[July 2001 journal entry]
The Nashville Tennessean recently ran an Associated Press article about ‘The Jefferson Bible’. In what way/s is my ‘non-religious’ hermeneutic ‘grid’ similar to Jefferson’s selection of what he considered the most authentic material in the four Gospels? One possible difference might be my care/precision in delineating the components of the hermeneutic ‘grid’ by which I make such decisions. Did Jefferson simply pick what he liked? I certainly would not agree with Jefferson’s comment to Adams – i.e., that deciding what to keep was easy because it was “as distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill”.
