ABICHT, JOHANN GEORG°

ABICHT, JOHANN GEORG ° (1672–1740), German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Abicht studied at Leipzig and at Jena, where he was professor of Hebrew (1702–16). In 1729 he became professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. His main field of interest was Jewish history and literature and, particularly, rabbinical Bible commentaries, some of which he translated into Latin. His publications are a selection of the Bible commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and others, entitled Selecta Rabbinico-Philologica (Leipzig, 1705), which included also parts of Maimonides' Code; and a Latin translation of Isaiah di Trani's commentary on Joshua (Leipzig, 1712). His interest in the problem of cantillation in the Bible is illustrated by his Latin translation of Sha'ar ha-Neginot included as Porta Accentuum in Ch. Ziegra's Accentus Hebraeorum (1715).

Abicht also wrote a study on the anonymous chronicle Sefer ha-Yashar (1732); Methodus Linguae Sanctae on Hebrew grammar (1718); studies on Joshua (Disputationes librum Josuae, 1714), on the Sabbath (De lege Sabbathi, 1731), on Jonah (De Jona fugiente, 1702), and on slavery (De Servorum hebraerorum acquisitione et servitiis, 1704); a commentary on Zechariah 10:7 (1704), and many other works.

bibliography:

C.G. Joecher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon, 1 (1750), 23 and Supplement 1 (1784), 53; ndb, 1 (1953), 19 ff.; Steinschneider, Cat Bod, 662; idem, in: zhb, 1 (1896), 112.