A — Abraham
Original French
ABRAHAM est un de ces noms célèbres dans l’Asie mineure, & dans l’Arabie, comme Thaut chez les Egyptiens, le premier Zoroastre dans la Perse; Hercule en Grece, Orphée dans la Thrace, Odin chez les nations septentrionales, & tant d’autres plus connus par leur célébrité, que par une histoire bien avérée. Je ne parle ici que de l’histoire profane; car pour celle des Juifs nos maîtres & nos ennemis, que nous croyons & que nous détestons, comme l’histoire de ce peuple a été visiblement écrite par le Saint-Esprit lui-même; nous avons pour elle les sentimens que nous devons avoir. Nous ne nous adressons ici qu'aux Arabes; ils se vantent de descendre d'Abraham par Ismaël; ils croyent que ce Patriarche bâtit la Mecque, & qu’il mourut dans cette ville. Le fait est que la race d’Ismaël a été infiniment plus favorisée de Dieu que la race de Jacob. L'une & l’autre race a produit à la vérité des voleurs; mais les voleurs Arabes ont été prodigieusement supérieurs aux voleurs Juifs. Les descendants de Jacob ne conquirent qu’un très-petit pays qu’ils ont perdu; & les descendants d’Ismaël ont conquis une partie de l’Asie, de l’Europe & de l’Afrique, ont établi un Empire plus vaste que celui des Romains, & ont chassé les Juifs de leurs cavernes qu’ils appellaient la terre de promission.
A ne juger des choses que par les exemples de nos histoires modernes, il serait assez difficile qu’Abraham eût été le père de deux nations si différentes; on nous dit qu’il était né en Caldée, & qu’il était fils d’un pauvre potier, qui gagnait sa vie à faire des petites idoles de terre. Il n’est guères vraisemblable que le fils de ce potier soit allé fonder la Mecque à trois cent lieuës de là sous le tropique, en passant par des déserts impraticables. S’il fut un conquérant, il s’adressa sans doute au beau pays de l’Assyrie; & s’il ne fut qu’un pauvre homme, comme on nous le dépeint, il n’a pas fondé des royaumes hors de chez lui.
La Genèse rapporte qu’il avait soixante & quinze ans lorsqu’il sortit du pays d’Aran après la mort de son père Tharé le potier. Mais la même Genèse dit aussi que Tharé ayant engendré Abraham à soixante & dix ans, ce Tharé vécut jusqu'à deux cent cinq ans, & qu'Abraham ne partit d’Aran qu’après la mort de son père. A ce compte il est clair par la Genèse même qu’Abraham était âgé de cent trente-cinq ans quand il quitta la Mésopotamie. Il alla d’un pays idolâtre dans un autre pays idolâtre nommé Sichem en Palestine. Pourquoi y alla-t-il? Pourquoi quitta-t-il les bords fertiles de l’Euphrate pour une contrée aussi éloignée, aussi stérile & pierreuse que celle de Sichem? La langue Caldéenne devait être fort différente de celle de Sichém, ce n’était point un lieu de commerce; Sichem est éloigné de la Caldée de plus de cent lieuës: il faut passer des déserts pour y arriver: mais Dieu voulait qu’il fit ce voyage; il voulait lui montrer la terre que devaient occuper ses descendants plusieurs siècles après lui. L’esprit humain comprend avec peine les raisons d’un tel voyage.
A peine est-il arrivé dans le petit pays montagneux de Sichem, que la famine l'en fait sortir. Il va en Egypte avec sa femme chercher de quoi vivre. Il y a deux cent lieuës de Sichem à Memphis; est-il naturel qu’on aille demander du blé si loin & dans un pays dont on n’entend point la langue? voilà d’étranges voyages entrepris à l’âge de près de cent quarante années.
Il amène à Memphis sa femme Sara, qui était extrêmement jeune & presque enfant en comparaison de lui, car elle n’avait que soixante & cinq ans. Comme elle était très-belle, il résolut de tirer parti de sa beauté; Feignez que vous êtes ma sœur, lui dit-il, afin qu’on me fasse du bien à cause de vous. Il devait bien plutôt lui dire, Feignez que vous êtes ma fille. Le Roi devint amoureux de la jeune Sara, & donna au prétendu frère beaucoup de brebis, de bœufs, d’ânes, d’ânesses, de chameaux, de serviteurs, de servantes: ce qui prouve que l’Egypte dèslors était un royaume très-puissant & très-policé, parconséquent très-ancien, & qu’on récompensait magnifiquement les frères qui venaient offrir leurs sœurs aux rois de Memphis.
La jeune Sara avait quatre-vingt dix ans selon l’écriture, quand Dieu lui promit qu’Abraham qui en avait alors cent soixante, lui ferait un enfant dans l’année.
