DIODATI, GIOVANNI. - Protestant exegete, born at Geneva in 1576 of an emigrant Lucchese family, and died there on 3 Oct. 1649. At only twenty-one years of age he obtained the chair of Hebrew language and subsequently that of theology, which he held for forty years in his native city. A friend of Paolo Sarpi, he translated into French his Storia del Concilio di Trento (Geneva 1621).
He became famous through his Italian translation of the Bible, printed for the first time at Geneva in 1607, corrected and reprinted in 1641, and subsequently reproduced in numerous editions by the English Bible Society. The version has its merits, more with regard to the Old Testament than to the New, since he knew Hebrew better than Greek; nevertheless, in several passages the translator’s Protestant tendency may be noted. Thus the “Ave, Gratia plena” (Lk. 1:28) is translated “Blessed be thou, O favoured one,” and in Acts 14:22, where the Catholic translation reads: “Paul and Barnabas, after having through prayers and fasts ordained presbyters for them,” D. translates: “And after they had appointed elders for each church by common votes,” etc. He published a French translation of the Bible (Geneva 1644), but it was unsuccessful; and a Commentary (ibid. 1649).