View source for Johannes Piscator

{{Short description|German theologian (1546–1625)}}
[[File:Portret van Johannes Piscator, RP-P-1905-3790.jpg|thumb]]
'''Johannes Piscator''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ɪ|ˈ|s|k|eɪ|t|ər|,_|ˈ|p|ɪ|s|k|ə|-}}; {{langx|de|Johannes Fischer}}; 27 March 1546 – 26 July 1625) was a German [[Reformed theologian]], known as a Bible translator and textbook writer.

He was a prolific writer, and initially moved around as he held a number of positions. Some scholarly confusion as to whether there was more than one person of the name was addressed in a paper by [[Walter Ong]].<ref>Walter Ong, "Johannes Piscator: One Man or a Ramist Dichotomy?" Harvard Library Bulletin 8 (Spring 1954): 151-62.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=University of Dayton : University of Dayton, Ohio|url=https://udayton.edu/|access-date=2021-06-10|website=udayton.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/viewtext/2573358?op=t&n=3475&s=4&rotation=0&imagesize=1200&jp2Res=null&jp2x=0&jp2y=0&bbx1=0&bby1=0&bbx2=0&bby2=0 |title=Online text |access-date=2008-11-11 |archive-date=2012-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217122802/http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/viewtext/2573358?op=t&n=3475&s=4&rotation=0&imagesize=1200&jp2Res=null&jp2x=0&jp2y=0&bbx1=0&bby1=0&bbx2=0&bby2=0 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Life==

Piscator was born at [[Strasbourg]], and educated at the [[University of Tübingen]]. He became professor of theology at Strasbourg in 1573. Elector [[Frederick III, Elector Palatine|Frederick III]] experienced some resistance when he attempted to appoint him to the arts faculty at the [[University of Heidelberg]] in 1574, and Piscator eventually took a post at the preparatory Latin ''Paedagogium'' in [[Heidelberg]].

After a confessional change in Heidelberg, he briefly served as deputy rector at the court school in [[Dillenburg]] in 1577 before being appointed professor of theology at the [[Casimirianum Neustadt|Casimirianum]] in [[Neustadt an der Weinstrasse|Neustadt]] in 1578. He later served as rector at [[Moers]] in 1581 before settling into a productive career as professor at the [[Herborn Academy]], from 1584 to 1625, where he was able to advance his [[Ramist]] pedagogy fully. He died at [[Herborn (Hesse)|Herborn]].

==Works==

Piscator prepared Latin commentaries collectively of the New Testament (Herborn, 1595–1609) and the Old Testament (1612, 1618), and a German translation of the Bible (1605–19). He followed with ''Anhang des herbonischen biblischen Wercks'' (1610), noted for its wealth of archeological, historical, and theological material.

He left a multitude of text-books in philosophy, philology, and theology, of which ''Aphorismi doctrinæ christianæ'' (1596) was much used.

In 2010 Piscator's Appendix to his Commentary on Exodus 21 - 23 has been translated and published under the title of ''Disputations on the Judicial Laws of Moses''.

==Theologian==

His significance for theology was his opposition to the doctrine of the active obedience of Christ. "Whoever denies that Christ was subject to the law, denies that he was man." If the imputation of the active obedience were sufficient man would be free from obedience as well as from the curse.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie|26|180|181|Piscator, Johannes|Friedrich Wilhelm Cuno| ADB:Piscator, Johann}}
* [[F. C. Baur]], ''Die christliche Lehre von der Versöhnung'', pp.&nbsp;352 sqq., Tübingen, 1838; 
* Dagmar Drüll, ''Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon 1386-1651'', Berlin: Springer, 2002, pp.&nbsp;455–456.
* W. Gass, ''Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik,'' i. 422 sqq., 4 vols., Berlin, 1854–67; 
* [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc09.html?term=Piscator,%20Johannes E. F. Karl Müller, "Johannes Piscator," in New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 9]
* [[A. Ritschl]], ''Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung and Versöhnung'', i. 271 sqq., Bonn, 1889, Eng. transl., ''Critical Hist. of the Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation'', Edinburgh, 1872.
* Otto Renkhoff: ''Nassauische Biographie''. Wiesbaden 1992. S. 613.
* Steubing, in ZHT, 1841, part 4, pp.&nbsp;98 sqq.;
* {{Schaff-Herzog}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Johannes Piscator}}
* [http://www.digital-collections.de/index.html?c=autoren_index&l=en&ab=Piscator%2C+Johannes Works of Piscator in the Munich Digital Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110820011522/http://libguides.calvin.edu/content.php?pid=47579&sid=442922 Works of Piscator in the Post-Reformation Digital Library]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piscator, Johannes}}
[[Category:1546 births]]
[[Category:1625 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century German writers]]
[[Category:16th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:17th-century German Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:17th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:Arminian theologians]]
[[Category:German Calvinist and Reformed theologians]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]