Johann Jahn (18 June 1750 in

Tasswitz Tasovice () is a municipality and village in Znojmo District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,400 inhabitants. Tasovice lies approximately east of Znojmo, south-west of Brno, and south-east of Prague. Demograp ...

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– 16 August 1816 in

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) was a German orientalist. He was born in the

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and died in the

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Biography

He studied at the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

University of Olomouc A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, and in 1772 began his theological studies at the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Chur ...

convent of

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, near

Znaim Znojmo (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The hi ...

. Having been ordained in 1775, he for a short time held a cure at Misslitz, but was soon recalled to Bruck as professor of Oriental languages and Biblical hermeneutics. On the suppression of the convent by

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

in 1784, Jahn took up similar work in

Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...

, and in 1789 he was transferred to

as professor of Oriental languages, biblical archaeology and dogmatics. In 1792 he published his ''Einleitung ins Alte Testament'' (2 volumes), which soon brought him into trouble; the cardinal-archbishop of Vienna laid a complaint against him for having departed from the traditional teaching of the Church, e.g. by asserting Job, Jonah, Tobit and Judith to be didactic poems, and the cases of demoniacal possession in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

to be cases of dangerous disease. An ecclesiastical commission reported that the views themselves were not necessarily heretical, but that Jahn had erred in showing too little consideration for the views of German

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theologians in coming into conflict with his bishop, and in raising difficult problems by which the unlearned might be led astray. He was accordingly advised to modify his expressions in future. Although he appears honestly to have accepted this judgment, the hostility of his opponents did not cease until at last (1806) he was compelled to accept a canonry at St Stephens, Vienna, which involved the resignation of his chair. This step had been preceded by the condemnation of his ''Introductio in libros sacros veteris foederis in compendium redacta'', published in 1804, and also of his ''Archaeologia biblica in compendium redacta'' (1805). The only work of importance, outside the region of mere philology, afterwards published by him, was the ''Enchiridion Hermeneuticae'' (1812).

Works

* ''Einleitung ins Alte Testament'' (2 volumes, 1792) * ''Hebräische Sprachlehre fur Anfänger'' (1792) * ''Aramäische od. Chaldäische u. Syrische Sprachlehre für Anfänger'' (1793) * ''Arabische Sprachlehre'' (1796) * ''Elementarbuch der hebr. Sprache'' (1799) * ''Chaldäische Chrestomathie'' (1800) * ''Arabische Chrestomathie'' (1802) * ''Lexicon arabico-latinum chrestomathiae arabicae accommodatum'' (Vindobonae, Wappler et Beck, 1802) * ''Introductio in libros sacros veteris foederis in compendium redacta'' (1804; 3rd edition, 1825; translated into English by Turner and Whittingham, New York, 1827) * ''Archaeologia biblica in compendium redacta'' (1805) The English translation by T. C. Upham (1840) has passed through several editions. * an edition of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

(1815) * ''Nachträge'', six dissertations on Biblical subjects (1821)

References

* Attribution: *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jahn, Johann 1750 births 1816 deaths People from Znojmo District People from the Margraviate of Moravia Moravian-German people 18th-century German scholars Scholars from the Austrian Empire German orientalists German male non-fiction writers Palacký University Olomouc alumni