Andreas Helwig (Helwich, Helvigius) (1572–1643) was a German classical scholar and linguist. His ''Origenes dictionum germanicarum'' (1622) was a pioneer etymological work of the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

Life

Helwig was

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the University of Berlin from 1611 to 1614, then professor of poetry from 1614 to 1616. Subsequently he taught at the Gymnasium at

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neub ...

.David Brady, ''The Contribution of British Writers Between 1560 and 1830 to the Interpretation of Revelation 13.16-18'' (1983), pp. 84-6.

Works

In 1602 he published a Greek etymological dictionary. In his period at Berlin, he published ''Antichristus Romanus'',''Antichristus Romanus, in proprio suo nomine, numerum illum Apocalypticum (DCLXVI) continente proditus'' (Wittenberg, 1612) an anti-papal work including the numerical formula identifying '' Vicarius Filii Dei'', an alleged title of the Pope, reduced to its

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

and summed to

666 666 may refer to: * 666 (number) * 666 BC, a year * AD 666, a year * The number of the beast, a reference in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament Places * 666 Desdemona, a minor planet in the asteroid belt * U.S. Route 666, an America ...

. Brady mentions a theory of

Johann Christoph Wolf Johann Christoph Wolf (born at Wernigerode, February 21 1683; died at Hamburg, July 25 1739) was a German Christian Hebraist, polyhistor, and collector of books. He studied at Wittenberg, and traveled in Holland and England in the intere ...

that Helwig had already published this observation in an anonymous work of 1600. Such cryptograms were not uncommon; Brady comments on (from Richard Bernard's ''Key of Knowledge'' of 1617) the phrase ''Generalis Dei Vicarius in Terris'' likewise treated, and Thomas Beard’s 1625 permutation ''Vicarius Dei Generalis in Terris'', perhaps influenced by Helwig. This became ''Vicarius Dei Generalis in Terris'' with Hezekiah Holland in 1650. But interest in Helwig’s formulation has outlasted the others.

Notes

External links

Entries of Andreas Helwig
in Rostock Matrikelportal {{DEFAULTSORT:Helwig, Andreas 1572 births 1643 deaths Linguists from Germany People from Friedland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern