Justus Jonas

Justus Jonas (born June 5/6, 1493, Nordhausen—died October 9, 1555, Eisfeld, Saxony) was a German religious reformer and legal scholar. A colleague of Martin Luther, he played a prominent role in the early Reformation conferences, particularly at Marburg (1529) and at Augsburg (1530), where he helped draft the Augsburg Confession, a fundamental statement of Lutheran belief. He is best known for his German translation of the Latin writings of Luther and Philipp Melanchthon, especially the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. An advocate of Erasmus’s humanism, he introduced Greek and Hebrew into the curriculum on becoming rector of the University of Erfurt (1519).