Where did Jefferson get the idea that all men are created equal and that God gives us human rights?

Question

Is this idea found in the Bible, or did it come from the freethinkers of the Enlightenment? Please cite specific authors and works, or chapter and verse.

Answer 1

The notion of rights given by God comes from the Old Testament, where many specific references cite the rights of poor and marginalized persons, thus implying equality.

Job 36:6: He does not keep the wicked alive but gives the afflicted their rights.

Psalm 82:3: Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Proverbs 31:5: lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

Proverbs 31:8-9: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Ecclesiastes 5:8: If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.

Isaiah 10:2: to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

Jeremiah 5:28: Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor.

Locke, Mason, et al. are latecomers. They built on the ideas of Hebrew prophets who wrote more than 2000 years earlier.

CDF

Answer 2

Spiritually: equivalent (all the two sinful, all the two stored in the event that they settle for Christ). additionally all Christians have religious presents of their very own, and none might properly be pronounced as greater advantageous than the different. bodily: distinctive, some races have a generally superior build or taller top (e.g. blacks), yet blanket statements are fallacies. Mentally/Emotionally: it is real that some races are, returned, generally greater mentally adept than others. it is a made from practise (Asians have a tendency to pass by plenty greater rigorous practise, probable why they gain this properly academically), yet genetics might additionally come into play. can we choose in accordance with those issues? If we do, that's a sin. I assure there are Negroids, Mongoloids and Caucasoids that are smarter, superior, quicker, et cetera than me in the international. I have no concept what a guy or woman is like interior via finding at them. All adult males being created equivalent is merely no longer in the Bible (except you're speaking approximately sin or the concept that each and every person die). the modifications is a results of the fall of mankind, degradation in genetics, and finally sin. whilst guy grew to become into first created, of their sinless state, they could've all been equivalent (if Adam and Eve had propagated earlier their fall). besides the undeniable fact that it is merely no longer real; sin has corrupted our comprehensive race, and the actual and psychological effects of that are in specific circumstances erratically unfold. yet: what extremely concerns is that we are all the two sinFUL, and all the two choose salvation.

Answer 3

Jefferson was inspired by the writers of the Enlightenment- especially John Locke. Locke's 2 Treatises on Govt. provide a lot of the inspiration and material for the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

I am not sure if human rights are the same as inalienable rights. (Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness)

Answer 4

Its probably a derivation of John Locke, certainly borrowing from such documents as the Magna Carta, etc.

He also had a bunch of others around him that thought similarly (Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, etc.)

I don't think he directly used the Bible ... but since he is very much a product of Western culture which is immersed in the traditions of Christianity, it certainly had some effect.

Answer 5

Jefferson blatantly ripped off George Mason, who was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Where did Mason get these ideas? That is a different question ;).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Declaration_of_Rights

Answer 6

John Locke who extended Hobbes' (I think) notion of Natural Law. Namely that the idea that national kings have God-given right to govern is flawed. This expunges the notion that certain individuals have more political rights than others and that democracy is the natural course of man.

Answer 7

According to other controversy about this statement..
they interpret what Jefferson said as meaning "Equal under the Law"

As far as that statement being biblical the only thing I have seen is that God is no respector of persons.........meaning that social status, rich or poor, king, queen, or president has no bearing on ones salvation, it obiedience to his word.

Answer 8

Jefferson was a Deist, not a Christian. He was more of a freethinker, so he wasn't fettered by the Bible. The Bible of course, indicates that all men are not created equal.

Answer 9

He got it from the development of philosophy during the Revolutionary period. It is however, mistaken. Del≠Bruce. If he means that every member of the human race has certain obligations towards every other human being, then he is correct. If he means that every human being in every station of life has the same rights, then this is not Biblical.

Answer 10

You must remember that was a different time than now. "All men created equal" was all free white men of a prestigious place to him. Meanwhile, his wife and slaves were downstairs waiting hand and foot on him. God wants us to believe everyone is equal. Galatians 5:22 the fruit of the spirits. It does not say "Only Hawaiians can do these." Jesus healed everyone with sickness, not Just Jews.