Emmanuel Pétavel-Olliff

Who was Emmanuel Pétavel-Olliff?

Dr. Emmanuel Pétavel-Olliff was a Swiss pastor and biblical scholar.

He was son of Abram-François Pétavel, Neuchâtel pastor, pro-Jewish writer and author of the poem La fille de Sion; ou, le rétablissement d'Israël

Pétavel-Olliff wrote an early history of the Bible in France. In 1866 Pétavel-Olliff formed a society in Paris for the publication of a new ecumenical French translation of the Bible which was to include Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and independent scholars. Originally the project had government support and the participation of Catholic scholars, but by the second conference in Paris in 1867 the Catholic scholars had withdrawn and the project was abandoned.

In England Pétavel-Olliff was mainly known for the translation of La fin du mal which presented a Protestant case for conditional immortality.