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MICHAELIS, JOHANN DAVID (1717-1791)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 361 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MICHAELIS, JOHANN See also:DAVID (1717-1791) , See also:German biblical See also:scholar and teacher, a member of a See also:family which had the See also:chief See also:part in maintaining that solid discipline in See also:Hebrew and the cognate See also:languages which distinguished the university of See also:Halle in the See also:period of See also:Pietism. Johann Heinrich Michaelis (1668–1738) was the chief director of A. H. See also:Francke's Collegium orientale theologicum, a See also:practical school of biblical and See also:oriental See also:philology then quite unique, and the author of an annotated Hebrew See also:Bible and various exegetical See also:works of reputation, especially the Adnotationes uberiores in hagiographos (1720). In his chief publications J. H. Michaelis had as See also:fellow-worker his See also:sister's son See also:Christian Benedikt Michaelis (168o–1764), the See also:father of Johann David, who was likewise influential as See also:professor at Halle, and a See also:sound scholar, especially in See also:Syriac. J. D. Michaelis was trained for academical See also:life under his father's See also:eye. At Halle he was influenced, especially in See also:philosophy, by Sigmund J. See also:Baumgarten (1706–1757), the See also:link between the old Pietism and J.

S. See also:

Semler, while he cultivated his strong See also:taste for See also:history under See also:Chancellor See also:Ludwig. In 1739–1740 he qualified as university lecturer. One of his See also:dissertations was a See also:defence of the antiquity and divine authority of the vowel-points in Hebrew. His scholarship still moved in the old traditional lines, and he was also much exercised by religious scruples, the conflict of an See also:independent mind with that submission to authority at the expense of See also:reason encouraged by the Lutheranism in which he had been trained. A visit to See also:England in 1741–1742 lifted him out of the narrow groove of his earlier See also:education. In passing through See also:Holland he made the acquaintance of See also:Albert See also:Schultens (1686–1750), whose See also:influence on his philological views became all-powerful a few years later. At Halle Michaelis See also:felt himself out of See also:place, and in 1745 he gladly accepted an invitation to See also:Gottingen as privatdozent. In 1746 he became professor extraordinarius, in 1750 ordinarius, and in Gottingen he remained till his See also:death in 1791. His See also:intellect was active in many directions; universal learning indeed was perhaps one of his foibles. Literature—See also:modern as well as See also:ancient—occupied his See also:attention; one of his works was a See also:translation of four parts of Clarissa; and See also:translations of some of the then current See also:English paraphrases on biblical books manifested his sympathy with a school which, if not very learned, attracted him by its freer See also:air. His oriental studies were reshaped by diligent perusal of the works of Schultens; for the Halle school, with all its learning, had no conception of the principles on which a fruitful connexion between Biblical and Oriental learning could be established.

His linguistic See also:

work indeed was always hampered by the lack of See also:manuscript material, which is felt in his philological writings, e.g. in his valuable Supplementa to the Hebrew lexicons (1784–1792).1 He could not become such an Arabist as J. J. See also:Reiske (1716–1774); and, though for many years the most famous teacher of Semitic languages in See also:Europe, he had little of the higher philological See also:faculty, and neither his grammatical nor his See also:critical work has See also:left a permanent See also:mark, with the exception perhaps of his See also:text-critical studies on the Peshitta.2 His tastes were all for such studies as history, antiquities, and especially See also:geography and natural See also:science. He had in fact started his university course as a medicinae cultor, and in his autobiography he See also:half regrets that he did not choose the medical profession. In geography he found a See also:field hardly touched since See also:Samuel See also:Bochart, in whose footsteps he followed in the Spicilegium geographiae hebraeorum exterae See also:post Bochartum (1769–1780); and to his impulse we owe the famous Eastern expedition conducted by Carsten See also:Niebuhr. In spite of his doctrinal writings—which at the See also:time made no little See also:noise, so that his Compendium of Dogmatic (176o) was confiscated in See also:Sweden, and the See also:knighthood of the See also:North See also:Star was afterwards given him in reparation—it was the natural See also:side of the Bible that really attracted him, and no See also:man did more to introduce the modern method of studying Hebrew antiquity as an integral part of ancient Eastern life. The See also:personal See also:character of Michaelis can be read between the lines i By a See also:strange See also:fortune of See also:war it was the occupation of Gottingen by the See also:French in the Seven Years' War, and the friendly relations he formed with the See also:officers, that procured him the See also:Paris MS. from which he edited See also:Abulfeda's description of See also:Egypt. 2 Curae in actus apostolorum syriacos (1755).of his autobiography with the aid of the other materials collected by J. M. Hassencamp (174 -1797) the editor (J. D. Michaelis Lebensbeschreibung, &c., 1793).

The same See also:

volume contains a full See also:list of his works. Besides those already mentioned it is sufficient to refer to his New Testament Introduction (the first edition, 1750, preceded the full development of his See also:powers, and is a very different See also:book from the later See also:editions), his reprint of See also:Robert See also:Lowth's Praelec-Hones with important additions (1758–1762), his German translation of the Bible with notes (1773–1792), his Orientalische and exegetische Bibliothek (1775–1785) and Neue O. and E. Bib. (1786–1791), his Mosaisches Recht (1770–1771) and his edition of E. See also:Castle's See also:Lexicon syriacum (1787–1788). His Litterarischer Briefwechsel (1794–1796) contains much that is interesting for the history of learning in his time.

End of Article: MICHAELIS, JOHANN DAVID (1717-1791)

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