Jacob Frederik Dietrichson

Jacob Frederik Dietrichson was born in Arendal on 4 January 1806. His father, Gabriel Grubbe Dietrichson, was a captain-lieutenant in the navy and later head of conscription in Drammen. His mother was Philippa Frederikke Aars. He belongs to the branch descending from Gabriel Grubbe, one of Frederik Dietrichson’s four sons.

Dietrichson became a student at Christiania Cathedral School in 1823 and took his theological degree with top marks in 1827. In 1834 he became a lecturer in theology at the university. From 1838 he was acting professor, and in 1839 he was appointed professor. He retired with a pension in January 1870.

He sat on the central board of the Norwegian Bible Society from 1836 until his death, and from 1862 he took part in the revision of the Norwegian Bible translation, where he was responsible for the Apocrypha, among other parts. In 1841 he chaired a royal commission on the limits of religious freedom, and he wrote the part of the report that dealt with the Quakers. His writings include a treatise on the Reformation in the Norwegian church from 1837 and a revised edition of Stenersen’s textbook on religion from 1839.

In 1834 he married his cousin Julie Josephine Henriette Aars. He was made a knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1868 and died in Kristiania on 7 December 1879. We have not found a picture of him.