WEBVTT - Did Thomas Jefferson rewrite the Bible? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.360 from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.280 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always as 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.639 Charles W. Chuckers Bryant, and that makes this stuff you 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.640 should know. I'm always here for you. Josh. Yeah, Hey, 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.159 don't whatever. I'm glad you are. Chuck. Sure. This is 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:38.120 UM Day two, Episode two in the new Studio. Yes, 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.360 the walls are closing in on us. I'm kind of 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.720 looking in here now. I'm already used to it, Chuck, Josh. Um, 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.000 So the Bible has been popping up in my life 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:52.479 a lot lately. Really, Yeah, um, you mean? And I 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.800 just started subscribing to Harper's Monthly Weekly, one of those two. 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:02.160 It's like this magazine from like eight nine, okay. Um. 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.880 And in the first article of the first issue that 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.759 we got, it's um there's a there's I guess notes 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.959 section by a guy who says that the Old Testament 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.160 is an allegory for the Neolithic revolution. Remember we went 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.360 from hunting and gathering to agriculture. And he made some 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.520 really cool points, Um, like for example, Kane and Abel. 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:32.399 Abel was a herdsman, Kane was a farmer. Kane murdered Abel, right, 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.319 so he slew him, uh first murder. Ever, as far 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.560 as we know, yes, um, I can't remember what he 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.200 said about Adam and Eve. But basically like that's the 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.840 beginning where we It was actually kind of a cautionary tale. Yeah, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.559 like like be careful, there's all this other stuff associated 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.240 with agriculture that you're not seeing. Um So, I found 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.840 that intensely interesting. Then you suggest we do one on 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.760 the Jefferson Bible, and I'm like, what's going on here? 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:07.760 Right right? Third one, number three? This elderly woman by 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:13.040 all right, she's in her eighties, nineties, spitfire ladies still though, sure, 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:15.639 I didn't like to use a blinker When she stopped 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.959 suddenly in parking lots when I'm right behind her, the 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.240 um so I went around her. I was a little irritated, 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.799 and I wanted her to know it. She lays on 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.680 her horn and I let's stick my head out, and 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:31.560 I'm like, be quiet, and like you did not, I 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.760 go in park and I go into the into the um, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.680 into public spe quiet. This woman comes and finds me 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:44.359 and it's like, are you the sir, You the gentleman 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.280 who went around me and traffic blah blah blah, and 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.760 she's like berating me loudly in the middle of public. 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.920 He said, I'm no gentleman. So finally she ends it 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:57.680 with you need to get to church. And I was like, 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.760 I swear to God, I'm not kidding you. My friend 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.240 tom My bff Tom was on the phone with me. 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.680 He can verify this, and he said, Betty White is 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.200 coming after me in a public I wish this was 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.240 Betty White. This woman was terrifying. She was wearing like 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.440 clam diggers with um white sox, pulled up black s 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:22.280 a S shoes um. Her skin hung loose, and she 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.520 had fire in her She wanted to kill me. What 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.240 did you say? Did you reply anything? Or did you 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.480 just sheepish sleep? Rather, I wasn't sheepish. You're not gonna 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.040 say what you said? You can tell me afterwards there, right, okay? 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:36.080 But I was. I wasn't cheapish. I wasn't like entirely mean, 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.840 but I didn't I didn't frankly, as you know, I 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.560 quit the boy Scouts because I think that it's a 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:47.040 bad idea to just give blanket respect to the old 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.440 people because they're old. I've met some old jerks in 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.960 my time, and this was actually one of them. So yeah, 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.640 but this this week, man three, it's an exciting week. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.760 I never talked about the Bible. It never comes up, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.120 Church never comes up. But here we are, all right, Chuck. 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:12.400 Did Thomas Jefferson right or rewrite the Bible? Fact or fiction? Hey, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:18.520 that's old school, Josh. That is faction because he um, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.880 he did not rewrite the Bible, but he did cobble 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.239 together his own version of the Bible that he thought 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:32.240 was um valid and and should be read. I'll just 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.560 say that, which is actually, if you think about it, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:40.720 really a pretty pretentious and arrogant thing to do. This 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:45.240 wouldn't go over well in today's president If someone said Obama, UM, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.160 put together, you know, different parts of the Bible and 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.640 said that this was what I think the Bible should be, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.000 he wouldn't last too long. No, I don't think it 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.320 would have ever gone over If Taft had done it, 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.120 he would have been like run out of town on 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.480 a rail, Like, you can't do that. It's early day, 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.920 so you away with anything. Back then, I suspect that 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:07.080 Thomas Jefferson had um Asperger's from some of his uh, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.960 some of his um. His demeanor, the way carrying himself 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.800 is incredibly high level of intellect. Um. I suspect that 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.120 he had some something along those lines. Right, he might have. