Holy Books of World Religions in the Voltaire Library

Although Voltaire received an excellent education at the prestigious Jesuit Collège in Paris, he had rather superficial theological knowledge. In 1760-1770, Voltaire launched a public campaign against religious intolerance. To better understand the issue, the writer thoroughly learnt the Bible, the church fathers, theological literature, acquiring many Christian books. The Voltaire Library contains numerous editions of the Holy Scriptures, including an annotated Bible, printed in 1551 by the famous publisher Robert Estienne (БВ 1–229), and the first widespread French translation of the Bible, called the Bible de Sacy (the 1730 edition: БВ 1–228).

The Library includes also many Old Testament books in Latin: Ecclesiastes, the Book of Job, Psalms (the 1611 Paris edition) as well as the 1756 edition of the Genevan Psalter in French, and two other translations, Psalm XII in German and the Book of the Prophet Nahum in Italian verses. There are also the Apocalypse with Bossuet's interpretations (The Hague, 1690) and the Greek-Latin Parallel New Testament, produced in Amsterdam. Traces of reading (bookmarks) are found in the 1532 Bible, in the Greek-Latin New Testament. The Bible de Sacy has Voltaire's marginal notes. For example, Voltaire marks a passage from the second chapter of the Book of Wisdom of Solomon (3. 18):

"…For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies"

and writes in a bookmark on page 823, "fils / de dieu / vray sens de ce mot (son / of god / true meaning of this word)".

Voltaire annotated many books in his library very extensively. The famous Bible in 25 volumes, commented by Augustin Calmet, A Literal Commentary on all the Books of the Old and New Testaments (БВ 1–226), could serve as an example. As Vladimir Lublinsky stated, this edition includes "almost the entire biblical text, in a literal and dogmatic interpretation authorized by the Church" ². For example, in the commentary to the Gospel of Matthew, Voltaire marks a fragment about the expulsion of the merchants from the Temple by Jesus with a vertical line in the margin and a bookmark with a remark "merchants, scourged" (marchands fessez).

We also can find the works of the Fathers of the Church in the Voltaire Library. Let us mention in particular the Complete Works of St. Jerome (БВ 1–232), on the pages of which Voltaire left papillon stickers³); the Contre Celse by Origen, translated in French by Elie Bouhéreau (Amsterdam, 1700: БВ 2–204); numerous St. Augustine's books, including his famous Confessions (1737: БВ 9–146), the City of God (БВ 9–145), the Letters (БВ 1–9) and less known works, such as the Sermons on the New Testament (БВ 1–10) and the Sermons on the Seven Psalms (БВ 1–12). The library contains also works by Eusebius of Caesarea (The Chronicles (Leiden, 1606: БВ 1–233) and L'Histoire Ecclésiastique translated in French by Cousin (Paris, 1675: БВ 2–233). Early Christian writers are fairly well represented, unlike theologians and philosophers of a later time: among the main medieval philosophers and theologians we can see only Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Theologique (Lyon, 1738: БВ 1–238).

Voltaire criticized the Christian Church for intolerance and fanaticism and sought an alternative. Like many in the 18th century when there was a fashion for everything Chinese, he paid special attention to China and Chinese religion, Confucianism. Voltaire considered Confucianism as an example of philosophical tolerance. It is no coincidence that the Voltaire Library includes a description of the Confucian religion, the Confusius Sinarum philosophus (Paris, 1687) (БВ 5–252) and the Chou-King, a holy book of the Chinese, (Paris, 1770) with reading traces (БВ 9–255).

While Voltaire saw Confucianism as a model of tolerance, Islam and Judaism, in his opinion, are fanatical religions. An English Koran (БВ 9 –257) from the Voltaire Library contains traces of reading: notes and bookmarks (Voltaire knew English well). In one of the bookmarks dealing with the problem of monotheism, Voltaire entered into a polemics against Christian views, "dieu / est letre eternel / il n’a ny fils/ ny pere. rien / nest semblable / a luy" ("god / is an eternal being / he has neither a son/ nor a father. There is nothing / like / him" ).

The Voltaire Library also includes sacred scriptures of the other major world religions, in particular, the Avesta, a Zoroastrian prayer book, (Zend-Avesta, a book by Zoroaster. Paris, 1771, three volumes with marginal notes: БВ 9–256). The translator, famous French orientalist Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron wrote a foreword for a book. In it, he narrates his trip to India and describes the ceremonies of Zoroastrians, performed before a sacred fire. Voltaire left a bookmark at the spot where Anquetil-Duperron writes that he visited the fire temple. The bookmark bears the philosopher's note: "He enters the fire temple of Derimer". The Voltaire Library also contains a study of the beliefs of Manichaeism, an ancient religion, now extinct (I. Beausobre. Critical History of Manes and Manichaeism. Amsterdam, 1734-1739,: BV 2–217). Like Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism taught that life is the struggle between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, the two fundamental principles of the universe.