ISENBIEHL, JOHANN LORENZ. - Catholic exegete and Orientalist, b. in 1744 at Heiligenstadt (Eichsfeld), d. on 26 December 1818 at Östrich (Rheingau). A parish priest at Göttingen, he attended in particular the course of Oriental languages of Johann David Michaelis (1769). Appointed in 1773 professor of Oriental languages and of exegesis at the Seminary of Mainz, he displayed rather liberal principles of interpretation, caring little for the unanimous consent of the Fathers; he stirred up the celebrated controversy concerning Is. 7:14, of which text he denied any messianic sense, notwithstanding its citation in Mt. 1:22 ff. (v. EMMANUEL).
This thesis of his, made public in the book Neuer Versuch über die Weissagung vom Emmanuel (Coblenz 1778), brought upon him suspension a divinis and imprisonment, the opposition of theologians and exegetes, the censure of several theological faculties (Strasbourg, Mainz, Vienna, Paris, etc.) and the condemnation of the work to the Index (decree of 20 September 1779). At Christmas of the same year I. submitted, obtained his freedom and a canonry at Amöneburg.
Other works of I. are: Beobachtungen von dem Gebrauch der syrischen Puncti diacritici bei den Verbis (Göttingen 1773); Chrestomathia patristica Graeca (Mainz 1774); Corpus decisionum dogmaticarum Ecclesiae catholicae (Constance 1777); De rebus divinis tractatus introducentes in universam Veteris ac Novi Testamenti Scripturam et theologiam christianam, I (Mainz 1787).
Bibliography4 works
Adalberto Metzinger