Johannes Leusden (also calledJan (informal),John (English), orJohann (German)) (26 April 1624 – 30 September 1699) was a DutchCalvinisttheologian andorientalist.
Leusden was born inUtrecht. He studied in Utrecht andAmsterdam and became a Professor ofHebrew in Utrecht, where he died, aged 75.
Leusden was one of the most prominentBible experts of his time, and wrote several works about the Bible and about Hebrewphilology (Philologus Hebraeus, 1656;Philologus Hebraeo-Mixtus, 1663;Philologus Hebraeo-Latino-Belgicum, 1668;Philologus Hebraeo-Graecus, 1670;Korte Hebreusche en Chaldeusche taalkonst, 1686). In 1661, together with the Amsterdam book printerJoseph Athias, he published hisBiblia Hebraica, the first edition of the Hebrew Bible with numbered verses.[1] TheCatholic Encyclopedia of 1913 dismissed Leusden's copious notes to the text as being "of little value".[2]
The 1667 edition was strongly criticized in 1669 by the ProtestantSamuel Desmarets, who died in 1673. Athias answered the charges in a short work whose title begins,Caecus de coloribus.[2][3] Athias’ pamphlet was a full-blown attack on a senior Christian theologian in theUnited Provinces of the Netherlands. That the true author of the pamphlet was not Athias but Johannes Leusden, and that the Utrecht professor had published it in Athias’ name, is an assessment that scholars have followed ever since.[4]
His name and the "Philologus hebraeograecus" figure in a short story ofJorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer (1899–1986) called "la muerte y la brújula" (The Death and the Compass).[5]: 256
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