John Adams on the King James Bible and Accuracy of the Bible’s Text
Jonathan Rowe on Sep 18th 2006
Time to bring back the John Adams quotation of the week feature. This set of quotations is to illustrate that Adams thought the Bible was errant.
We have now, it seems a National Bible Society, to propagate King James’s Bible, through all Nations. Would it not be better, to apply these pious subscriptions, to purify Christendom from the corruptions of Christianity, than to propagate these corruptions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America!
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 1816. Taken from James H. Hutson, The Founders on Religion, p. 143.
Elsewhere Adams makes it clear that he thought the Bible, as profound a book that it was, contained “error[s],” “amendment[s]” and suspected “fabrication[s].”
What suspicions of interpolation, and indeed fabrication, might not be confuted if we had the originals! In an age or in ages when fraud, forgery, and perjury were considered as lawful means of propagating truth by philosophers, legislators, and theologians, what may not be suspected?
John Adams, marginal note in John Disney’s Memoirs (1785) of Arthur Sykes. Haraszti, Prophets of Progress, 296. Taken from James H. Hutson, The Founders on Religion, p. 26.
Finally, Adams’s suspicion of the accuracy of the Bible’s text lead him to doubt that we had the right version of the Ten Commandments in the first place.
When and where originated our Ten Commandments? The Tables and The Ark were lost. Authentic copies, in few, if any hands; the ten Precepts could not be observed, and were little remembered.
If the Book of Deuteronomy was compiled, during of after the Babilonian Captivity, from Traditions, the Error or Amendment might come in there.
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 14, 1813.
Filed in The Belfry, The Bookshelf
John Adams on the Bible
Jonathan Rowe at Positive Liberty has a few quotations from John Adams on the Bible. This one from a November 4, 1816 letter to Thomas Jefferson is an interesting example of one element of his views. We have now, it…
In a so-called heathen text that was “rescued” during the early last century/millennium, the Egyptian Book of the Death, lies this [mangled] quote:
“Not have I despised god []… Not have I killed [...] Not have I fornicated [...] Not have I despoiled the thing of the god [...] not have I defiled the wife of a man [...] Not have I cursed god [...] Not have I borne false witness.”
These were sins a person had to denounce on his way to have the weight of his heart (and the burdens of his true sins) tested against the Feather of Maat. He was to answer each queary of various sins by describing that he had not done so. Since Moses was to have come from Egypt, it is likely that he would have been familiar with this ritual, raised as an Egyptian (not as a Jew) and would have been prepared for his own afterlife before his conversion. It is possible that the tablets were his own creation in this sense (speaking as an agnostic).
Thus one can argue much of the laws of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the story of Exodus, as well as the apparently violent nature of the Jews upon entering Canaan and finding the Semites of the region occupying “their” land, comes from Egyptian philosophy (divine right of kings, the principle of Emminent Domain, and so forth).
So Bart Ehrman is just channeling Adams.
I’m curious whether Adams said the same things about other classical literature, since it’s pretty universally agreed that the textual situation for the Bible is much, much better than for almost any other ancient text.
Adams seems pretty certain that all religions — and their holy books — like Christianity had been corrupted. And when you strip away the “corruptions” they all reveal the same Truth (and are thus valid ways to God). And that Truth, “conviently” was the Theistic Rationalism to which he and Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington and the other key Founders personally believed.
From what I’ve read Adams did indeed believe that all classical texts were suspect. He doesn’t single out Christianity or the Biblical writers. But rather sees a worldwide ancient conspiracy to suppress the Truth.
I have read the information you have posted. I am not sure what is the point of the article. Please enlighted me.
Oosp, Sorry I forgot to post the article I had a question about
John Adams on the King James Bible and Accuracy of the Bible’s Text
The point of the article was to show that Adams thought the Bible — King James in particular — was errant, not “infalliable.”
[...] A reader skeptical of this theory asked whether Adams believed the Bible was errant or man’s reason was penultimate before the 1800s when he resumed his correspondence with Jefferson. The answer is yes. I’ve written about it here. In 1785, Adams wrote: What suspicions of interpolation, and indeed fabrication, might not be confuted if we had the originals! In an age or in ages when fraud, forgery, and perjury were considered as lawful means of propagating truth by philosophers, legislators, and theologians, what may not be suspected? [...]