EICH'HORN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, one of the most distinguished scholars produced by Germany, was born at Dorinzimmern, in the principality- of Holienlohe-Oehringen, in 1752, and studied at Gottingen. He first became rector of the school of Ohrdruff, in the duchy of Gotha, afterwards, in 1775, professor of oriental languages in the uni versity of Jena, and in 1788 removed to Gottingen in the like capacity. Of this univer sity lie continued a distinguished ornament till his death in 1827.
His scholarship was almost universal, and he has left numerous treatises on a multi tude of subjects, both ancient and modern, classical and oriental, but he is chiefly known in this country as a Biblical critic, and a chief of what is called the rational school. E. examined the Scriptures from an anti-supernatural point of view, but applied to their elucidation and criticism an unrivaled knowledge of oriental and Bibli cal antiquities. Miraculous appearances recorded in the Bible are held by him to be explainable as natural events, and everything is to be brought to the test of reason.
Rationalism in this form can hardly be said to exist now, even in Germany; but some of E.'s views as to the historical origin of the canonical gospels have been extensively adopted. His chief:works on this subject are a Universal Library of,, Biblical Litera ture (Allgemeine Bibliothek der Bthlischen literatur, 10 vols., Leip. 1787-1801); an Intro duction to the Old Testament (Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 4th ed. 5 vols., Gott. 1824); an Introduction to the New Testament (Einleitung in das Testament, 5 vols., Gott. 1824-27); and an Introduction to the Apocryphal Writings of the Old Testa ment (Einleitung in die Apokryphischen Sehriften des Alten Testaments, GOtt., 1798). In a work entitled Primitive History (Urgeschichte, 2 vols., Numb. 1790-93), he subjects the Pentateuch to bold criticism. His last work was a History of the House of Guelf, which he traces back to the 5th c. (Urgeschichte des Hawes We fen, Han. 1817).