Johann David Michaelis

Johann David Michaelis (27 February 1717 – 22 August 1791), a famous and eloquent Prussian biblical scholar and teacher, was a member of a family which had the chief part in maintaining that solid discipline in Hebrew and the cognate languages which distinguished the University of Halle in the period of Pietism. He was a member of the Göttingen School of History.

Michaelis was born in Halle an der Saale and was trained for academic life under his father's eye. At Halle he was influenced, especially in philosophy, by Siegmund J. Baumgarten (1706–1757), the link between the old Pietism and J. S. Semler, while he cultivated his strong taste for history under Chancellor Ludwig. In 1739-1740 he qualified as university lecturer. One of his dissertations was a defence of the antiquity and divine authority of the vowel points in Hebrew. 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 - which affected his reasoning.

A visit to England in 1741-1742 lifted him out of the narrow groove of his earlier education. In passing through the Netherlands he made the acquaintance of Albert Schultens, whose influence on his philological views became allpowerful a few years later. At Halle Michaelis felt himself out of place, and in 1745 he gladly accepted an invitation to Göttingen as Privatdozent. In 1746 he became professor extraordinarius, in 1750 ordinarius, and in Göttingen he remained till his death there in 1791.

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