Piscator, Johannes

Piscator, Johannes a German theologian of the Reformation age, is noted for his learning and piety. He was born at Strasburg March 27, 1546. He was from his youth up a lover of study, and was soon distinguished for his learning. While engaged in the study of logic, he anxiously sought to reconcile 'and unite Aristotle and his commentator Peter Ramus (q.v.); and when, after the completion of his university studies at Strasburg and Tübingen, he became professor at the university of his native town, he made this the special subject of some of his lectures, though the department of divinity was his field. Suspected of Zwinglianism, he found his position uncomfortable, and accepted a professorship at Heidelberg in 1574. But here also the severely Lutheran tendency gave him disquiet, and after a short stay at Neustadt in 1578 he went to Nevers, France, where, however, he was not suffered to remain quietly, and in 1584 he finally removed to Ierborn as connector of the Academy, where he taught with so much success that many students flocked thither from Germany, France, Poland, and other northern countries. He was very diligent, and scarcely allowed himself sufficient time for sleep. He wrote extensively, translating the whole Bible with great faithfulness into the German, and making a logical and theological analysis of the greater part (Herborn, 1602-3, 3 vols. 4to; 2d ed. 1604-6; 3d ed. 1624; abridged ed. Berne, 1681; Dinsburg, 1684). He also published several valuable commentaries on the Old and New Testaments (1613-58), and many dogmatic and polemic writings, of which those on the Lord's Supper, Predestination, Heidelberg Catechism, Justification, and the reply to Hunnius, De Sacramentos, deserve mention. Most peculiar were the views of Piscator on the active obedience of Christ, which he held not to be imputed, but that which Christ for himself owed to God. SEE SATISFACTION. Piscator died in 1625. See Steubing, in Zeitschriftf: histor. Theol. 1841, 4:198 sq.; Schröckh, Kirchengesch. s. d. Rev, 358 sq.; Gass, Prot. Dogmatik, 1, 163, 383, 422; Tholuck. Das akademische Leben des Men Jahrh. pt. 2, p. 304; Hagenbach, Kitchengesch. vol. v; Bossuet, Variations, vol. 2; Buchanan, Justification (see Inex). (J. H. W.)