WETSTEIN, the name of a Swiss family illustrious for the talents and learning of its members, originally from Kyburg, in the canton of Zurich. Among the more note worthy are--(1.)J011. JAROB WETSTEENZ, born at Basel in 1594, who was first in the service of the Venetian state. In 1620 he became a member of the supreme council of his native town; represented Switzerland at the peace of Westphalia (1648); was raised to the rank of a noble in 1653, and died in 1666.—(2.) Jon. RIM. WETSTEIN, son of the preced ing, was born at Basel in 1614, and died there in 1683, professor of theology. He was a great opponent of the introduction of the Formula Consensus, and assisted Suicer in drawing up his Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus.—(3.) Jon. Run. WETSTEIN, son of the preced ing, born at Basel in 1647, and died there in 1711; also professor of theology, favorably known as an early editor of Origen. —But the most distinguished member of the family is Jolt. JAR. WETSTEIN, son of Joh. Rud. Wetsteiu, the younger, who was born at
Basel, Mar. 5, 1693. After a thorough study of the classics, Hebrew, philosophy, and mathematics, he was made a rit. D. at the age of 16. Four years later, he became a minister, and gave himself up to the study of the New Testament. In 1717 he began to give lessons in theology at the university of Basel, and continued to do so until 1730, when (being suspected of Socinianism) he waa forced to leave Switzerland. He sought an asylum in Holland, where the Remonstrants appointed him professor of theology at Amsterdam in 1733. He died there Mar. 23, 1754. Wetstein's great work is his edition of the New Testament, with prolegomena, a collection of various readings, and Latin notes (2 vols., Ainst. 1751-52). Its publication marks an epoch in the history of New Testament criticism. Semler reprinted the prolegomena with additions (Halle, 1764).