the faiths swarm and clash and spit venom, embrace and propagate, gnaw at the ankles of the carpenter's son. Inside the muting walls the cool steel threads of logic spin from the legal lips. We listen to the last word, bow our respect, decline in moderation the closed carriage, and walk home through the clamorous streets, disarmed to fragrant partialities. For, with all respect due to the competent Jefferson, we prefer our Christ with to without, that is, decorated with miracle, like Dionysus garlanded with vine leaves, to the bones cleaned by acid and carbolic soap. Miracle does not decay except in closed minds. The mystic lover opens his veins and lets the sap fill the depleted channels, and green leaves shoot forth. There is a better wisdom in the perfumed chat between Jesus and the woman of Samaria, omitted in the Jefferson anthology, than in all his odorless selections lumped together. Jefferson eliminates, and misses, the essential element of Christianity, that it is the story of a failure, or, as a disappointing contemporary has phrased it, peace without victory. 'Christianity is and has always been unpopular because the world prefers success to failure, riches to poverty, pleasure to pain. It has but acquired a certain sanction from the defeated majority. When the world is turned topsy-turvy Christianity will come into its universal rule. Nevertheless the personality of the Christ is the yeast that defies the Volstead Act and every other form of benzoate, a chemical that would, if universally administered, render the world eternally conscious of the distinction between success and failure.
