Johann August Ernesti

Johann August Ernesti (* August 4, 1707 in Tennstedt, † September 11, 1781 in Leipzig ) was a German Protestant theologian, philologist, teacher and rector of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig.

Life

Ernestine, whose father was a pastor and superintendent in salt and Sangerhausen, was sent at age 16 to the state Pforta, at 20 he began studying mathematics at Johann Matthias Hase, philology at Johann Wilhelm Berger, philosophy of Friedrich Philipp Schlosser and Friedrich August Wolf and theology under Johann Georg Neumann and Ernst Friedrich Werndorf at the University of Wittenberg, which he continued at the University of Leipzig. In Leipzig, his teacher Friedrich Christian Börner, Solomon Deyling, Johann Christoph Gottsched and Christian August Hausen the Younger were. In 1730 he completed his studies at the Philosophical Faculty. The following year he became a tutor at the Leipzig Mayor Christian Ludwig Stieglitz and took the place of the Conrector at the St. Thomas School at Leipzig, where Johann Matthias Gesner at the time was rector and the Ernestine 1734 followed. He designed the school regulations for the Saxon prince schools and grammar schools.

In 1742 he was appointed extraordinary professor of ancient literature at the University of Leipzig, in 1756 appointed professor of rhetoric (successor of Johann Erhard Kapp ). In the same year he received his doctorate in Leipzig with a thesis Vindiciae arbitrii divi in religione constituenda Doctor of Theology, 1759, he became a full professor at the associated faculty. He worked with Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten of the University of Halle together to rid the applicable theological dogmas of their scholastic and mystical growths, and so prepared the way for a reform of theology. At the end of life, he was senior of Meissen nation, canon in Meissen, headmaster of the electoral fellows, assessor of the Elector of Saxony Leipzig Consistory, member of the Göttingen Society of Sciences and president of the Societas Jablonoviana. He died after a brief illness, in his 74th year of life.

Johann August Ernesti is the uncle of Johann Christian Gottlieb Ernestine.

Work

Apart from the quality of his own writings Ernestine is known in Germany because of its influence on the textual criticism. With Johann Salomo Semler, he worked on the reform of Lutheran theology, together with Gesner, he built a new school to the old literature. He discovered grammatical subtleties in Latin in relation to the succession of tenses, the previous investigations had escaped. Because of his knowledge he was entitled " Germanorum Cicero ".

As the editor of classical Greek literature, he can not be compared with his Dutch contemporaries Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Lodewyk Kaspar Valckenaer, David Ruhnken or his colleague Johann Jacob Reiske. The heights of textual criticism were not even looking for him. But him and Gesner It is thanks to having used philologists that are larger than themselves, and to have the national enthusiasm the ancient knowledge against kindled.

It is primarily the hermeneutics in which Ernestine importance can claim as a theologian. Here, however, his services are excellent, and in time, in his Institutes appeared Interpretis NT (1761 ), he has wondered about the most self. In this work, we find general principles of interpretation that have been developed without the aid of any philosophy, but consist of observations and rules, though, were never used by secular authors previously described and used strictly on biblical exegesis. He was the founder of the historical- grammatical school, the only permitted to make sense of the sacred, as in the classical texts, which also had to match in grammar, logic, and history. His theological work can be assigned to the Neology.

He consistently criticized the opinion of those who attributed to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the illustration of the Scriptures everything, as well as that of those who disregard all linguistic knowledge and to explain every word through things. The rule of interpretation of the " analogy of faith " is limited by him rigorously, and he teaches that it can provide the explanation never, but only a selection of possible meanings.

At the same time the inconsistency between the usual doctrine of biblical inspiration and his hermeneutical principles does not seem to have been aware of him.

Selections

Classic Literature

• Initiatives doctrinae solidioris ( 1736, with many editions )
• Initiatives rhetorica (1750, many editions )
• Output, mostly commented, of Xenophon's Memorabilia (1737)
• Cicero (1737-1739)
• Suetonius (1748 )
• Tacitus (1752 )
• The clouds of Aristophanes ( 1754)
• Homer (1759-1764)
• Callimachus (1761 )
• Polybius ( 1764)
• The Quaestura of Corradus
• Greek Lexicon of Benjamin Hederich
• The Bibliotheca Latina Johann Albert Fabricius of (not completed )
• Archaeologia litteraria ( 1768)
• De particulis of Horatius Tursellinus (1769 )

Theological Literature

• Antimuratorius immersive Confutatio disputationis Muratorianae de rebus liturgicis (1755-1758)
• New theological library, Volume I to X (1760-1769)
• Institutions interpretis Nov. Test. ( 3rd edition. , 1775)
• Latest theological library, Volume I to X ( 1771-1775 ).

In addition to these major works, he published more than a hundred smaller works, many of which were summarized in the following publications: Opuscula oratoria (1762 ); Opuscula logica et philo critica (1764 ); Opuscula Theologica (1773 ).