[1] Born at Béziers in Lower Languedoc, he was the nephew of Charles Barbeyrac, a distinguished physician of Montpellier.

After spending some time at Geneva and Frankfurt am Main, he became professor of belles-lettres in the French school of Berlin.

His fame rests chiefly on the preface and notes to his translation of Samuel Pufendorf's treatise De Jure Naturae et Gentium, translated as Of the Law of Nature and Nations, 4th ed., 1729, London, by B. Kennett et al. Barbeyrac's preface appears in this fourth edition with the title: 'Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Science of Morality, and the Progress It has Made in the World, From the Earliest Times Down to the Publication of This Work'.

In the fundamental principles, he follows almost entirely John Locke and Pufendorf; but he works out with great skill the theory of moral obligation, referring it to the command or will of God.

He rejects the notion that sovereignty in any way resembles property, and makes even marriage a matter of civil contract.