CARPZOV, JOHANN GOTTLB. - Lutheran biblical scholar, b. in Dresden on 26 Sept. 1679 and d. in Lübeck on 4 Apr. 1767. He belonged to the learned Saxon family of the C., which, between 1600 and 1800, gave Lutheran orthodoxy six celebrated jurists and theologians (five bearing the name Johann Benedikt). He studied in Leipzig and Altdorf. From 1713 he was professor of Oriental languages at Leipzig, where he remained until 1730; he then moved to Lübeck as superintendent.
His principal works were: Introductio ad libros canonicos Bibliorum Veteris Testamenti (Leipzig 1714-21; 2nd ed. there 1731; 3rd ed. there 1741); this work was almost supplemented by the Critica sacra Veteris Testamenti (there 1728); Apparatus historico-criticus Antiquitatum sacri codicis et gentis hebraicae (there 1748). Minor works: Disputationes de pluralitate personarum in una Dei essentia ad II Sam. 7, 23 (there 1720); Disputationes de anno Jubileo ex Lev. 25 (there 1730); Praefatio de variis lectionibus in codicibus biblicis Novi Testamenti, there 1730. He was one of the most learned men of his time and opposed the new biblical criticism inaugurated by Richard Simon, Giovanni Clericus, and Spinoza. He firmly upheld the orthodox Protestant doctrine of verbal inspiration and of the revelation
of everything found in the sacred books. In his view, the Hebrew and Greek texts are free from error, and even the Hebrew accents go back to the hagiographers.