A native of Bernstadt (Bierutów), Lower Silesia, he was the son of Johannes Acoluthus, pastor of St. Elisabeth and superintendent of the churches and schools of Breslau.
He attended the school of St. Elisabeth in Breslau and was in taught by August Pfeiffer in: Rabbinic, Arabic, Persian, Syriac and Ethiopian.
His studies reached a new zenith when an Arabic manuscript of the Qur'an with translations into Persian and Turkish was looted during the wars against the Ottoman Empire.
At this time, the Qur'an was almost unknown in Germany, as the only other known edition in Arabic script was burned by order of the pope.
Therefore, Acoluthus decided to publish this book with a Latin translation, a plan which found the goodwill of Frederick III of Saxony.