Johannes van den Driesche

Johannes van den Driesche [or Drusius] (28 June 1550February 1616) was a Flemish Protestant divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist, Christian Hebraist and exegete.

Life He was born at Oudenarde, in Flanders. Intended for the church, he studied Greek and Latin at Ghent, and philosophy at Leuven; but his father having been outlawed for his religion, and deprived of his estate, retired to England, where the son followed him in 1567. He found a teacher of Hebrew in Antoine Rodolphe Chevallier, with whom he resided for some time at Cambridge. In 1572 he became professor of Oriental languages at Oxford.

Upon the pacification of Ghent (1576), he returned with his father to their own country, and was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Leiden in the following year. In 1585, he removed to Friesland and was admitted as professor of Hebrew at the University of Franeker, an office which he discharged with great honour until his death. He acquired a reputation as a professor, and his class was frequented by students from all the Protestant countries in Europe.