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.120 You can also say that he could not have cared 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.760 less what people thought of him. He did his own thing. 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:30.680 Highly intelligent guy. Um. And like you said, if it 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:32.400 had come out that the president had done that, a 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.080 lot of people are unaware of this, that it wouldn't 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.160 go over very well, which is why he didn't let 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.560 it out. I don't know that that's why he didn't 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.120 let it out. I think he just was doing it 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.039 for himself, genuinely. I don't think he was trying to 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.960 be secretive about it. But you were saying, like it 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.400 wouldn't go over well. Today, there's kind of it's kind 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.440 of um fashionable in certain quarters to point out that 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.599 the founding fathers were bent on founding a Christian nation. 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.720 It's a very contentious thing to say, although a lot 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.279 of people that's how they see the United States, right. 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:07.960 I think Thomas Jefferson cutting up the Bible and cutting 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.880 out all the miracles and what he considered gobbledygook kind 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.240 of undermines that argument a little bit. Don't you think, well, 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.680 he was a deist. It's a good time to bring 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.920 that up. George Washington was a deist. Benjamin Franklin and 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.400 what we call founders, they are they differ from traditional 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:29.440 Christians because they reject miracles, basically a lot of the prophecies, 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.760 and they says here they embraced the notion of a 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.400 well ordered universe created by God, but God then withdrew 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:41.560 into detached transcendence. They believe like a lot of things 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.560 Christians believe, but a lot a lot of people at 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.200 the time said this was a way for you to 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:51.160 reconcile your Christianity with all these amazing new scientific findings 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:52.919 that we're finding that kind of fly in the face 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:58.799 of Christianity. Right in Deism was the Enlightenment religion, right um. 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.080 And basically the way it looked at God is there's 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.920 a creator God, but he's kind of like a clockmaker, 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:08.480 and he created this clock of a universe wounded up 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.440 and just stood back to to watch it go. It's 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.160 a great way to say. And do you remember, like 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.960 in the really uber paranoid late nineties, right before the millennium. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.680 There's like kind of a concept that the universe is 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:24.120 a u the result of an alien experiment. That's kind 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:28.000 of like in the same vein. Actually there's some higher 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.520 power that doesn't have a hand in our individual lives, 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.280 but start created all this. Yeah, pretty interesting, it is. 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.520 So that was That was T J m BF and 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.080 g W T Jeff. That's what his nickname today would 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.640 be T Jeff. His nickname today is T Jeff as 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:50.520 of now. So um. He also was the he pinned 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.440 the Declaration of Independence, we should say, which most people know. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.920 He was also the one who co first elucidated the 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.480 wall of separation between church and state. Yeah, not did 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.800 not come from the Constitution. No, but he So there's 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:09.920 this Baptist Convention of dan Berry, Yes, the Connecticut Committee 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.800 of the dan Berry Baptist Association, and they wrote to 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.320 Jefferson saying, is this a Christian nation or not? Basically 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.600 he basically pointed to know he said, he said, he said, no, 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.720 I I I'm sure you agree with me that religion 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.200 is between a man and his God and really eloquently 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.880 said no, there's a First Amendment. There's a there's a 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.400 clause in the First Amendment that says that that UM 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:40.280 Congress won't um establish a religion, and so I Thomas 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.760 Jefferson as president and one of the guys who wrote that, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.200 see it as a wall of separation between church and state. 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.880 He thought it was a very very personal thing. Religion 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.760 was spirituality was a very personal thing. No one should 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.040 step in and tell you what to think about it, right, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.720 It's so personal that he decided to craft his own Bible. Yes. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.120 And one of the reasons he did us because Um, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.839 like we said, he was a deist deist or deist daist. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.240 I think you can go either way. Now he's a Deist. 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.800 And he was also very skeptical of who wrote the Bible, 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.360 the Gospels in particular. He thought they were quote unlettered 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.640 and ignorant. Yeah, basically how he saw the Bible writers. Um, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.920 that's where the name comes from. Yeah, those were the 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.360 Gospel writers. But they were also um Platonics. They followed 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:29.880 Plato and wrote around the time of Plato. Um. And 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:37.199 they remember when we were talking about like Halloween, Christmas, Easterday. Yeah, 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.120 they're all pagan holidays that we've adopted and christianized in 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:45.040 in an effort Um eastern together. Yeah, it wasn't. Yes, 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.839 spring harvest, spring um equinox, vernal equinox. I think it's 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.400 what it's called right, vernal and autumnal. Yes, vernal equinox, 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:58.320 and s Tera was a pagan goddess. Anyway, Um, this 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.600 is this, This is how he viewed the the Bible 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.600 being written like like there was a there was a 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:10.520 person named Jesus of Nazareth. He walked awesome guy, philosopher, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:16.679 incredible philosopher, had this amazing moral code what right? Um? 