Ludovicus de Dieu

Louis de Dieu was a pupil, first of Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624), then of Jacobus Golius (1596-1667). Most of his active life he was a huguenot minister in Leiden. Although his duties were time-consuming he found the opportunity to study Oriental languages. Hebrew and Syriac were the first, and knowledge of these two languages enabled him to compare the Greek and Latin translations of the Bible text with older Oriental translations, and in the debate of his time on the authenticity of the Bible versions he took an independent stance. In 1626 he published a short grammar of Hebrew. His research on the text of the New Testament was collected and posthumously published by Melchior Leydekker (1645-1701) in 1693 under the title Critica Sacra, from which the present engraved portrait by A. van Zylveld is derived. In 1628 he published a comparative grammar between Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac.He also studied Arabic, but of his plan to publish a printed edition of the Qur’an, together with a refutation, nothing came about. He was also interested in the Arabic translation of the Pentateuch as used among the Samaritans. Finally, Bible study brought Louis de Dieu to learn the Persian language. In this field he published a short Persian grammar, a Life of Christ and the History of St. Peter in Persian, which were all three published in 1639. In 1635 De Dieu was offered the chair for Old Testament Studies and Oriental Languages in the University of Utrecht, but the elders of his church in Leiden did not wish to loose him, and he declined.

Source: W.M.C. Juynboll, Zeventiende-eeuwsche Beoefenaars van het Arabisch in Nederland. Utrecht (1931), pp. 200-204. www.leidenuniv.nl/