THE BIBLE IS A SELECTIVE GATHERING OF TEXTS WRITTEN BY VARIOUS AUTHORS AND TRANSCRIBED BY VARIOUS SCRIBES MOSTLY FROM THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST. THE BIBLE IS ONE OF THE MOST WIDELY READ BOOKS IN THE WORLD AND IS THE SOURCE OF MUCH HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND IS REVERED BY MANY.
THERE ARE NUMEROUS VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE. FOLLOWING IS A LISTING OF A FEW:
- King James Version (1611, KJV) revised in 1769
- American Standard Version (1901, ASV)
- Twentieth Century New Testament (1901, TCNT) revised in 1904
- The New Testament in Modern Speech (1903, NTMS)
- The Worrell New Testament (1904)
- Thompson Chain Reference Bible (1908)
- The Scofield Study Bible (1909) revised 1917
- A New Translation of the Bible (1928, MNT)
- The Bible: An American Translation (1935, AAT)
- The New Testament in the Language of the People (1937, NTLP)
- Knox Bible (1949, KNOX)
- Revised Standard Version (1952, RSV)
- The Daily Study Bible (1954)
- The New Testament in Modern English (1958, NTME)
- Wuest Expanded Translation of the New Testament (1959, WET)
- The Berkeley Version in Modern English (1959, BV)
- Dake Annotated Reference Bible (1963)
- The Amplified Bible (1965, AMP)
- The Jerusalem Bible (1966, JB)
- The New American Bible (1970, NAB)
- New English Bible (1970, NEB)
- New American Standard Bible (1971, NASB or NAS)
- The Living Bible (1971, TLB)
- The Good News Bible (1976, GNB or GNT)
- The New International Version (1978, NIV)
- New King James Version (1982, NKJV)
- The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (1984)
- Revised English Bible (1989, REB)
- New Revised Standard Version (1990,NRSV)
- 21st Century King James Version (1994, KJ21)
- Contemporary English Version (1995, CEV)
- New Living Translation (1996, NLT) revised 2004
- English Standard Version (2001, ESV)
- The Message (2002, MSG)
- Holman Christian Standard Bible (2004, HCSB)
- Today’s New International Version (2005,TNIV)
- New English Translation (2005, NET)
Some of the above versions do not include the books that are found in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of the Old Testament but not in the Hebrew Bible. Some modern Bibles sometimes include them in the Old Testament or as an appendix, or sometimes omit them.
Also absent are materials from the Dead Sea Scrolls and The Nag Hammadi Scriptures which include The Gnostic Gospels: The Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Philip, The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Truth, The Gospel of Judas, Gospel to the Egyptians, Gospel to the Hebrews, The Secret Book of James, The Secret Book of John, etc.
The Bible, in its various versions, will forever be a valued source of REFERENCE and REVERENCE for many.
Jess A., 2020
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THE JEFFERSON BIBLE
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Introduction by Forrest Church
Afterword by Jaroslav Pelikan
“Gives us a preaching Jesus of distinctly human dimensions, without miracles or resurrection. [A] fascinating document, telling us a great deal about a great eighteenth-century mind and its world.”
Charles S. Adams, Religious Studies Review
“These excerpts from the four Gospels are among the most interesting and compelling in all the Scripture. They emphasize Jesus’s ethical lessons of love, reverence, forbearance, reproachment, repentance, and forgiveness.”
Garret Ward Sheldon, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
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We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus. There will be remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.
Thomas Jefferson
Featuring an introduction by Forrest Church, this reissue of The Jefferson Bible offers extraordinary insight into the logic of Thomas Jefferson and the Gospel of Jesus. Working in the White House in 1804, Jefferson set out to edit the Gospels in order to uncover the essence of true religion in the simple story of the life of Jesus. Jefferson was convinced that the authentic message of Jesus could be found only by extracting from the Gospels Jesus’ message of absolute love and service, rather than the miracle of the Annunciation, Virgin Birth, or even the Resurrection. Completed in 1819, this little book is the remarkable result of Jefferson’s efforts.
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Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) was the third president of the United States, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the founder of the University of Virginia. Among his proudest achievements was his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, passed by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1786, which became the first law of its kind in the United States. Also a noted architect and naturalist, Jefferson designed and built his home, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Forrest Church is senior minister of All Souls Church in New York City and author of Lifecraft.
Beacon Press, 1989