Abraham qui aimait à voyager alla dans le désert horrible de Cadés avec sa femme grosse, toujours jeune & toujours jolie. Un roi de ce désert ne manqua pas d’être amoureux de Sara comme le roi d’Egypte l'avait été. Le père des croyants fit le même mensonge qu'en Egypte: il donna sa femme pour sa sœur, & eut encor de cette affaire des brebis, des bœufs, des serviteurs & des servantes. On peut dire que cet Abraham devint fort riche du chef de sa femme. Les commentateurs ont fait un nombre prodigieux de volumes pour justifier la conduite d’Abraham, & pour concilier la chronologie. Il faut donc renvoyer le lecteur à ces commentaires. Ils sont tous composés par des esprits fins & délicats, excellents métaphysiciens, gens sans préjugé, & point du tout pédants.
Musean translation
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation of the 73 articles in the 1764 first edition, made directly from the French and reviewed against the scan-collated French text. The author’s notes, quotations and verse are retained. Historical ethnic labels, including offensive terms, are retained from the 1764 text.
Abraham is one of those names famous in Asia Minor and Arabia, like Thoth among the Egyptians, the first Zoroaster in Persia, Hercules in Greece, Orpheus in Thrace, Odin among the northern nations, and so many others better known for their celebrity than for any well-established history. I speak here only of secular history; as for that of the Jews, our masters and our enemies, whom we believe and whom we detest, since the history of that people was plainly written by the Holy Spirit himself, we hold it in the regard we ought. Here we address only the Arabs. They boast of descending from Abraham through Ishmael; they believe this patriarch built Mecca and died in that city. The fact is that God has favored Ishmael’s race infinitely more than Jacob’s. Both races have indeed produced robbers, but the Arab robbers have been prodigiously superior to the Jewish ones. Jacob’s descendants conquered only a very small country, which they lost; Ishmael’s descendants conquered part of Asia, Europe, and Africa, established an empire vaster than the Romans’, and drove the Jews from the caves they called the Promised Land.
Judging things only by examples from our modern histories, it would be rather difficult for Abraham to have fathered two such different nations. We are told he was born in Chaldea and was the son of a poor potter who earned his living making little earthen idols. It is hardly likely that this potter’s son went to found Mecca three hundred leagues away, beneath the tropic, crossing impassable deserts. If he was a conqueror, he doubtless turned toward the fine country of Assyria; and if he was merely a poor man, as he is portrayed to us, he did not found kingdoms beyond his homeland.
Genesis relates that he was seventy-five when he left the country of Haran after the death of his father, Terah the potter. But the same Genesis also says that Terah fathered Abraham at seventy, that Terah lived to two hundred and five, and that Abraham did not leave Haran until after his father’s death. By this reckoning Genesis itself makes it clear that Abraham was a hundred and thirty-five when he left Mesopotamia. From one idolatrous country he went to another, called Shechem, in Palestine. Why did he go there? Why leave the fertile banks of the Euphrates for a region as remote, barren, and stony as Shechem? The Chaldean language must have differed greatly from that of Shechem; it was no trading center. Shechem lies more than a hundred leagues from Chaldea, and deserts must be crossed to reach it. But God wanted him to make this journey; he wanted to show him the land his descendants would occupy several centuries later. The human mind has difficulty understanding the reasons for such a journey.
He has scarcely reached the little mountainous country of Shechem before famine drives him out. With his wife he goes to Egypt in search of a livelihood. Shechem is two hundred leagues from Memphis. Is it natural to seek grain so far away, in a country whose language one does not understand? These are strange journeys to undertake at nearly a hundred and forty years of age.
He brings to Memphis his wife Sarah, who was extremely young, almost a child beside him, being only sixty-five. Since she was very beautiful, he resolved to profit from her beauty. “Pretend you are my sister,” he told her, “so that I may be treated well on your account.” He would have done much better to say, “Pretend you are my daughter.” The king fell in love with young Sarah and gave the supposed brother many sheep, oxen, male and female donkeys, camels, menservants, and maidservants. This proves that Egypt was already a very powerful and civilized kingdom, and consequently a very ancient one, and that brothers who came to offer their sisters to the kings of Memphis were magnificently rewarded.
Young Sarah was ninety, according to Scripture, when God promised her that Abraham, who was then a hundred and sixty, would give her a child within the year.
