Anton van Dale (Anthonie, Antonius) (8 November 1638, in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

– 28 November 1708) was a Dutch

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and writer on religious subjects, described by the contemporary theologian Jean Le Clerc as an enemy of

superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly app ...

. He was a critic of

witch-hunting A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. ...

. His ''De oraculis veterum ethnicorum dissertationes'' (1683) was an influential work on oracles, which he argued against the supernatural and the role of the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

The History of the Devil: The Abolition of Witch-Prosecution
in the pagan oracular tradition. In this he was followed two decades later by Fontenelle, who wrote his ''Histoire des oracles'' as an adaptation and popularized version of van Dale's work.

Works

*''De oraculis veterum ethnicorum dissertationes'' (1683) *''Dissertationes de origine ac progressu Idolatriae et Superstitionum, de vera ac falsa Prophetia, uti et de Divinationibus Idolatricis Judaeorum'' (1696) *''Commentatio super Aristeam de LXX interpretibus'' (1705) *
Dissertatio super Aristea de LXX interpretibus
' (1705)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dale, Anton Van 1638 births 1708 deaths Dutch Mennonites Dutch male writers Mennonite ministers Clergy from Haarlem 17th-century Anabaptist ministers Mennonite theologians Mennonite writers