- First name
- Jean
- Last name
- Clerc, le
- Date of Birth
- 1657
- Date of Death
- 1736
- Born in
- Geneva
- Died in
- Amsterdam
Jean Le Clerc was a Swiss theologian and biblical scholar. He was famous for promoting exegesis, or critical interpretation of the Bible, and was a radical of his age. He parted with Calvinism over his interpretations and left Geneva for that reason. Le Clerc published Sentimens de quelques theologiens de Hollande sur l’histoire critique du Vieux Testament (Amsterdam, 1685), a work which made him an instant celebrity in the ‘Republic of Letters’. See: DDP, vol. 1, pp. 213–6; Descartes, 2003, pp. xiv–xiv.