Johann Gottfried Olearius

Olearius, Johann Gottfried, son of Dr. Gottfried Olearius, pastor of St. Ulrich's Church at Halle, was born at Halle, Sept. 25, 1635. He entered the University of Leipzig in 1653, and graduated M.A. 1656, residing also for short periods at other German Universities. In 1658 he was ordained as assistant to his father at St. Mary's Church in Halle, where he became diaconus in 1662, and in 1685 pastor and also superintendent of the second portion of the dis¬trict of the Saale. He was finally appointed, in 1688, as chief pastor, superintendent, and consistorialrath at Arnstadt, and also professor of Theology in the Gymnasium there. He died at Arnstadt, May 21, 1711, after having been for some years totally blind. (Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxiv. p. 280; Bode, p. 124, &c.)

Olearius was the author of several devotional works, and composed a number of melodies to his own hymns. His hymns appeared in his (1) Jesus! Poetische Erstlinge an geistlichen Deutschen Liedern und Madrigalen, Halle, 1664 [Berlin], and the second edition enlarged and altered as (2) Geistliche Singe-Lust, Arnstadt, 1697 [Wernigerode]

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A number passed into the Arnstadt Gesang-Buch 1705, and a few are still in German common use. Two have passed into English, one ("Es war die ganze Welt") being noted under J. A. Schlegel (q.v.), and the other being:—

Komm du werthes Losegeld. Advent. Founded on St. Matt. xxi. 9. First published 1664 as above, p. 1 in 4 stanzas of 6 lines, and entitled, "On Advent." In the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, edition 1863, No. 137. Translated as:—
Come, 0 Lord, our sacrifice. By A. T. Russell, omitting st. iii., as No. 10 in the Dalston Hospital Hymn Book, 1848, repeated in Dr. Pagenstecher's Collection, 1864, No. 2. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)