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.800 And then uh and espoused it to people who remembered it, 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.240 passed it down orally, and then somebody finally wrote it down. 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:25.840 But when they were trying to write it down, they 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.400 were also trying to establish a church. And Um, so 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.640 they added some magic so that they could they could 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.400 bring the pagans into the fold a miracles. Yes. And 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.880 he also believed and this is where he really wouldn't 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.760 jibe with today's UH system as a politician. He did 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.079 not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. He did 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.400 not believe that he was the son of God. He 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:53.200 thought that he was like Plato, essentially like a spot 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.800 on philosopher. But he thought a lot of them, he said. Um. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.160 He wrote a letter to John Adams in eighteen thirteen 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.120 and said that the book that he ended up putting together, 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:03.760 which we'll get into the nuts and bolts of that, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.000 but he said he called it the most sublime and 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.160 benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered demand. Yeah, 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.679 Jesus's philosophy. Yeah, so he clearly thought a lot of 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.559 of Jesus's philosophy, and he thought a lot of the 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:20.320 Greek um philosophers and I imagine other religious philosophers as well. 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.360 But what he was saying was that what Jesus had 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.240 come up with was as good as it gets. He 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.280 kind of bashed Plato though, did you see that? Yeah? 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.880 He read Plato in the original Greek and was like 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.640 many exactly he found it lackluster. Yeah. Yeah, well, I 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:35.920 guess he's hard to please. He read the Bible and 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.559 he cut it down to forty six pages. He did. 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.040 Christopher Hitchins put it like this, You know, Hits, he's 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.080 not he's not a big guy on religion. No, he 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.160 kind of actively combats it. But yeah, um on, there's 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.559 a forty six second clip on YouTube of Christopher Higgins 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.640 debating somebody, and he describes the Jefferson Bible as what 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.880 was left after Jefferson took a pair of scissors and 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.720 cut out anything that could not buy any intelligent person 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.800 be believed. It makes for a slender, convenient ready. And yeah, 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.160 I mean, if you take Christopher Hitchins, this is no 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.400 surprise to you. If you love Christopher Hitchins, this is 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.599 no surprise. Yes, But he got one thing wrong. He 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.560 apparently is a razor and not scissors. Small detail. He 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.080 literally he went through and was was scratching stuff out, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:23.840 and then I think he went back and started cutting 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.640 stuff out. Well, he probably that he found himself scratching 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.680 so much out he got tiresome, and he's like, I 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.439 should just see cut out what I do like instead 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.160 of scratching out what I don't like. Because all told, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.559 there are thirty one thousand, a hundred three Bible verses 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.800 numbered Bible verses, right, but he was just doing the 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.880 New Testament, so we're talking seven thousand and seven, right, 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:49.120 and specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which there 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:50.959 well there was more than that, but he he used 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.480 a lot for Matthew and Luke two thousand, two hundred 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.240 twenty two and Matthew and Luke and all told, he 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.920 only had the Jefferson Bible only had nine versus. So 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.439 he definitely paired down quite a bit big time. He Um, 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.840 he took out everything about he and he took he 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.920 took out everything about um Christ's birth, the virgin birth 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.880 that was gone. He left in the crucifixion, but it 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.920 ends at the burial. There's no resurrection. Yeah. Basically the 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:21.280 last verse was um John nineteen and they ended it. 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.040 His book ends with they rolled the stone in front 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:29.200 of the sepulcher and the the end. Uh. He he 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.559 left a lot of the Last Supper ing but kept 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.080 the part of the Eucharist out. This is my body, 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.480 my blood. Yeah. Um. So basically he just kept in 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.360 basically the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth and 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.720 his philosophy. Yeah. They in the article that he left 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.480 what they called what he considered genuine events like the 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.000 Sermon on the Mount, certain parables, the way to live 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:55.880 your life. And see, that's always been my deal. I 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.000 don't want to get too personal, but you know I 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:02.400 was right after the last two hundred episodes that. Yeah, 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.680 I was raised Southern Baptist and it wasn't the best 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.200 experience for me. But I still say, I still maintain 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:11.280 that the Bible has is a great moral code, and 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.439 there's lots of great parables that teach you how you 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.280 should act as a human. And apparently I'm in Jefferson's camp, 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.560 because that's what he ended up using as Uh. He 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.280 ended up calling it initially the Philosophy of Jesus of 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.880 Nazareth and then change that title later to the Life 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.800 and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, right, and then uh 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:36.320 in the edition there was a subtitle or how to 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:41.240 get Buying Queens on a dime of day. I'll long 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.400 have you been working on that one? Just now? Yeah? 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:47.200 Shut up? So, Um, it clearly wasn't called how to 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.360 Win Friends and Influence People, because he he this probably 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:52.400 wasn't a very popular thing to do even back then. 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.240 I'm sure it would have the same effect as how 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.800 to Win friends and Influence people? Though. Yeah, but he 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.200 did keep it quiet it Um, he said it was 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.480 for himself. Again, I don't think he kept it quiet. 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.960 I think he he was just keeping it for himself. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.400 I disagree with part A of the sentence you just said, 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:12.600 but agree with part B. Thank you. Yea. I have 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:13.880 a quote from him if you want to hear from 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:19.360 the man himself. Uh, Josh is wrong. No, sorry, he said, 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.040 I performed the operation for my own use by cutting 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.000 verse by verse out of the printed book and arranging 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.960 the matter, which is evidently his, and which is as 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.720 easily distinguished as diamonds and a dunghill. That's kind of harsh, 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.120 but he's saying that the stuff that really came from 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.640 Jesus mouth is the gold, the diamonds in the dunghill. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.680 So he extracted all that and that was what he 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.560 believed in. Well, yeah, he thought the Platonics were sellouts 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.240 that they should have just you know, maybe not added 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.600 quite so much. So what happened to it, Josh? What 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.960 happened to it? Was it? Basically again, he did it 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:59.000 for himself. Um. I think I read a reference that 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.920 he did it kind of on a whim or in um. Uh. 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.080 In response to a question from a friend to his 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.720 Dr Benjamin Rush, he said, like, how would you characterize 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.360 your view of Christianity? So he went about doing that. 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.520 I think it's the idea exactly got a razor um 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:20.160 and it was in his private library, which apparently somebody inherited, 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:25.560 and a Smithsonian librarian came across it. What I Cerrus Adler. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.240 What I found funny was Cyrus Adler is a government employee, 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.320 came across this and was like, I'm going to sell 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.920 list to the Library of Congress. You know though. Yeah, 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.280 they did, and they started putting it in print. Congress 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.160 ordered it in print. Um. Thomas Jefferson is considered the 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.360 father of the Senate. Uh. He was the first vice president. Um. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.880 So he and he wrote the rules of the Senate 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.920 that are still in use today. Uh. He just did 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.120 it because it was bored. One day, asked Berger's same 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.000 regin he cut up the Bible yeah, um, and so 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.280 Congress Um. Congress started publishing. I think it published like 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.520 nine thousand copies and even still today it's um a 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.600 customary welcome gift to new members of Congress. I find 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.639 that interesting, like the same Congress who are like, this 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.720 is a Christian nation. Yeah, but I mean it's still 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.240 in there. That's that's the diamond. But it is very 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.800 interesting that they would give an altered version of the 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.280 Bible as a gift. Yeah, I mean it's it's not 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.280 as odd as if they were to give like Alistair 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.840 Crowley's memoirs, but it was definitely a little odd. When 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.879 I read that, I was slightly shocked. Yeah, well it 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.560 kind of comes it kind of reveals a certain disingenuousness. 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.440 Done that, Yeah, a little bit possibly makes you think 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.919 at least well, and then lets you know what was 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.399 in Thomas Jefferson's mind, and he's easily one of the 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.919 most fascinating historical figures we have. You got anything else? No, 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.159 if you want to know more about the Jefferson Bible, 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:01.040 you can read this pretty cool article by McGrath. You 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.359 can find it online the whole Bible. You can do both. 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.200 How about let's get some people this site first, that's true. Uh. 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.200 You just type in Jefferson Bible and the handy search 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.160 bart how stuff works dot com. Uh, and then after 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:18.600 that you might as well just go read the Jefferson Bible, right, yes, yes, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:26.679 which leads us to listener questions. So yeah, we we 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.280 put out a call on Facebook a couple of weeks 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.480 ago for questions and we got bombarded. So we're actually 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.119 having to do this in installments, because there are a 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.280 lot of good questions. These are the really we need 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.040 new questions, man, No, no, no, no, old no. These 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:42.600 are brand new. You're lying every two weeks ago. But 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.680 there's still new because we haven't used them. So we're 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.240 gonna bust a lot of these pretty quickly. Chuck says, 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.920 who's taller between Josh Chuckers and Jerry. Josh is the tallest, 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.520 at a robust six ft or so. I'm about on 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.040 the nun about five tin, Jerry, how tall are you 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.880 behind the curtain? Go ahead, I've got one from Colin. 