1770, when he left it on account of some differences with the members; as editor of the journal entitled Gelehrie Anzeif/en, from 1753 to 1770; and as librarian and di- rector of the philological seminary, which would have been abandoned after the death of Gesner in 1761 if Michaelis had not consented to direct it gratuitously.
In order to throw new light upon Biblical science, Michaelis planned the expedition to Arabia and India which was conducted by Carsten Niebuhr. The first project of this enterprise was submitted in the year 1756 to baron Von Bernstorff, then minister of Frederick V, king of Denmark. The course of the travellers was directed mainly by Michaelis, who drew up a series of questions for their guidance. These questions discuss the most interesting points of Biblical science — sacred geography. Oriental habits and customs, natural pro- ductions mentioned in the Bible, and diseases which still affect men in the East as they did of old. '• The perspicuity, and precision, and learning with which our author proposes the questions, and the information in answer to them obtained by Niebuhr and Forskal (as embodied in the Voyage en Arable and Descrijition de VA 7-abie of the former, and in the Descriptiones A nima- lium, etc., of the latter), strikingly illustrate the sagac- ity of Michaelis ; and the literary results of the expedi- tion, though short of the exaggerated expectations of the time, have, in the shape of five quarto volumes, been permanently beneficial to Biblical science. In 1775 Michaelis was made a knight of the Polar Star by the king of Sweden; in 1786 he was appointed an Aulic counsellor of Hanover, and in 1789 he was elected a Fel- low of the Royal Society of London. He was also a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, Paris. He died Aug. 22, 1791.
The works of Michaelis are very numerous; the fol- lowing are some of the most important. In Oriental literature, grammars of Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, and treatises on various subjects connected with these languages : Orientalische und Exegetische Biblio- ihek (a valuable periodical commenced by Michaelis in
1771, and of which he conducted 24 vols.) : — Supplementa in Lexica Ilebraica (6 pts. in 2 vols. 4to— useful, not more for the language illustrated, than for the informa- tion afforded on Biblical geography, archajologv, and
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natural history. In philosophy : an essay On the Influ- ence of Opinions on Language, and of Language on Opin- ions, which obtained a prize from the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1759 ; a treatise on moi-al philosophy, and other works. In history, geography, and chronology: Spicilegiuni Geographlce Hebrceorum exterm jjost Bo- chartum (Getting. 1769, 1780) ; other treatises on geog- raphy and chronology ; several separate dissertations on the laws and antiquities of the Jews, the substance of most of which is embodied in his Mosaisches Recht, in 6 vols. 1770-75 ; a second edition of the first 5 vols, of this work was published in the years 1775-80. This work, which is considered the masterpiece of ]\Iichaelis, was translated into English by Dr. Alexander Smith, under the title of Commentaries on the Lazes of Moses (1814, 4 vols. 8vo). " The great object of Michaelis in this work is to investigate and illustrate the philosophy of the Mosaic laws, to show their wonderful adaptation in every respect to the very peculiar circumstances in which the people to whom they were given had been placed by Providence ; and, while he takes every oppor- tunity of establishing the claims of Moses to the char- acter of an ambassador from heaven, to inculcate upon, human legislators the important lesson of studying those particulars respecting the nature and political situation, the ideas and prejudices, the manners and customs of their countrj^men, by attention to which alone they can ever hope to make them virtuous, prosperous, and hap- py" (Dr. Smith's Preface, p. xvii). In Biblical criti- cism, Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament is well known in England by the translation of the late bishop Marsh ; he also published part of an Introduction to the Old Testament ; a Translation of the Bible, with Notes, for the Unlearned; a monograph on the three chief Messianic psalms (viz. x, xl, ex), in which he ably defended their prophetic character (comp. cardinal Wiseman, Lectures, p. 378) ; a commentary on the Book of Maccabees {1778); on Ecclesiastes (1762). He also wrote an able vindication of the sacred narrative on the Burial and Resurrection of Christ according to the Four Evangelists (Halle, 1783; English transl. 1827); and published learned notes on an edition of bishop Lowth's Sacra Poesis Hebrceorum (reprinted in the Oxford edi- tion, with further annotations bv E. F. C. Eosenmulier^ 1821).
Johann David IMichaelis has been in many respects more influential as a Biblical writer than any other of the numerous savants whom Germany has produced within the last 150 years. He exhibited an indomita- ble energy in the prosecution of his studies, and, hur- ried forward by an inquiring spirit, he could not fail to produce valuable writings. Unfortunately, however, he was inconsistent as a writer. Anxious to adhere to the established system of Lutheranism, he displayed out- wardly great respect for the Christian religion, while he was really too light-minded, as he himself acknowl- edges, to adopt their tone of pious feeling. It is true, however, that his early pietistic training nevertheless sustained in him a certain conviction of the truth of Christianity. He endeavored constantly, by new and singularly ingenious theories, to remove objections to Christianity; and, much to the surprise of his younger contemporaries, whose rationalistic views were ripening apace, he held to the last many parts of the older sys- tem, which they had either modified or thrown aside. The melancholy consequences, however, of this merely natural persuasion are abundantly manifest. Destitute of that conviction which alone can give a comprehen- sive insight into the real character of revelation, and the harmonious relation of its several parts, he had no guide to enable him to perceive what might be safely admitted without detriment to the system itself; he consequently, according to the usual custom of persons taking only a partial view of subjects, frequently op- posed the objection, instead of tlie principle on which the objection was foiuided ; endeavored to remove it by theories in conformity with mere human systems, and