Rambach was the son of Hans Jakob Rambach, a cabinet maker. For a time, he trained with his father, but then attended the
University of Halle as a student of medicine, before becoming interested in theology.[1] In 1723 he was appointed as an adjunct of the theological faculty, and in 1727, after
August Hermann Francke's death, a professor. After earning a
Doctor of Divinity in 1731, he was appointed the first professor of theology at
University of Giessen. He was offered a professorship at the
University of Göttingen, but decided to remain in Giessen. He died of fever 1735.
Rambach's hymns are still in use in German and some have passed into English use.[1][3]
He married twice, first, in 1724 to a daughter of his colleague, Joachim Lange.[4] After her death, he remarried in 1730. His daughter Johanna Dorothea married Conrad Caspar Griesbach, the father of
Johann Jakob Griesbach. One of his other daughters married Johann Christian Dietz, who was also a professor at Giessen.
Works
Erbauliches Handbüchlein für Kinder. Leipzig 1733 (
Digitalisat in the Digital Library of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern).
Erbauliches Handbüchlein für Kinder. Gießen 1734, hg.v. Stefanie Pfister und Malte van Spankeren, EVA Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-374-03754-4.
Der Heil. Schrift Prof. Ord. in Halle Betrachtungen über das gantze Leiden Christi, Jm Oelgarten, vor dem geistlichen Gericht der Jüden, vor dem weltlichen Gericht Pilati und Herodis, und auf dem Berge Golgatha : Nach der Harmonischen Beschreibung der vier Evangelisten abgehandelt.,
Digital Library at University of Halle