“ His tastes were all for such studies as history, antiquities, and especially geography and natural science. He had in fact started his university course as a medicinae cultor, and in his autobiography he half regrets that he did not choose the medical profession. ”

“ In spite of his doctrinal writings—which at the time made no little noise, so that his Compendium of Dogmatic (1760) was confiscated in Sweden, and the knighthood of the North Star was afterwards given him in reparation—it was the natural side of the Bible that really attracted him, and no man did more to introduce the modern method of studying Hebrew antiquity as an integral part of ancient Eastern life. ”

“ At Halle Michaelis felt himself out of place, and in 1745 he gladly accepted an invitation to Göttingen as privatdozent. In 1746 he became professor extraordinarius, in 1750 ordinarius, and in Göttingen he remained till his death in 1791.
His intellect was active in many directions; universal learning indeed was perhaps one of his foibles. Literature—modern as well as ancient—occupied his attention ”