Louis Segond (3 May 1810 – 18 June 1885) was a
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
theologian who translated the
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
into French from the original texts in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
.
He was born in
Plainpalais
Plainpalais is a neighbourhood in Geneva, Switzerland, and a former Municipalities of the canton of Geneva, municipality of the Canton of Geneva.
It is mentioned in Mary Shelley's ''Frankenstein''.
Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges' ashes are ...
, near Geneva. After studying theology in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Strasbourg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
and
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, he was pastor of the Geneva National Church in
Chêne-Bougeries, then from 1872, Professor of Old Testament in Geneva.
Biography
Segond's family was of modest wealth; his father was a
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
shoemaker while his mother was a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
church of Geneva member, the denomination he would be baptized into.
He entered into the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...
in 1826, where he studied natural sciences. Afterward, he joined the theological department of the
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...
. During that time, he spent a year and a half working in Bonn and another year in
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...
. In 1839, he became pastor of the Genevan Church in
Chêne-Bougeries.
In 1871, he returned to the University of Geneva to become a professor studying the Old Testament. The translation of the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, commissioned by the ''Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genève'', was published in two volumes in 1871. It was at this time that he began to work on his translation, work that would be completed in 1880. A revised edition was commissioned for and published by the
British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world.
The ...
in 1910.
References
External links
Unabridged book-by-book 1910 revision of Segond's translation of the Biblevargenau.free.fr
Various options for downloading or searchingwww.awmach.org
at www.bibvoice.org
Modern LSG bible app for Android at www.bibvoice.org
Modern LSG bible app for IOS at www.bibvoice.org
Bible Louis SegondBible en français, lecture en ligne.
*
*
Translators of the Bible into French
Writers from Geneva
Swiss Protestant theologians
1810 births
1885 deaths
19th-century translators
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