Louis de Carrières

Who was Louis de Carrières?

Louis de Carrières was a French priest and Bible commentator.

Carrières was born in the chateau de la Plesse in Avrille, Angers. He entered the French Oratory at a time when such masters as Le Cointe, Thomassin, Malebranche, Richard Simon, and Bernard Lamy were flourishing, and made the Bible the preferred subject of his studies. He founded a scholarship in Biblical studies, the first beneficiary of which was C. F. Houbigant. Carrières held various offices in his community, and earned the reputation as a priest both modest and learned.

His work La Sainte Bible en francais, avee un commentaire littéral inséré dans la traduction won a place among the readers of the scriptures in French. It differs markedly from anything published by earlier commentators. Taking Isaac-Louis Le Maistre de Sacy's translation as a framework, Carrières added a few words of paraphrase here and there to explain difficulties or clear up obscure places. These simple and short additions inspired for the most part by Vatable, Tirinus, Menochius, Bonfrere and Cornelius Jansen, and printed in italics, are easily discernible from the text itself, with which they are also united so as to form one continuous narrative. There are thus no notes to interrupt the text. There are a few errors, however — occasional mistranslations, some groundless hypotheses and opinions later discredited, some unfortunate choices of authorities and interpretations.