Johann Christoph Struchtmeyer

Johann Christoph Struchtmeyer (born January 16, 1698 in Struchtrup ; † September 17, 1764 in Harderwijk ) was a German Reformed theologian, historian and rhetorician.

Life

Jobst Struchtmeyer's son and his wife Maria Meyer had received their first training at the school in Barntrup and Detmold . In 1716 he moved to the University of Rinteln and in the same year moved to the University of Harderwijk . There Runge, Meyer, von Houten and Cramer directed his philological, philosophical and theological studies. In 1722 he was a candidate for the ministry, but went back to Harderwijk to expand the knowledge he had there. He exchanged a preaching post in Culemborg in 1724 for another in Middelburg in Zealand.

When the local climate was detrimental to his health, he accepted a call to Harlingen in 1726 . In order to strengthen his still shaky health and at the same time to improve his moderate income, Struchtmeyer went to Tiel in Geldern as rector in 1728 . In 1730 he received a professorship in history and rhetoric at the University of Harderwijk. He died in 1764 after having continued his numerous historical, antiquarian and philological lectures almost uninterruptedly even at an advanced age. He was also involved in the organizational tasks of the Harderwijk University of Applied Sciences and was rector of the Alma Mater in 1733, 1739, 1745 and 1754 .

Act

Struchtmeyer had a great deal of knowledge of the older languages ​​and was well versed in the branches of theological knowledge. When he tried to connect the Bible with the myths of the Greeks and Romans, he got strangely astray and came up with paradoxical claims. In his Theologia mythica , published in 1743, he believed that in the well-known fables of Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Hercules, Minos and other gods and heroes, unmistakable traces of the doctrine of the Trinity, the work of redemption through Christ and similar dogmas could be discovered. He also tried to derive the mysteries of the Christian church from pagan worship, declared the myth of Hercules to be a mere fiction from the ancient patriarchal theology and asserted that Hercules himself was none other than Christ.

family

His marriage to Gerharda Catharina Rawerz from Zutphen on September 20, 1734 resulted in three sons and a daughter:

• Jodocus Johann Struchtmeyer, Dr. jur., lawyer in Harderwijk
• Peter Lucretius Struchtmeyer, 1762 vice rector in Zutphen, 1771 rector in Groningen
• Conrad Dietrich Struchtmeyer
• Maria Struchtmeyer

Works

• Diss. De vocabulo reipublicae. Hardervijk 1741
• Theologia mythica, sive de origine Tartari et Elyfii Libri quinque, quibus ostenditur, fabulas gentilium de Diis eorumdemque ritus sacros, unice deduci et explicari debere ex religione primi orbis mysteriisque sacro-sanctis de Deo uno et trino san, Christo et Spirituno inter homines. Hardervijk 1743, Edito II Hagae Comit. 1753
• De Zinnebeeldige Hercules. Of negotiating over de Geboorte en childhood van dien Afgod: was toned word, dat al wat daarvan verhaalt was, zoom is uit de oude Overleveringe van Christus. Mitsgaders eene Verdediging van de Uitlegginge of Heiden's Godgelessheit against de leererde Leipzigers; in an appendix over Meleager en Atalante; Opgesteld by J. Chr. Struchtmeyer, Prof. te Harderwyk, uit een Latynsch manuscript vertaald by PJ Struchtmeyer. Harderwyk 1757
• Rudimenta graeca maximam patrem excerpia A. Jo. Verweyi via docenti graeca. Zutphen 1757, 1784 ( online )
• De Jongelingschap van Hercules, met detzelfs Oeffeningen, Zeeden, Leermesters, en Wappenen; as mede de tales of Perseus uit de Godgeleertheit van de eerste Waereld afgeleid en Verklaard. Zutphen 1759
• Oorsprong van het heidenfche Godendom en den Zinnebeeldigen Hercules, afgeleid uit den Godsdienst vari de eerfieWaereld, by J. Ch. Struchtmeyer, en uit deszelveHandschrivt vertaald by Joh. Claessen. Harderwijk 1739
• De republica supremaque eius potestate Libri duo. Trajecti ad, Rhen. 1762
• Verdediginge der right-minded in het Stukk der Rechtwaardigmaaking, nevens een Ondersook over de tweenmal storvene en the state of the goals naa den Dood tot naa de Obstandinge. Harderwijk 1763

literature

• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1835, Neustadt an der Orla, Vol. 4, p. 438 ( online )
• Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Gerhard Fleischer d. J., Leipzig, 1813, vol. 13, p. 497 ( online )
• Friedrich August Eckstein : Nomenclator philologorum. BG Teubner, Leipzig, 1871, p. 552
• Ferdinand Stosch : The new learned Europe. Verlag Johann Christoph Meißner, Wolfenbüttel, 1758, vol. 13, p. 84 ( online )