DRUSIUS (or VAN DEN DRIESCHE), JOHANNES (1550-1616)

This article appears in Volume V08, Page 607 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DRO-ECG

DRUSIUS (or VAN DEN DRIESCHE), JOHANNES (1550-1616) ,

Protestant

PROTESTANT

divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist and exegete, was born at Oudenarde, in Flanders, on the 28th of June 1550. Being designed for the church, he studied Greek and Latin at

Ghent

GHENT (Flem. Gent, Fr. Gand)

, and philosophy at

Louvain

LOUVAIN (Flem. Leuven)

; but his father having been outlawed for his religion, and deprived of his estate, retired to England, where the son followed him in 1567. He found an admirable teacher of Hebrew in Chevalier; the celebrated Orientalist, with whom he resided for some time at

Cambridge

. In 1572 he became professor of Oriental languages at

Oxford

. Upon the pacification of

Ghent

GHENT (Flem. Gent, Fr. Gand)

(1576) he returned with his father to their own country, and was appointed professor of Oriental languages at Leiden in the following year. In i585 he removed to Friesland, and was admitted professor of Hebrew in the university of Franeker, an office which he discharged with

great

GREAT

honour till his death, which happened in February 1616. He acquired so extended a reputation as a professor that his class was frequented by students from all the

Protestant

PROTESTANT

countries in Europe. His works prove him to have been well skilled in Hebrew and in Jewish antiquities; and in 1600 the states-general employed him, at a salary of 400 florins a year, to write notes on the most difficult passages in the Old Testament; but this

work

WORK

was not published until after his death. As the friend of
Arminius, he, was charged by the orthodox and dominant party with unfairness in the execution of the task, and the last sixteen years of his life were therefore somewhat embittered by controversy. He carried on an extensive correspondence with the learned in different countries; for, besides letters in Hebrew, Greek and other languages, there were found amongst his papers upwards of 2000 written in Latin. He had a son, John, who died in England at the age of twenty-one, and was accounted a prodigy of learning. He had mastered Hebrew at the age of nine, and Scaliger said that he was a better Hebrew scholar than his father. He wrote a large number of letters in Hebrew, besides notes on the

Proverbs

PROVERBS, BOOK OF (Heb. Mishle Slzelomoh, " Proverbs of Solomon," abridged by the later Jews to Mishle; Septuagint, irapotpiai or II. EaX.; Lat. Vulg. Parabolae sal. and Liber proverbiorum)

of Solomon and other works.
Paquot states the number of the printed works and treatises of the elder Drusius at

forty

FORTY

-eight, and of the unprinted at upwards of twenty. Of the former more than two-thirds were inserted in the collection entitled Critici sacri, sive annotata doctissimorum virorum in Fetus et Novum Testamentum (

Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM
AMSTERDAM (NEw AMSTERDAM)

, 1698, in 9 vols. folio, or London, 166o, in 10 vols. folio). Amongst the works of Drusius not to be found in this collection may be mentioned(1) Alphabetum Hebraicum vetus (1584, 4to); (2) Tabulae in grammaticam Chaldaicam ad usum juventutis (16o2, 8vo); (3) An edition of Sulpicius Severus (Franker, 1807, 121110) ; (4) Opuscula quae ad grammaticam spectant omnia (1609, 4to) ; (5) Lacrymae in obitum J. Scaligeri (1609, 4to) ; and (6) Grammatica linguae sanctae nova (1612, 4t0).

End of Article: DRUSIUS (or VAN DEN DRIESCHE), JOHANNES (1550-1616)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/DRO_ECG/DRUSIUS_or_VAN_DEN_DRIESCHE_JO.html">
DRUSIUS (or VAN DEN DRIESCHE), JOHANNES (1550-1...
</a>

(Previous)
DRUSES, or DRUZES (Arab. Druz)

(Next)
DRUSUS CAESAR (c. 15 B.C.A.D. 23)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email