Abraham, who loved to travel, went into the dreadful desert of Kadesh with his pregnant wife, still young and still pretty. A king of that desert duly fell in love with Sarah, just as the king of Egypt had. The father of the faithful told the same lie as in Egypt: he passed his wife off as his sister, and once again gained sheep, oxen, menservants, and maidservants from the affair. One may say that this Abraham grew very rich through his wife. Commentators have produced a prodigious number of volumes to justify Abraham’s conduct and reconcile the chronology. We must therefore refer the reader to those commentaries. They were all composed by subtle and delicate minds, excellent metaphysicians, people without prejudice, and not in the least pedants.
Plain English translation
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Plain English translation of the same 73 articles, made directly from the French and reviewed against the scan-collated French text. The author’s notes, quotations and verse are retained. Historical ethnic labels, including offensive terms, are retained from the 1764 text.
In Asia Minor and Arabia, everyone knows the name Abraham. Egypt has Thaut; Persia has the first Zoroaster; Greece has Hercules. Thrace has Orpheus, and the northern nations have Odin. There are many more whose fame far outweighs any solid history about them. I’m only talking about history outside religion here. The Jews are our teachers and our enemies: we believe them and hate them. Their history was clearly written by the Holy Spirit himself. So we have the feelings about it that we’re supposed to have. Here, though, we’re only speaking to the Arabs. They boast of coming from Abraham’s family through Ishmael. They believe this patriarch founded Mecca and died in that city. Here’s the fact: God has favored Ishmael’s family infinitely more than Jacob’s. Admittedly, both families have produced robbers. But as robbers, the Arabs have vastly outdone the Jews. Jacob’s descendants took over just one tiny country, and they’ve lost it. Ishmael’s descendants took over parts of three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa. Their empire stretched farther than Rome’s. They drove the Jews from their caves, which they called the Promised Land.
Think of the examples we find in our modern histories. On that basis, it’s rather hard to accept Abraham as the father of two such different nations. We’re told he came from Chaldea. His father was a poor potter who earned his living making little clay idols. Could this potter’s son really have founded Mecca, three hundred leagues away, under the tropic? He’d have had to cross deserts that couldn’t be crossed. It’s hardly likely. If he conquered lands, surely he headed for the lovely country of Assyria. If he was just a poor man, as we’re told, he didn’t go abroad founding kingdoms.
In Genesis, he leaves Haran at seventy-five, after his father Terah the potter dies. Yet the same book says Terah was seventy when Abraham was born. It gives Terah’s age at death as two hundred and five. And Abraham didn’t leave Haran until his father was dead. By Genesis’s own figures, then, he left Mesopotamia at a hundred and thirty-five. He moved between two countries that worshiped idols. The second was called Shechem, in Palestine. What took him there? Why leave the Euphrates with its fertile banks? Why go somewhere so far away, so barren and rocky as Shechem? People there must have spoken a very different language from Chaldean. Shechem wasn’t a place for trade. It lay over a hundred leagues from Chaldea, beyond stretches of desert. But God wanted Abraham to travel there. He wanted him to see the land his descendants would settle several centuries later. It’s hard for the human mind to see the reasons for that trip.
Almost as soon as he reaches this little mountain country, famine forces him out. He and his wife head for Egypt to find something to eat. Memphis lies two hundred leagues from Shechem. Would you normally go that far to ask for grain? And to a country where you can’t understand the language? These are odd trips for someone nearly a hundred and forty.
At Memphis, he has his wife Sarah with him. Next to him, she was extremely young, practically a child: just sixty-five. She was so beautiful that he decided to make something from her looks. He told her, “Say you’re my sister. That way, people will do me favors because of you.” “Say you’re my daughter” would have made more sense. The king fell for young Sarah. Her supposed brother received plenty of sheep, oxen, donkeys of both sexes, camels, and servants of both sexes. That proves Egypt was already a very powerful kingdom with a highly developed society. So it must also have been very old. It proves something else: brothers got handsome rewards for offering their sisters to the kings of Memphis.
Scripture says young Sarah had reached ninety when God made her a promise. Within the year, she’d have a child by Abraham, then a hundred and sixty.
Fond of travel, Abraham took his pregnant wife into the terrible Kadesh desert. She was still young and still pretty. Sure enough, a king there fell for her, just like the Egyptian king. The father of believers used his Egyptian lie again: his wife was his sister. Once again, the deal brought him sheep, oxen, and male and female servants. You could say Abraham owed his great wealth to his wife. To defend his behavior and get the dates to fit, commentators have filled an astonishing number of books. The reader will have to turn to them. Their writers all have subtle, sensitive minds. They’re excellent at metaphysics, have no prejudices, and aren’t pedantic at all.
About this section
A — Abraham is part of Pocket Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire. This page sets the French original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is article 1 of 73 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
Open the work page for the full contents, every edition, and the download links, or go back to Explore to browse other complete works in the European tradition. The reader keeps your place when you are signed in and lets you compare the original with each translation, one edition at a time.