Jan Jacob Prins

Jan Jacob Prins, printed in the sources as Johannes Jacobus Prins (9 October 1814, Langezwaag – 24 May 1898, Leiden), was a Dutch Reformed theologian who served as a parish pastor in three towns and then as a professor of theology at Leiden University from 1855 until 1885, and who worked as one of the synodical translators of the Dutch New Testament.^{1 • 2}

Life and ministry

He studied theology at Leiden, where his formative teachers were Nicolaas Christiaan Kist, Johann Clarisse, and Wessel Albertus van Hengel.⁶ He was admitted to parish service in Middelburg in October 1837 and took his doctorate at Leiden on 20 January 1838 with the dissertation de locis Evangelistarum, in quibus Jesus Baptismi ritum subiisse traditur.⁶

His pastoral career began at Eemnes-Binnendijk in 1838.² The date of his move to Alkmaar is reported differently: the biographical dictionary of van den Branden and Frederiks gives 1840, while the compiled Lebenslauf dates his Alkmaar induction to 13 December 1841, with a sermon on 1 Cor. 16:10b; the Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia, by contrast, groups "Alkmaar and Rotterdam, 1843–55".^{2 • 1} All sources agree he was pastor at Rotterdam from 1843.²

Leiden professorship. On 10 September 1855 Prins was appointed hoogleeraar (professor) in theology at Leiden by royal decree, after declining professorships at Franeker and Leiden; he took up the chair on 7 December 1856 with the inaugural address de Institutione Academica, at futurum sacrorum antistitem formandum aptissima.² The Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia describes his first chair as exegetical and practical theology, held from 1855 to 1876.¹ He served as rector magnificus of the university in 1866/67, laying down the office with the rectoral address de schola et ecclesia, in re Christiana arcte coniunctis nec unquam disiungendis, on school and church as closely joined in the Christian life and never to be separated.⁶

From 1877 his teaching changed: he no longer taught practical theology but lectured on New Testament introduction and criticism and on early Christian literature, matching the Schaff-Herzog description of a second chair in New Testament criticism and hermeneutics, and the history of primitive Christian literature.¹

Theology and writings

In 1838 he published the Latin dissertation on the Gospel passages that record Jesus as having undergone the rite of baptism.¹ While pastor at Rotterdam he brought out Handboek tot de kennis van de Heilige Schrijften des Ouden en Nieuwen Verbonds, a two-volume handbook to the Scriptures of the Old and New Covenant published by van der Meer & Verbruggen in Rotterdam in 1851 and 1852.³

Position on church and doctrine. The 1854 review in De Gids records the theological position Prins advanced there. He proposed as the church's rule of life that no confessional forms with binding authority, whether alongside or above the Bible, should be set as the rule of faith and preaching, and that no doctrinal agreement beyond the Bible's unquestioned authority should be a condition of church fellowship.³ The reviewer judged that this proposal would meet contradiction from various sides, because it was incompatible with many church-political standpoints.³ Prins instead entrusted the guarding of the purity of the doctrine preached to the congregation, that is, its agreement with Scripture, to the congregation's own enlightened and developed Bible knowledge rather than to coercion or control.³

His later books carried this program into church law and biblical scholarship. He published Korte schets van het hedendaagsche kerkregt der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk (1859), the study De Realiteit van's Heeren Opstanding uit de dooden (Leyden, 1861) on the reality of the Lord's resurrection from the dead, Wetenschap en Kerk in hare wederzijdsche betrekking (1867) on science and church in their mutual relations, De maaltijd des Heeren in de Korinthische gemeente ten tijde van Paulus (1868) on the Lord's Supper in the Corinthian congregation, and Over de studie der godgeleerdheid en de keuze van het predikambt in de Hervormde kerk (Amsterdam, 1868).^{1 • 2} His major church-law work, Het kerkrecht der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk, historisch-critisch beschreven, appeared at Leiden in 1870, published by S.C. van Doesburgh, and survives as a public-domain digitized volume.^{2 • 4}

As a translator he was a contributor and reviser of the Synodale Bijbelvertaling, the synodical Bible translation, and he wrote articles in the Bijbelsch Woordenboek; he also wrote obituary notices for the Society of Dutch Literature, on R. Adriani (1863), W. van Hengel (1871), and Is. Prins (1879).² His output further included Latin pieces and sermons, an 1875 academy-feast address, and Over Bijbelvertaling (Volksbibliotheek, 1875) on Bible translation.²

Church-political context and controversies

Prins's church-law writing belongs to a specific institutional setting. In the early nineteenth-century Dutch Reformed Church, both the training and the pay of Reformed preachers stood under the direction of the national government, and representatives of the clergy (a select corps of prominent preachers), of the universities (the professors of theology), and of the government (the Ministry of Worship) met in the Algemeene Synode.⁵ His 1870 church-law work was written in this context of a state-directed church.⁵

He also entered contemporary disputes in print. In 1870 he published De synode van 1870 en haar besluit betrekkelijk de doopsformule, on the synod of 1870 and its decision concerning the baptismal formula.⁶ In 1872 came Een geneesmiddel erger dan de kwaal. Bedenkingen tegen Dr. J. Cramer ("A remedy worse than the disease: Objections against Dr. J. Cramer", Leiden, 1872), a polemic against Dr. J. Cramer.² The 1854 reviewer's characterization of his church rule as one that would meet contradiction from many church-political standpoints is that reviewer's judgment, attributed here as such.³

References

1. Prins, Jan Jacob — Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, CCEL
2. Prins (Johannes Jacobus), Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde, DBNL
3. De Gids, Jaargang 18 (1854), review of the Handboek, DBNL
4. Het kerkrecht der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk (1870), Internet Archive
5. UvA-DARE, history of the Dutch Reformed predikantenberoep in the nineteenth century
6. Levensberichten der afgestorven medeleden van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde te Leiden., Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, 1899 - DBNL

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Christian theologians and religious scholars › Modern theologians by confession and tradition › Reformed and Calvinist theologians

Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026

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