Life and study, the Early Years of Theodorus Antonides:
It is assumed that Antonides was born in Farmsum in 1647, but his birth remains shrouded in mystery. Visscher and Van Langeraad (1903) cite 1647 as his year of birth, but without citing any source. Many undoubtedly adopted 1647 as the year of birth. Yet, the DTB registers in the Groningen Archives reveal no trace of Theodorus Antonides' baptism. Farmsum baptismal registers from that period are also untraceable. Moreover, there is no trace of his existence before 1684. What does Antonides' past conceal?
Rolf van der Wouden (2019) also doubts the accuracy of Theodorus Antonides' date of birth. He has a hypothesis about this:
"It is certain that Antonides enrolled at the Groningen Academy in 1684 as ‘Theodorus Antonides, Omland., Phil. Gratis’. 6 He would then have been 37 or 38 years old. That doesn't seem very plausible, a scholarship student of that age. This is all the more striking because a portrait of Antonides was published in his commentary on Job, published in 1700. According to the caption, he was 38 years old at the time. However, it is not very likely that the poor student Antonides, if 1647 is his year of birth, had his portrait painted. It is therefore puzzling that he left that portrait in a drawer for fifteen years. Moreover, the engraving shows the accomplished and well-known theologian that Antonides was around 1700, rather than the perhaps brilliant, but still young student and aspiring theologian. It is more logical to assume that the portrait was commissioned to commemorate the publication of Antonides' commentary on the Book of Job." and Antonides was born around 1660."
Because he called himself 'Farmsum Ommelandus,' one might conclude that he was born in Farmsum. Unfortunately, little to nothing is known about his early years. The same applies to his youth. Wumkes (1949) says: "I have a faint suspicion that he was first a schoolmaster, studied Classical literature, and then became praeceptor to Henrik Ferdinand Baron van In- en Knyphuisen, Lord of Ulrum, to whom he later dedicated his commentary on Job." But here too, sources are lacking.
In an interview with Rolf van der Woude, another hypothesis emerged: He posits that it is possible that Theodorus Antonides (as an orphan?) came from Friesland. He was supposedly sent to Farmsum in Groningen as a promising boy. Appingedam, where a fairly well-known Latin school was located, is located near Farmsum. People from outside Appingedam also studied there. There, he likely came under the care of the Rengers family, the prominent squires in that part of Groningen. He was supposedly taken in by their family to tutor the Rengers children.
Listen to the interview with Rolf van der Woude here.
1 Rolf van der Wouden was a researcher at the Historical Documentation Centre for Dutch Protestantism at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 1997 to 2014