Ahasuerus van den Berg

Ahasuerus van den Berg

Ahasverus van den Berg (born February 20, 1733 in Dordrecht , † January 6, 1807 in Arnhem ) was a Dutch Reformed theologian and poet.

Life

The son of the Rhine shipper Gerrit van den Berg and his wife Cornelia Sybilla Claessen had spent their youth in his hometown, where he discovered an interest in poetry at an early age . The then Dordrecht preacher Rutger Schutte (1708–1784) was primarily the one who encouraged the young mountain from the age of nine and spurred his dedication to verse writing. The young religiously influenced poet had primarily expressed his positive and negative first life experiences in poetry. He made his first public poetic appearance when the governor Willem Friso died in 1752. More substantial was his poetic contribution to the writings of the Dordrecht Society Concordia et Labore , for which he wrote considerably more spiritual poems than the long-established preachers.

On September 27, 1755, he began studying theology at the University of Groningen . After he had completed this, he returned to Dordrecht in 1760. From here he received a call as a preacher in Bruchem and Kerkwijk , which office he took on March 14, 1762. After being transferred to Barneveld as pastor in 1766 , he became pastor in Arnhem on November 1, 1778. A request made to him in 1780 by the curators of the University of Harderwijk , successor to Theodorus Scheltinga (1706–1780) as professor of theology at the university there, he refused in order to be able to devote himself fully to his church duties.

As a preacher, he had made a name for himself primarily through his practical and understandable sermons, and as a catechist through the publication of textbooks, of which his Bijbelsche historical questions (freely translated: Biblical History Questions . 1779) appeared in the French language and were reprinted. In the first years of the Batavanian Republic he campaigned for the interests of the Reformed Church during the social reorganization. He was one of the members of a meeting in Utrecht on April 11, 1797, whose participants tried to get Sunday as a day of rest, to keep the church buildings ready for worship and to enforce the payment of salaries and pensions. For this purpose, mediation was made between the regional church and the national assembly. After a few more negotiations, the nationalization of the church was prevented and its duty of care restored.

Of great importance was his endeavor to improve church singing through the introduction of a hymn book . For this purpose, he was commissioned by the agents of the province of Gelderland in 1773 to deal with the improvement of the same. After revising some of the songs, it was realized that there was more action to be taken. The work dragged on until September 4, 1805. In 1806 the new hymn book could be presented to Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck . Berg had incorporated many of his own works into it and was supported by his sister Cornelia Sybilla van den Berg (* 1739), who lives in the rectory, and other important personalities. He also wrote a treatise on the life of his friend Joannes Florentius Martinet (1729–1795), the author of the Catechism of Nature .

Works

• Bijbelsche historical questions, dead gebruik van Katechisatiën en Christelijke huisgezinnen. Arnhem 1778, 1845 (French: Abrègè de l'Histoire sainte, à l'usage des Enfans ), 1848
• Proeven van Geestelijke Oden en Liederen. Utrecht 1779, 1806
• Empty speeches over Ps. CIII, vs. 1-4. Arnhem 1784
• Korte varsh uit de Kerkelijke Historiën, ten vervolge op de Bijbelsche historical questions. Arnhem 1784
• Levensberigt van JF Martinet. Amsterdam 1796
• Verdediging van de zaak der Hervormden, betrekkelijk de Kerkelijke en Armengoederen, door de Gedeputeerden van de Synod der Hervormde gemeenten in Gelderland. Amsterdam 1797
• Uitbreiding van de Bijbelsche historical questions. Arnhem 1801, 1835
• Thought about Geestelijke Oden en Liederen. Utrecht 1802
• Vervolg op de Gedachten about Geestelijke Oden en Liederen. Utrecht 1803
• Gift voor de Jeugd. Amsterdam 1781
• New gift voor de Jeugd. Amsterdam 1792

literature

• L. Knappert: Berg, Ahasverus van den . In: Petrus Johannes Blok, Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen: Nieuw Nederlands Biografisch Woordenboek. (NNBW) Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (ING), AW Sijthoff, Leiden, 1918, Vol. 4, Col. 114–116 (Dutch)
• Abraham Jacob van der Aa : Biographical woordenboek der Nederlanden, bevattende levensbeschrijvingen van zoodanige people, who zich op eenigerlei wijze in ons vaderland vermaard made. Verlag JJ Van Brederode, Haarlem, 1854, Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 366–368, ( Online , Dutch)
• Attorney Bosch: Berg, Ahasverus van den . In: Biografisch lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlands protestantisme. Verlag Kok, Kampen, 1998, Vol. 4, pp. 33–34, (Dutch)

Web link

• Literature on Ahasverus van den Berg in the Digital Library of the Netherlands (DBNL)