Johannes van den Driesche r Drusius(28 June 1550February 1616) was a Flemish

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

, distinguished specially as an Orientalist,

Christian Hebraist A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew who comes from a Christian family background/belief, or is a Jewish adherent of Christianity. The main area of study is that commonly known as the Old Testament to Christians (and Tanakh to Jews), but C ...

and

exegete Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...

Life

He was born at Oudenarde, in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

. Intended for the church, he studied

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

, and philosophy at 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 a teacher of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

in Antoine Rodolphe Chevallier, with whom he resided for some time at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. In 1572 he became professor of Oriental languages at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Upon the pacification of Ghent (1576), he returned with his father to their own country, and was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in the following year. In 1585, he removed to

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

and was admitted as professor of Hebrew at the

University of Franeker The University of Franeker (1585–1811) was a university in Franeker, Friesland, the Netherlands. It was the second oldest university of the Netherlands, founded shortly after Leiden University. History Also known as ''Academia Franekerensis'' ...

, an office which he discharged with great honour till his death. He acquired a reputation as a professor, and his class was frequented by students from all the Protestant countries in Europe.

Works

He was learned 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 difficult passages in the Old Testament; but, this work was not published until after his death. As the friend of

Jacobus Arminius Jacobus Arminius (10 October 1560 – 19 October 1609), the Latinized name of Jakob Hermanszoon, was a Dutch theologian during the Protestant Reformation period whose views became the basis of Arminianism and the Dutch Remonstrant movement. H ...

, he was charged by the

Contra-Remonstrant Franciscus Gomarus (François Gomaer; 30 January 1563 – 11 January 1641) was a Dutch theology, theologian, a strict Calvinism, Calvinist and an opponent of the teaching of Jacobus Arminius (and his followers), whose theological disputes were ad ...

party with unfairness in the execution of the task, and the last sixteen years of his life were therefore marred 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 The Della Scala family, whose members were known as Scaligeri () or Scaligers (; from the Latinized ''de Scalis''), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years. History Wh ...

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 of Solomon and other works. Jean-Noël Paquot states the number of the printed works and treatises of the elder Drusius at 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 Vetus et Novum Testamentum'' (Amsterdam, 1698, in 9 vols folio, or London, 1660, in 10 vols. folio). Amongst the works of Drusius not to be found in this collection may be mentioned: #''Alphabetum Hebraicum vetus'' (1584, 4to) #''Tabulae in grammaticam Chaldaicam ad usum juventutis'' (1602, 8vo) #An edition of

Sulpicius Severus Sulpicius Severus (; c. 363 – c. 425) was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania in modern-day France. He is known for his chronicle of sacred history, as well as his biography of Saint Martin of Tours. Life Almost all that we know of Sev ...

(Franker, 1807, 12mo) #''Opuscula quae ad grammaticam spectant omnia'' (1609, 4to) #''Lacrymae in obitum J. Scaligeri'' (1609, 4to) #''Grammatica linguae sanctae nova'' (1612, 4to).

Notable students

* Petrus Cunaeus Nelson, Eric, "Talmudical Commonwealthsmen and the Rise of Republican Exclusivism, The Historical Journal, 50, 4 (2007), p. 821

References

External links

* *
''Bibliotheca Drusiana 1616''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Driesche, Johannes Van Den 1550 births 1616 deaths 16th-century writers 17th-century Latin-language writers Christian Hebraists Flemish historians Dutch orientalists Dutch Renaissance humanists 17th-century Dutch theologians Old University of Leuven alumni Academic staff of Leiden University Academic staff of the University of Franeker Calvinist and Reformed philosophers People from Oudenaarde 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians