Johann Jakob Grynaeus
Encyclopedia
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
) was a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Protestant divine.
Life
He was born at Bern. His father, Thomas GrynaeusThomas Grynaeus
Thomas Grynaeus, also Thomas Griner, was a theologian, reformer and pastor.- Life :Thomas Grynaeus grew up the son of a peasant in the Veringendorf, Württemberg. Grynaeus's uncle Simon Grynaeus was a school friend Philipp Melanchthon...
(1512-1564), was for a time professor of ancient languages at Basel
University of Basel
The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...
and Bern, but afterwards became pastor of Röteln in Baden. He was nephew of the eminent Humanist Simon Grynaeus
Simon Grynaeus
Simon Grynaeus , German scholar and theologian of the Reformation, son of Jacob Gryner, a Swabian peasant, was born at Veringendorf, in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.He adopted the name Grynaeus from the epithet of Apollo in Virgil...
.
Johann was educated at Basel, and in 1559 received an appointment as curate to his father. In 1563 he proceeded to Tübingen for the purpose of completing his theological studies, and in 1565 he returned to Rötteln
Rötteln
Rötteln is a village beneath the ruins of the Rötteln Castle in Southern Baden, which today is part of the district of Haagen in the city of Lörrach, Baden-Württemberg.- History :...
as successor to his father. Here he felt compelled to abjure the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
, and to renounce the Formula of Concord
Formula of Concord
Formula of Concord is an authoritative Lutheran statement of faith that, in its two parts , makes up the final section of the Lutheran Corpus Doctrinae or Body of Doctrine, known as...
.
Called in 1575 to the chair of Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
at Basel, he became involved in unpleasant controversy with Simon Sulzer
Simon Sulzer
Simon Sulzer was a Reformed theologian, Reformer, and Antistes of the Basel church.- Life :Sulzer was born in Schattenhalb, the child of a priest. He was educated in Bern and Lucerne. The sudden death of his father, the provost of Interlaken, forced him to turn to manual labor to support himself...
and other champions of Lutheran orthodoxy
Lutheran Orthodoxy
Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the Book of Concord and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the...
; and in 1584 he was glad to accept an invitation to assist in the restoration of the University of Heidelberg.
Returning to Basel in 1586, after Simon Sulzer's death, as Antistes
Antistes
Antistes was from the 16th to the 19th century the title of the head of the church in the Reformed Churches in Switzerland...
or superintendent
Superintendent (ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is the head of an administrative division of a Protestant church, largely historical but still in use in Germany.- Superintendents in Sweden :...
of the church there and as professor of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, he exerted for upwards of twenty-five years a considerable influence upon both the church and the state affairs of that community, and acquired a wide reputation as a skillful theologian of the school of Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych Zwingli
Ulrich Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly centre of humanism...
. Amongst other labors he helped to reorganize the gymnasium in 1588. Five years before his death he became totally blind, but continued to preach and lecture till his death.
Works
His many works include commentaries on various books of the Old and New Testament, Theologica theoremata et problemata (1588), and a collection of patristic literature entitled Monumenia S. patrum orthodoxographa (2 vols, fol., 1569).External links
- http://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=autoren_index&l=de&ab=Grynaeus,+Johann+JakobWorks of Johann Jakob Grynaeus the Munich Digitization CenterMunich Digitization CenterMunich Digitization Center is an institution dedicated to digitalization, Online publication and the long-term archival preservation of the holdings of the Bavarian State Library and other cultural heritage institutions. It was founded in 1997 under the leadership of Mark Brantl...
] - Universität Mannheim: Listing of works of Johann Jakob Grynaeus
- Griechischer Geist aus Basler Pressen – Preface of Johann Jacob Grynaeus to Johannes and Joachim Brandis, Basel, April 1, 1578