Charles-Pierre Chais

Charles-Pierre Chais (1701–1785) was a Genevan pastor, who spent much of his life in The Hague. He completed a Bible translation in French; however, it derived with commentary from English-language sources.

Life Chais was born in Geneva in January 1701. He was the son of Jean-François Chais and Alexandrine Maurice. He studied theology in Geneva, and then travelled in France, Germany, and Holland from 1724, when he was ordained, to 1728. His portrait in pastel was taken by Jean-Étienne Liotard.

Chais was a member of the Holland Society of Sciences from 1753. He died at The Hague in 1785.

Works From 1742, Chais published volumes of a French Bible commentary, La Sainte Bible, ou le vieux et le nouveau testament avec un commentaire littéral composé de notes choisies et tirées de divers auteurs anglois. A seventh volume appeared in 1790, edited by Archibald Maclaine.

Other works were:

Le sens littéral de l'écriture sainte, 1751, 3 volumes, translated from the English of Thomas Stackhouse Chais paid close attention to the Journal Brittanique edited by Matthieu Maty; and noted in it a review of a 1752 sermon by Isaac Maddox in favour of inoculation, given at the London Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital run by Edward Jenner. He wrote this early tract to promote inoculation, and became an authority on the subject. Catéchisme historique et dogmatique, 1755, La Haye.

Sermons were published posthumously, starting with Sermons sur divers textes de l'Ecriture sainte (1787).

Chais translated as Les mœurs anglais (1758) John Brown's Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times (1757). With others, he edited the periodical Bibliothèque des Sciences et des Beaux Arts that was published at The Hague, from 1754 to 1778.

Family Chais married in 1734 Wilhelma Antonia Pauw.