The Jefferson Bible, Smithsonian Edition

Sometime near 1820, after ongoing religious discussions with his friends John Adams, Joseph Priesley, and Benjamin Rush, Thomas Jefferson sat down with eight copies of the Bible--two each of English, French, Latin, and Greek--and cut out the passages he most admired. He mixed verses from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and compiled his book in chronolgical order, eliminating references to miracles and information he considered to have been added by the evangelists. The remarkably beautiful handmade book, long in the Smithsonian's collections, is being conserved, and scans of those restored pages make up this color facsimile reproduction in all languages and with Jefferson's handwritten notes. No other edition so clearly provides a window into the mind of its maker. An introduction by Smithsonian curators Harry Rubenstein and Barbara Clark Smith explains Jefferson's motivations and how his endeavor is so indicative of Englightenment ideals, as well as the history of the book itself and its conservation.