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There is a popular anecdote among the Bible Societies of France, who was director of the Institut et
Christian apologists that Voltaire Switzerland and the UK to seek ver- Mus6e Voltaire in Geneva. In
(1694-1778) once remarked that the ification of the story. response to a query from Hills about
Bible would soon become a forgot- the Voltaire anecdote, Besterman
ten book, but the house in which he A categorical denial was received wrote:
made this prediction later became from Pierre Barreto, Communi-
the headquarters of a Bible Society cations Officer of the Alliance ... None of Voltaire's homes is or
who used it to publish or distribute Biblique Franqaise: ever has been connected in any
Bibles. way with any Bible Society. This
That absurd rumor [was] born applies to all Voltaire's homes,
This ironic tale has been repeated in some time ago in the US but it is whether in France, Germany,
many books and web sites [I], fre- completely false: no house Switzerland, or anywhere else.
quently with contradictory details. where Voltaire lived is currently [41
The location of the house is usually or has been occupied by a Bible
given as Geneva [2], sometimes as Society, and not even by a print- Hills concluded by expressing her
Paris [3], and there are even occa- ing company working for a Bible hope that "none of the present
sional references to Germany and Society, neither in France nor in American Bible Society folks are
Austria. Switzerland. guilty of propagating this tale''.
The Bible society in question is var- Dolly Clottu, Secretariat of the And according to another report on
iously identified as the Geneva Bible Societk Biblique Suisse, wrote that: the anecdote:
Society and the British and Foreign
Bible Society. And the date this We don't have and can't find ...the closest affirmation of this
society is said to have occupied any other information about version of the story is that the
Voltaire's house ranges anywhere this popular anecdote. I have British and Foreign Bible
from twenty years to a hundred asked a former General Society depot in Paris stands or*
years after the death ofvoltaire. Secretary who lives in the sur- a site once occupied by a prism
roundings of Lausanne and he is for those convicted of minor
It is also noteworthy that the more definite: he has neves heard offences (embezzlement, debt,
ill-advised versions of the anecdote about this story etc.) in which, according to the
refer to Voltaire as an Atheist when choice of sources, Voltaire may
he was in fact a Deist. Rosemary Mathew, Librarian of the or may not have been confined.
UK Bible Society, responded, "the No other residence of his has
Voltaire Vindicated? question of Voltaire's house is one been an office of any Bible
that crops up every so often and we Society. [5]
Most writers give no sources or cita- have a couple of documents which
tions for the anecdote; if Voltaire prove the story false''. In the face of such authoritative
ever made such a predication about denials, how did the anecdote origi-
the fate of the Bible I was unable to These little-known documents held nate? The earliest mention I have
trace it while researching this arti- by the UK Bible Society include a found occurs in Sidney Collett's The
cle. record of correspondence between Scripture of Truth, originally pub-
Margaret T. Hills (1898-1972), lished in the UK in 1905:
But was Voltaire's house used by a Librarian of the American Bible
Bible society? As a first step to Society, and Voltaire's biographer, Voltaire, the noted French infi-
obtaining an answer, I contacted Theodore Besterman (1904-l976), del who died in 1778, said that
[l]"Voltaire declared over a century ago [7] See for example Geisler and Nix, op.
that God is dead, but his house today is cit.; Josh McDowell, Evidence That
headquarters of the Bible Society" - Demands a Verdict (San Bernadino:
Letter to The New Zealand Herald, 3rd Here's Life Publishers, 1979, p. 20). In
August 2003 by Wyn Fountain of correspondence with the present writer,
Kohimarama, Auckland. Here we find a secretarial staff representing Geisler and
confusion within an error: it was McDowell acknowledged that these
Nietzsche, not Voltaire, who pro- apologists could not provide independ-
nounced the death of God. ent verification of Collett's account.
The quotation here attributed to Voltaire [15] Louis Polla, "Lausanne D'Hier et
bears a suspicious resemblance to a D'Aujourd'hui", 0p.Cit.
statement actually made by Thomas
The Open Society Volume 77 No 1 Autumn 2004