DANZ (Danzius), JOHANN ANDREAS°

DANZ (Danzius), JOHANN ANDREAS ° (1654–1727), German Protestant theologian and Hebraist, born in Sundhausen, near Gotha. Danz was professor of Oriental languages and theology at the University of Jena from 1685 onward. One of the foremost Christian Hebraists of his time, Danz tried to present Hebrew grammar systematically but was only partially successful, since many of the constructions were artificial. His first work, Kelippei Egozim ("Nutshells"): Nucifrangibulum Sanctam Scripturae Veteris Testamenti Linguam Ebraeam Enucleans (Jena, 1686), is divided into two parts. The first part (later also published separately, under the title Medakdek, sive Literator Ebraeo-Chaldaeus, Jena, 1696) deals with the etymology of the Hebrew language. Here Danz developed his Systema Trium Morarum (the three-beat-syllable method), and he also explains Hebrew vocalization. In the second part of the book (later also published as a separate work, Turgeman,sive Interpres Ebraeo-Chaldaeus, Jena, 1694, and several editions) he is concerned with Hebrew syntax.

Aditus Syriae Reclusus (1689 and several republications) deals with difficult passages in Syriac. He also published Spicilegium (Jena, 1689); Segulta de-Rabbanan, sive Rabbinismus Enucleatus (Jena, 1699, and several editions); Compendium Grammaticae Ebraicae-Chaldaicae (Jena, 1699, and several editions), a Hebrew-Aramaic grammar, later translated into German by Georg David Kypke (Breslau, 1757); and Sinceritas Scripturae Veteris Testamenti Praevalente keri Vacillans… (Jena, 1713; annotations, ibid., 1717), a book in defense of the masoretic text (ketiv).

bibliography:

Wolf, Bibliotheca, 2 (1721), 591, 605; Steinschneider, Handbuch, 39; Fuerst, Bibliotheca, 1 (1863); adb, 4 (1876), 751. add. bibliography: Gesenius, Geschichte der hebraeischen Sprache, 123ff. (1815); Steinschneider, in: zhb, 2, 160 (1897), 124.