He entered the French Oratory at a time when such masters as Le Cointe, Louis Thomassin, Nicolas Malebranche, Richard Simon and Bernard Lamy were flourishing, and made the Bible the preferred subject of his studies.
Taking Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy's translation as a framework, Carrières added a few words of paraphrase here and there to explain difficulties or clear up obscure places.
These simple and short additions inspired for the most part by Vatable, Tirinus, Menochius, Bonfrere and Cornelius Jansen, and printed in italics, are easily discernible from the text itself, with which they are also united so as to form one continuous narrative.
The first volumes published at Paris and Reims in the beginning of the eighteenth century were heartily welcomed and highly recommended by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, who encouraged the writer to pursue his work.
During the nineteenth century Carrières's version was frequently reprinted, often with the commentaries of Menochius, sometimes also with the notes of nineteenth-century interpreters, like Sionnet (1840) and Claude-Joseph Drioux (1884).