In October 1779 the renowned biblical scholar Johann David Michaelis (1717– 91) sent to his contacts in India several questions about natural history. These queries were of the utmost urgency and significance: Michaelis reported to the readers of his journal Orientalische und Exegetische Bibliothek that the answers would conclusively refute the arguments of none other than the best-known contemporary naturalist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–88), author of the multivolume Histoire naturelle and superintendent of the Cabinet du Roi and the Jardin du Roi in Paris. Michaelis, professor at the small university town of Göttingen in central Germany, was confident that the questions would confirm “what any connoisseur knows,” namely, that Buffon was “utterly unreliable” and that his Histoire naturelle was merely an “imagined novel about natural history.” The questions Michaelis deemed so important as to undermine the greatest authority on natural history all dealt with elephants. While some concerned trees and bushes eaten by Asian elephants, most queries directly addressed their sexual intercourse. These were some of the questions Michaelis distributed among missionaries and colonial administrators: “(1) Has anyone in India seen the elephant in sexual intercourse? If so, (2) How do elephants copulate? Because this

中文翻译：

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约伯记和大象的性生活：十八世纪自然历史和圣经批评中证据可信度的局限性

1779 年 10 月，著名的圣经学者 Johann David Michaelis（1717-91 年）向他在印度的联系人发送了几个关于自然历史的问题。这些问题极为紧迫且意义重大：米歇尔向他的期刊《东方学与释经图书馆》的读者报告说，这些答案将最终驳斥当代最著名的博物学家乔治-路易斯·勒克莱尔 (Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon) 的论点。 1707–88 年），多卷《自然历史》的作者，也是巴黎国王内阁和国王花园的负责人。Michaelis 是德国中部哥廷根大学城的教授，他相信这些问题将证实“任何行家都知道什么”，即，布冯“完全不可靠”，他的《自然历史》只是“关于自然历史的想象小说”。米歇尔认为如此重要以至于破坏了自然历史最权威的问题都与大象有关。虽然有些人关注亚洲象吃掉的树木和灌木，但大多数问题直接涉及它们的性交。以下是米歇尔在传教士和殖民管理者之间分发的一些问题：“（1）印度有没有人看到过性交的大象？如果是这样，（2）大象如何交配？因为这 以下是米歇尔在传教士和殖民管理者之间分发的一些问题：“（1）印度有没有人看到过性交的大象？如果是这样，（2）大象如何交配？因为这 以下是米歇尔在传教士和殖民管理者之间分发的一些问题：“（1）印度有没有人看到过性交的大象？如果是这样，（2）大象如何交配？因为这