MICHAELIS: A family of German Lutheran exegetes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 1. Johann Heinrich: b. at Klettenberg (20 m. s.w. of Blankenburg), Brunswick, July 26, 1688; d. at Halle Mar. 10,1738. Educated in thec logy, philosophy, and orientalia at Frankfort-on-she-Oder, he began to lecture in Halle in 1698, becoming suooessively associate professor of oriental languages (1699), full professor in the theological faculty (1709), and senior and inspector of the theological seminary (1732). He was important primarily

364

as representing the critical school in the midst of Pietism, then centering in Halle. He was in great part the author of the plan for the Colle gium Orientale Theologicum established there by A. H. Francke. He was likewise distinguished for his partial edition of the Old Testament (Halle, 1720), based on five Erfurt manuscripts and nine teen printed editions, the variants also being given. The edition was, however, too hastily done, and proved unreliable, though it is still not without value. He also prepared for it his Uberiores an notationes (3 vols., Halle, 1720), in which he dili gently consulted the earlier versions. Some of the exegetical material here contained, like several of his dissertations and his Sonderbarer Lebenslauf P. Heylings Gus Lubeck and dessen Reise torch Ethi opien (Halle, 1724), is still noteworthy. 2. Christian Benedikt (nephew of the preceding): b. at Elrich (8 m. n.w. of Nordhausen) Jan. 26, 1680; d. at Halle Feb. 22, 1764. He was educated at Halle, where he was successively associate (1713 1714) and full (1714-31) professor of philosophy, professor of theology (1731-38) and of Greek and Oriental languages (1738-64). Besides contrib uting to his uncle's edition of the Hebrew Old Tes tament and Uberiores annotationes, he wrote Dis sertatio de antiquitatibus teconomite patriarchalis (Halle, 1728) and Tractatus criticus de variis lec tionibus Novi. Testamenti caute colligendis et diiudi candis (1749), in addition to an edition of the Ho brew Bible (with the Apocrypha and New Testament in Greek; Halle, 1741), based on H. Opitz's edition of 1709. 3. Johann David (son of the preceding): b. at Halle Feb. 27, 1717; d. at Göttingen Aug. 22, 1791. After completing his studies at Halle and travel ing in England and Holland he went in 1745 to Göttingen, where he was professor of philosophy (1746-50) and of Oriental languages (1750-91). He was a prolific author, as is evidenced by his writing the entire periodical Orientalische and exe getische Bibliothek (later the Neue orientalische and exegetische Bibliothek; 35 parts, Frankfort and Göttingen, 1771-91). Moreover, he was the first to give to the cultured public the results of scientific views of the Bible as divorced from dogmatic as sumptions in his annotated translation of the Old (13 vols., Göttingen, 1769-86) and New (2 vols., 1790) Testaments, these following his exegeses of some of the Messianic psalms (Frankfort, 1759), Ecclesiastes (Bremen, 1762), and I Maccabees (Frankfort, 1778). He gained equal favor, though more slowly, with his Einleitung in das Neue Tes tament (Göttingen, 2d ed., 1788; Eng. transl., Intro duction to the New Testament, 4 vols., Cambridge; 1793-1801), which was followed by the less popular and uncompleted Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Hamburg, 1787). The chief services of Michaelis were rendered in the domain of Biblical ancillary sciences, especially with regard to the Old Testament. Here belongs his Supplements ad lexica Hebraica (6 vols., Göttingen, 1784-92), in which he sought primarily to free Hebrew lexicography from rabbinical tradition and to operate with the kindred languages, espe cially Arabic. At the same time he carefully studied

the early versions, and such was his attention to the Peshito that he may be considered one of the founders of Syriac philology. Note should be made here of his Grammatica Chaldaica (Leipsic, 1771) and Grammatica Syriaca. He also made valuable contributions to Biblical antiquities, especially in his Mosaisches Recht (6 vols., 2d ed., Frankfort, 1771-75; Eng. transl. by A. Smith, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, 4 vols., London, 1814), in which he advanced the view, then new, that the Pentateuchal laws were a product of the statesmanship of Moses, who aimed at the separation of Israel from the heathen [involving denial of the directly divine character and universal validity of the laws], thus judging antiquity by the standards of its own time, instead of by the criterion of the Christian Church; as well as in his Abhandlung von den Ehegesetzen Mosis (Göttingen, 1755). His geographical and archeological interests, already evinced by his securing from Frederick V. of Denmark the sending of an expedition to Arabia in 1761 (for which he wrote his Fragen an eine Gesellschaft reisender Gelehrten, Frankfort, 1762), found expression in his Spicilegium geographite exterorum (2 vols., Göttingen, 1769-80) and in many places in his Syntagma commentationum (2 parts, 1759-67) and Vermischte Schriften (2 parts, Frankfort, 1766-69).

Although never a member of the theological fac ulty, Michaelis lectured on systematic, dogmatic, and moral theology, writing in these departments his Gedanken über die Lehre. der heiligen Schrift van Sitnde and Genugthuung (Bremen, 1748); Compen dium theologise dogmaticw (Göttingen, 1760; Ger man ed., 1787); and Entwurf einer typischen Gottesgelehrtheit (Göttingen, 1753). These works, inferior to the rest, were weakened by his attempt not to break with external orthodoxy, though secretly he had renounced- it, thus leading him to an attitude of untenable compromises. At the same time, this position gained him great popu larity with both pupils and the Government, be sides winning him the title of "regent of Göttingen" and the posts of secretary, director, and editor of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. In the last two decades of his life, however, his pres tige declined.

(R. Kittel.)

Bibliography: 1. L. Diestel, GewAirhte des A. T. in der christlichen Kirche, pp. 415 sqq., Jena, 1868. 3. His Briefwechael, ed. Buhle, is in 3 volg., Leipsic, 1784-96, and big autobiography, ed. E. R. Hessenkamp, appeared at Rinteln, 1793. Consult further: L. Diestel, ut sup., pp. 583 sqq., 683 sqq., 745 sqq.; R. Smend, Johann David Michaelis, Göttingen,1898; and especially Roethe, Johann David Michaelia, in the Festschrift der GBthnger Gelehrten Gesellschaft, Berlin, 1901.