right|thumb|Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1779), painting by [[Anton Graff.]]

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (16 October 1752, in Dörrenzimmern – 27 June 1827, in Göttingen) was a German Protestant theologian of the Enlightenment and an early orientalist. He was a member of the Göttingen school of history.

Education and early career

Born at Dörrenzimmern (now part of the city of Ingelfingen), in the Principality of Hohenlohe-Oehringen, Eichhorn was educated at the state school in Weikersheim, where his father was superintendent, at the gymnasium at Heilbronn and at the University of Göttingen (1770–1774), studying under Johann David Michaelis. In 1774 he received the rectorship of the gymnasium at Ohrdruf, in the duchy of Saxe-Gotha.

Professorship in Jena 1775–1788

In 1775 he was made professor of Oriental languages at the Faculty of Theology at Jena University. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1825. His health was shattered in 1825, but he continued his lectures until attacked by fever on 14 June 1827. His son, Karl Friedrich, became a famous jurist.

Achievements in theology

Eichhorn has been called "the founder of modern Old Testament criticism." He recognized its scope and problems, and began many of its most important discussions. "My greatest trouble," he says in the preface to the second edition of his Einleitung, "I had to bestow on a hitherto unworked field--on the investigation of the inner nature of the Old Testament with the help of the Higher Criticism (not a new name to any humanist)." His investigations led him to the conclusion that "most of the writings of the Hebrews have passed through several hands." He took for granted that all the supernatural events related in the Old and New Testaments were explicable on natural principles. He sought to judge them from the standpoint of the ancient world, and to account for them by the superstitious beliefs which were then generally in vogue. He did not perceive in the biblical books any religious ideas of much importance for modern times; they interested him merely historically and for the light they cast upon antiquity.

Selected bibliography

  • Geschichte des Ostindischen Handels vor Mohammed (Gotha, 1775)
  • De rei numariae apud arabas initiis (Jena 1776)
  • Allgemeine Bibliothek der biblischen Literatur (10 vols., Leipzig, 1787–1801)
  • Einleitung in das Alte Testament (5 vols., Leipzig, 1780–1783)
  • Einleitung in das Neue Testament (1804–1812)
  • Einleitung in die apokryphischen Bücher des Alten Testaments (Göttingen, 1795)
  • Commentarius in apocalypsin Joannis (2 vols., Göttingen, 1791)
  • Die Hebr. Propheten (3 vols., Göttingen, 1816–1819)
  • Allgemeine Geschichte der Cultur und Literatur des neuern Europa (2 vols., Göttingen, 1796–1799)
  • Literargeschichte (1st vol., Göttingen, 1799, 2nd ed. 1813, 2nd vol. 1814)
  • Geschichte der Literatur von ihrem Anfänge bis auf die neuesten Zeiten (5 vols., Göttingen, 1805–1812)
  • Übersicht der Französischer Revolution (2 vols., Göttingen, 1797)
  • Weltgeschichte (3rd ed., 5 vols., Göttingen, 1819–1820)
  • Geschichte der drei letzten Jahrhunderte (3rd ed., 6 vols., Hanover, 1817–1818)
  • Urgeschichte des erlauchten Hauses der Welfen (Hanover, 1817).