Jefferson once said to a friend, “He boldly questions even the existence of a god; for, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason, rather than that of blindfolded fear (Portal).” Jefferson often read his Bible and carefully selected the “pure teachings” of Jesus from the “contrasting accounts” he found in the New Testament. Jefferson's problems with the various scriptures of the Bible led him to create his own version of the Bible. Jefferson cut out parts of the Bible that he agreed with and then pasted them onto the pages of a blank book. The result of Jefferson's extraction is now known as the "Jefferson Bible" and is currently housed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Jefferson's Bible was not intended to be seen by other people, it was simply intended for his family's personal studies and beliefs (Onuf). Thomas Jefferson once made this statement to a friend regarding his excerpt from the Bible: “I have also made a little book, out of the same materials, which I call The Philosophy of Jesus. It is a paradigm of his doctrines, made by cutting out the texts from the book and arranging them on the pages of a blank book in a certain order of time or topic. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics than I have ever seen. It is a document that proves that I am a true Christian..”