The Gorham Bible

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Red is Jesus speaking. Blue is God speaking. Black is narrative. Read a few verses and feel the difference before you decide.

Genesis 1:1–10

1599 Geneva Bible · modernized

God's speech Narrative

1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.

3Then God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

4And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

5And God called the Light, Day, and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

6Again God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.

7Then God made the firmament, and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.

8And God called the firmament, Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

9God said also, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so.

10And God called the dry land, Earth, and he called the gathering together of the waters, Seas. And God saw that it was good.

John 1:1–14

1599 Geneva Bible · modernized

Narrative

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God.

2The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by it, and without it was made nothing that was made.

4In it was life, and the life was the light of men.

5And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7The same came as a witness to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9That Light was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12But as many as received him, to them he gave power to be the sons of God, even to them that believe in his Name.

13Which are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father) full of grace and truth.

The 13th God

Essay · Aaron Gorham

On Paul, Canon, and the Architecture of Christian Authority

There are two ways to read the New Testament. The first is the canonical way — the order that emerged from a series of ecclesiastical decisions culminating in what the Council of Trent confirmed in the 1540s. That order opens with four Gospels, then the Acts of the Apostles, and then pivots immediately into Paul's thirteen epistles. Romans arrives before you have caught your breath from Acts. The Gospels and Paul are presented as a continuous theological project, one flowing naturally from the other.

The second way is historical. In this reading, Paul's letters were composed before any of the Gospels were written. They were addressed to specific communities — the church in Rome, the Galatian congregations, the households at Corinth — in response to specific crises. They were not composed as the theological sequel to the Sermon on the Mount. They were composed by a man who had never met Jesus in the flesh, who had in fact persecuted Jesus's followers, and who had a conversion experience on a road in Syria that he took as his commissioning to preach a gospel he describes as revealed to him directly, not taught by any human.

These two reading strategies produce startlingly different pictures of what Christianity is.

— continues in the app

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What is this?

Jefferson kept his scissors. We kept his logic.

In 1819, Thomas Jefferson compiled his own version of the New Testament — taking a razor and excising everything he believed was added after Jesus' death. He cut out Paul's epistles, miracles he didn't find credible, and what he called the "dogmas" built on top of Christ's actual words.

Most Christians treat Jefferson like a curiosity. But his editorial principle is rigorous: Paul's letters were written decades after Jesus died, by a man who barely knew him. The 13 epistles attributed to Paul reshaped Christianity into a religion about Christ rather than from Christ.

The Gorham Bible is not a theological experiment. It's a working tool for readers who want to engage Scripture through a Jeffersonian lens — who want to hear the voice of God and Jesus without the Pauline filter layered on top.

Three ways to read

Pick your lens.

Divine Speech

Only God's and Jesus' direct speech. No Pauline filter. The pure revelation as delivered — no epistolary commentary, no theology built on top.

Best for: Readers who want the kernel. Who trust Jesus and question the layers added afterward.

Full Bible

The complete 1599 Geneva Bible, modernized spellings. Paul's epistles are here — but relocated to sit after Revelation, not at the front.

Best for: Readers who want the full text with a rearranged order that reflects Jefferson-style skepticism of Pauline priority.

Gorham Style

Paul's letters placed after Revelation. Accompanied by the editorial essay "The 13th God" — a full argument for why Paul's epistles represent a departure from Jesus' actual teachings.

Best for: Readers who want the full case made. Who want to understand the editorial rationale, not just the result.