JAHN, JOHANN, a celebrated Biblical and Oriental scholar of the Roman Catholic church, was born at Taswitz in Moravia, June IS, 175o. He studied at the Gymnasium of Xnaym, at Olmiitz, and at Bruck. In 1775 he was ordained priest, and devoted himself :for some time to the care of souls at Miswitz. In 1782 he received the degree of doctor at Olmiitz ; and became vice director of the Gymnasium at Xnaym. In 17S4 he was chosen professor of Oriental languages and Biblical hermeneutics at the Lyceum of Olmiitz. In 1789 he was transferred to a wider sphere of influence, being appointed to the same office with the superadded duties of teaching Biblical archo log-y and dog-matics in the University of Vienna. Here he laboured successfully for seventeen years, amid suspicions and petty persecutions which pained his ingenuous spirit. Some words in the preface to his Introduction to the Old Testament, the assertion that the books of Job, Jonah, Judith, and Tobit are didactic poems ; and that the demoniacs in the N. T. were possessed with dangerous diseases, not with the devil, were made charges against him. Complaints of his unsoundness were laid before the emperor Francis II., by a cardinal ; and a commis sion was appointed to examine the matter, which decided that the views were not heterodox. The worthy critic, however, .received a caution to be more guarded in future. Though he honestly submitted, his detractors continued their machina tions, till he was removed from the congenial duties of an office to which he had dedicated his life, and made canon or Domherr in the metropolitan church of St. Stephen, 1806. Even before he was compelled to resign his professor ship, his two books, Introductio in libros sacros [Teter* 7'estamenti in compena'ium reclacta, Wien 1804 ; and Archoologia Eiblica in compendium redacta, Wien 1805, were condemned, without their author, being heard in his defence. His
death took place August 16, 1816. Jahn was a dear, methodical writer, whose numerous works diffused a knowledge of Biblical subjects in places and circles where the books of Protestants would scarcely have been received. The latter, however, have appreciated his writings fully as much as Catholics. He was not profound in any one thing, because he scattered his energies over so wide a field ; but he was a most useful author, and one of his books is still the largest and best on the sub jects of which it treats. As a theologian of the Romish church, he was so liberal that Hengsten 4serg finds fault with him on the Pentateuch. He is the author of Einleitung in die pill/it-hen Eiicher a'es alien Bundes, 2 parts, 1.8o2, 1803, 2d ed. ; Hebriiische Sprachlehre fiir Anfcinger, 1792 ; Are miiische oder Chalddische u. Syrische Sprachlehre, 1796 ; Eiblische Archerologie, three parts in five volumes, 1796-1804 (his best work); Elementar buch a'es Hebriiischen Sprache samnzt Bebrdischen 114rterbuch, 2 parts, 1799 ; Chalcidische Chresto mathie, 1800 ; Arabische Chrestonzathie, 1802; Lexicon Arabico-latinum, 1812 ; Biblica Hebraica, digessit, et graviores let-Ito:um varietates adj'ecit, 4 vols., 1806; Enchiridion Hermeneuticae generalis tabzdarum veteris et novi firderis, 1812; Appendix Hernzeneuticae, two fasciculi, 1813-1815 • and the two compendiums already mentioned. gome time after his death appeared Nachtrage (Tubingen, 1821), coataining six interesting dissertations on Biblical subjects. The memory of this meritorious scholar onght to be respectfully cherished by every Biblical student. Succeeding works have been largely indebted to his, of which several have been translated into English.—S. D.