Today I want to write some comments on the ‘Jefferson Bible’ that my friend Don lent me some time ago. After reading it I passed it on to our mutual friend Herman who has made his comments and in writing no less. I won’t write, but I do want to have a record and have decided to make those below under the ‘Writings’ header.

This whole car2go operation is totally smart phone dependent with cell phone data service.

Yesterday I was able to get the car2go to go to the DJ produce market and back as well! This whole car2go operation is totally smart phone dependent with cell phone data service. It will not function with the wifi option that I use for data. So, I’m waiting for a identity card to initialise the car at the start so it’ll open the doors! Yesterday the car was right in front of my building and I could use my home wifi to open the doors.

The book that Don lent me is titled “The Jefferson Bible”, Smithsonian Edition published in 2011 by the that institute. It has an elaborate ‘History of the Jefferson Bible’ and a section on the conservation process. I read both as well as the acknowledgements, but not Jefferson’s Bible texts taken from the four gospels and reported in Latin, Greek, French and English!

Reading the mentioned History section I recalled reading some of Emerson’s (1803-1882) essays in the recent Penguin edition and was struck by a similarity in sentiment and purpose. Both authors were motivated by a desire to define a belief and ethical framework for their new country as it was forming in the early years. Both traveled and studied in Europe and on their return came to compose insights and guidelines for their forming society.

The Jefferson Bible History expresses Jefferson’s (1743-1826) concerns about the materialistic motivations that prevailed, which led to abuse in many cases. He wanted to define clear criteria of guidance and used this pared down set of the four gospels to do so. But, it was always intended to be a private affair and was never published until later, after his death that is.

Their common purpose being to be informed by the traditions of experienced Europe and yet formulate a new approach that would suit the new society and nation in which they participated.

There is a third US author that I know of, William James (1842-1910), who also travelled to Europe to study and gather information that he later used in his books on Psychology and Religious Experience. Besides these three there are others who did the same forming a pattern which we could call ‘fellow searchers of knowledge’. Their common purpose being to be informed by the traditions of experienced Europe and yet formulate a new approach that would suit the new society and nation in which they participated.

This need for guidance can be gleaned from a book I read in titled “The Barbarous Years” which reports on the very first hundred years of the starting North American colonies. It attracted the fortune seekers and the idealists in almost equal numbers. This book reports on the many political and violent conflicts at that time - hence ‘barbarous’. If you recall a name such as ‘VanderBilt’ and juxtaposition it with the three above mentioned searchers, then you can recognise that same conflict of forces in play a century or more later and can still be gleaned from US politics today.
<11:40am with interruptions and editing~