<i>For and Against the Bible: A Translation of Sylvain Maréchal’s ‘Pour et contre la Bible’ (1801)</i> . Translated by Sheila Delany <i>For and Against the Bible: A Translation of Sylvain Maréchal’s ‘Pour et contre la Bible’ (1801)</i> . Translated by DelanySheila. (Studies in Critical Research on Religion, 11.) Leiden: Brill, 2020. xv + 200 pp.

This work, never before translated into English, consists of Sylvain Maréchal’s introductory ‘Epistle to Ministers of All Religions’, and three further parts: Part One is devoted to Jewish Scripture (a commentary on the Old Testament), Part Two to Christian Scripture (the New Testament), with the much shorter Part Three entitled ‘Result of Reading the Bible’. Despite Maréchal’s opening claim in the first of what will be numerous NBs that the Bible ‘has never been submitted to an impartial critique’ (p. 22), it will surprise no one to hear that the author of the campaigning Dictionnaire des athées anciens et modernes (1800) concludes his supposedly impartial critique with the view that ‘this book of blood and mud’ is a ‘literary chaos’, a ‘terrible book’, and that, in defiance of its correcting and consoling aims, people continue ‘to live like demons’ as they always have done (pp. 187, 185, 188). For and Against the Bible is by turns hectoring and sardonic, entirely in the anti-clerical tradition of Meslier (often cited), Voltaire, and Naigeon, Maréchal’s exact contemporary and atheist fellow-traveller. For anyone keen to get a quick sense of its character, the opening ‘Epistle’ and closing ‘Result’ offer perfect examples of Maréchal’s apostrophizing energy: sixteen paragraphs in the Introduction commence with ‘Ministres de tous les cultes!’, and a further fifteen start with imperatives. Exclamatives and rhetorical questions abound. Yet Maréchal’s ‘impartial critique’ of every book of the Bible is also fascinating. He assesses it principally for two aspects: its literary quality and its morality. Hence, the story of the scapegoat in Leviticus has ‘something sublime to it’, while Numbers is ‘one of the least interesting’, despite ‘the tale of Balaam and his ass [being] amusing’ (pp. 48, 49). The style of Joshua is ‘quite ordinary’ while in Judges there is ‘a great deal of poetry’ (p. 54). He approves the Book of Ruth’s ‘simplicity and innocence, which excuse and justify everything’ (p. 55); he considers it equal to any model, ancient or modern, of pastoral writing. Maréchal also comments on biblical translations and adaptations — neither Rousseau nor Favart fare particularly well (pp. 55–56) although Racine does better (p. 133). Sheila Delany’s own translation is strong, and this is the third in a trilogy of Maréchal translations she has undertaken. Initially a Chaucerian, she translated Maréchal’s Nouvelle légende dorée (1790) and La Femme abbé (1801) as Anti-Saints (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2012) and The Woman Priest (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2016). Her interest is in the long history of religion and satires thereof, as is emphasized by the placing of For and Against the Bible within Brill’s ‘Studies in Critical Research on Religion’. Her Introduction is framed within a discussion of religious discourse in modern America, starts with an anecdote about Donald Trump’s Vice-President, Mike Pence, and criticizes nations where there is no separation of powers. If her presentation of the French Revolution can be sensationalizing or partisan (in 1800, for example, ‘there was a climate of fear for many, decadence for others’, while Napoleon crowning himself emperor is termed ‘this horror’, p. 6), her commentary is nonetheless perfectly serviceable, and Maréchal would no doubt be only too pleased to be harnessed to further anti-religious polemic.

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