Nick: /* Family */

2025-10-29T07:39:16Z

Family

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:39, 29 October 2025
Line 15:		Line 15:

	He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1789.<sup>[4]</sup>		He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1789.<sup>[4]</sup>

			==Quotes==
			:‘An hundred MSS. of a book so ancient as the New Testament is a very small number, in comparison with the thousands, and tens of thousands, which are lost: here then it is possible, and often highly probable, that ''the true reading is preserved in only one of the MSS. that are now extant'', and not impossible that it is contained in none.’

	==Family==		==Family==

Nick: New page: Johann David Michaelis (1790) '''Johann David Michaelis''' (27 February 1717 - 22 August 1791) was a Germa...

2025-10-29T07:36:22Z

New page: right|thumb|Johann David Michaelis (1790) '''Johann David Michaelis''' (27 February 1717 - 22 August 1791) was a Germa...

New page

[[Image:Voit 027 Johann David Michaelis.jpg|right|thumb|Johann David Michaelis (1790)]]
'''Johann David Michaelis''' (27 February [[1717 AD|1717]] - 22 August [[1791 AD|1791]]) was a German biblical scholar and teacher. He was member of a family that was committed to solid discipline in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and the cognate languages, which distinguished the [[University of Halle]] in the period of [[Pietism]].[1] He was a member of the [[Göttingen school of history]].[2]

==Life and work==

Michaelis was born on 27 February [[1717 AD|1717]] in [[Halle an der Saale]].[3] His [[Pietism|Pietistic Lutheran]] family placed a great deal of importance in the study of [[Oriental languages]] in fulfilling the Church's goal.[3] He was trained for academic life under his father's eye.[1] At Halle he was influenced, especially in [[philosophy]], by [[Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten|Siegmund J. Baumgarten]] (1706–1757), the link between the old Pietism and [[Johann Salomo Semler|J. S. Semler]], while he cultivated his strong taste for history under Chancellor Ludwig.[1]

In 1739, he completed his doctoral dissertation, where he defended the antiquity and divine authority of the [[Niqqud|vowel points]] in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].[3] His scholarship still moved along the old traditional lines, and he was also much exercised by certain religious scruples, with some seeing a conflict between his independent mind and that of submission to authority - encouraged by the [[Lutheranism]] in which he had been trained.[1] He visited [[England]] and the [[Netherlands]] in 1741–1742. In Holland, he became acquainted with [[Albert Schultens]], whose philological views would influence him.[3] In 1745 he became an assistant professor (''[[Privatdozent]]'') of oriental languages at the [[University of Göttingen|Göttingen]]. In 1746 he became ''professor extraordinarius'' and in 1750 ''ordinarius''. He remained in Göttingen until his death in 1791.[1] From 1771-1785 he was editor of the ''Orientalische Und Exegetische Bibliothek''.[3]

One of his works was a translation of four parts of [[Samuel Richardson]]'s ''Clarissa''; and translations of some of the then current English paraphrases on biblical books showed his sympathy with a school which attracted him by its freer air. His Oriental studies were reshaped by reading Schultens; for the Halle school, with all its learning, had no conception of the principles on which a fruitful connection between Biblical and Oriental learning could be established. His linguistic work was hampered by the lack of manuscript material, which is felt in his philological writings, e.g., in his valuable ''Supplementa'' to the Hebrew lexicons (1784–1792). He could not become such an Arabist as [[Johann Jakob Reiske|J. J. Reiske]]; and, though for many years the most famous teacher of [[Semitic languages]] in Europe, neither his grammatical nor his critical work has left a permanent mark, with the exception perhaps of his text-critical studies on the ''[[Peshitta]]''.[1] He had a particular interest for history, antiquities, and especially geography and natural science. He had in fact started his university course as a ''medicinae cultor'', and in his autobiography he half regrets that he did not choose the medical profession. In geography he found a field hardly touched since [[Samuel Bochart]], in whose footsteps he followed in the ''Spicilegium geographiae hebraeorum exterae post Bochartum'' (1769–1780).[1]