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.280 Who would win in a fist fight? Ire a Glass 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.520 or Josh? I think it would be a um we 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.080 can actually size we sized him up physically in person now. 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.320 I think it would be like a um, humiliating slap 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:19.840 fight for both guys. I don't know that there would 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.439 be a fight. Would be more like, um, do you 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:28.159 remember Adam Goldberg in Daisy Confused? Yes? Do you remember 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.560 when he's being pulled off or when when um Nikki 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:33.879 Kat's being pulled off at him? Yeah? I think it 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:35.879 would be like that, but both of us, both of 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:41.159 us is Adam Goldberg? Yeah? Uh? Tripp says can you 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.560 finally reveal the name of the big box appliance store 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.800 that UM did not do? Chuck right with his extended warty. 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.399 I don't think that that would be very smart. Do 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:51.320 you know that? Even I don't know what it is. 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.679 I don't think that would be very brand smart to do, Josh. 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:59.320 So I'm not going to thank you trip for the question, Chuck. 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.800 I'm not reading this one. So here's another one from Natalie. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.640 Would you consider doing a six degrees of separation from 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.679 your listeners? I go first. My sister Kathleen went to 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:16.000 ride Dan High School with Chuck. Kathleen egan awesome, So 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:21.000 that's not a question. Even ends in an exclamation point. 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.919 Tom says, what's it like being so old? Chuck? Tom? 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.760 It is awesome? Go ahead. Okay, there's one from Hannah. 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.760 Which is better cake or pie? What do you call 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.400 a soft drink? I call it soda. My pubby calls 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.520 it pop. That's two questions. I call it coke. I 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.359 call it coke as well. I grew up calling it pop. Yeah. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.879 What's better? Cake and pie? Actually, there's nothing better than 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:47.640 a good cake pie. Yeah? I like cake cake pie. Brittany, Oh, 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.080 this is Brittany from New York and actually, to answer 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.640 that question, pies better remember Brittany britt britt Yes, Brittany says, 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.080 does hippie Rob participate in the s y FK drinking 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:59.080 game which we don't sanction? No one knows we're a 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.080 hippie robbis and if so, is he the all time 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:04.720 record holder? Uh? I don't even know that hippie Rob 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.000 knows that s y s K exists, and of course 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.679 she doesn't. I don't think he does. Uh So, this 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:11.840 one's from Bobby. What are your favorite bands of all 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.960 times or your favorite songs? My favorite band of all time? 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:19.040 Clear winner is the Pixies. Chuck really oh yeah, probably 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:25.760 go with like the Who or Pavement. Maybe Zeppee Brianna 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.800 are favorite fan. Brianna says, what were your first impressions 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.439 of each other? I thought Josh was like me when 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:33.920 I first met a Mint. It turns out he sort 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.840 of is, and he's sort of not. It's not true 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.320 at all. Now I knew we were like fellow Um. 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:43.199 I thought you were a cool guy, reformed bad boys. 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.239 You know, you had that pack of cigarettes rolled up 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.719 in your sleeve. That was the dig giveaway I've got 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:53.000 one from Ebba. How does Jerry work? She doesn't? Oh, 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:58.160 not true? Um, Christopher, what's it like living in Hotlanta? 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.320 Particularly now that the summer starting? It is awful? And 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:03.920 I grew up here and it's still awful. And it's 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.760 not like you get used. It's gotten exponentially worse even 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:10.359 since I moved down here. You can't break, It's like 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.840 you're swimming outside. Yeah, I got one more. This one 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.040 is from Mark. If you could have one superpower, what 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.840 would it be? Flying invisibility? Well, those are the questions. 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.200 I'm not done yet. I got two more quick ones. 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.360 Josh Shan says, would you like cheese with that? Always 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:32.480 of course as the answer to that question. And Joe says, 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.520 what is the best most unique piece of free swag 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:38.880 anyone has sent you? And I think we just got 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.280 it this week. Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:45.119 the Root suit, are you? Yeah? The Root Suit, for 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:47.520 those of you that are always sunny in Philadelphia fans, 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:51.040 is the green Man costume that Charlie wears. And so 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:54.360 I requested a green Man outfit and you won't take 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:56.280 it off? And I got it, and I wrote the 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:58.000 guy today and said thank you so much for the 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.000 green Man thing. I'm really excited, and said your life, 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.680 your new life begins now, your new life of leaving 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:09.080 absolutely nothing to the imagination. Chuck, it's disturbing. Nobody wants 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:11.840