Michaelis inspired the famous [[Danish Arabia Expedition (1761–67)]], conducted by [[Carsten Niebuhr]] and [[Peter Forsskål]]. The [[cuneiform]] inscriptions Niebuhr brought back from the expedition were the basis for the earliest attempts made to decipher cuneiform.[2] In spite of his [[doctrinal]] writings—which at the time made no little noise, so that his ''Compendium of Dogmatic'' (1760) was confiscated in [[Sweden]], and the [[Order of the Polar Star|Knighthood of the Polar Star]] was afterwards given him in reparation—it was the natural side of the [[Bible]] that really attracted him. Michaelis arguably contributed the most in introducing the method of studying Hebrew antiquity as an integral part of ancient Eastern life.[1]
[[Image:Johann David Michaelis.jpg|thumb|Johann David Michaelis (1717-91)]]
The personal character of Michaelis can be read between the lines of his autobiography with the aid of the other materials collected by [[Johann Matthäus Hassencamp|J. M. Hassencamp]] (''J. D. Michaelis Lebensbeschreibung'', etc., 1793). The same volume contains a full list of his works. Besides those already mentioned it is sufficient to refer to his ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=52suAAAAYAAJ Introduction to the New Testament]'' (the first edition, 1750, preceded the full development of his powers, and is a very different book from the later editions), his reprint of [[Robert Lowth]]'s ''Praelectiones'' with important additions (1758–1762), his German translation of the Bible with notes (1773–1792), his ''Orientalische und exegetische Bibliothek'' (1775–1785) and ''Neue O. und E. Bib.'' (1786–1791), his ''Mosaisches Recht'' (1770–1771) (quite influenced by [[Montesquieu]]'s ''L'esprit des lois'' of 1748) and his edition of [[Edmund Castell]]'s ''Lexicon syriacum'' (1787–1788). His ''Litterarischer Briefwechsel'' (1794–1796) contains much that is interesting for the history of learning in his time.[1]

He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1789.[4]

==Family==
* Michaelis' great uncle [[Johann Heinrich Michaelis]] (1668–1738) was the chief director of [[August Hermann Francke|A.H. Francke]]'s ''Collegium orientale theologicum'', a practical school of Biblical and Oriental [[philology]] then quite unique, and the author of an annotated Hebrew Bible and various [[exegetical]] works of reputation, especially the ''Adnotationes uberiores in hagiographos'' (1720).[1]
* Michaelis' daughter Luise Michaelis was briefly engaged to Gothic writer and philosopher [[Carl Grosse]].[5]
* In his chief publications J. H. Michaelis had as fellow-worker his sister's son [[Christian Benedikt Michaelis]] (1680–1764), the father of Johann David, who was likewise influential as professor at the University of Halle, and a sound scholar, especially in [[Syriac language|Syriac]].[1]
* Michaelis' daughter [[Karoline Schelling|Caroline]] played an important role in early German [[Romanticism]] as the wife of critic [[August Wilhelm von Schlegel]] and later of philosopher [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]].

==References==

* 1. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Michaelis, Johann David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 360.
* 2. Stroumsa, Guy G. (2021). The Idea of Semitic Monotheism: The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth. Oxford University Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780192653864.
* 3. McKim, Donald K. (2007). Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters. InterVarsity Press. p. 736. ISBN 9780830829279.
* 4. "Fellow details". Royal Society. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
* 5. Bridgwater, Patrick (2013). German Gothic Novel in Anglo-German Perspective. Amsterdam: Rodopi. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-306-16765-9. OCLC 864747549.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaelis, Johann David}}
[[Category:1717 births]]
[[Category:1791 deaths]]

{{Donate}}

Johann David Michaelis - Revision history

Nick: /* Family */

Nick: New page: Johann David Michaelis (1790) '''Johann David Michaelis''' (27 February 1717 - 22 August 1791) was a Germa...