Goeze studied in the universities of Jena and Halle, writing a doctoral dissertation on early Christian apologetics. In 1741, he became the pastor in Aschersleben, Principality of Halberstadt. In 1750, he took his ministry to Magdeburg, Duchy of Magdeburg, and from 1755 onwards he served as the pastor at St. Catherine's in Hamburg. The pastors of the five principal or head churches of Hamburg formed a college, the Spiritual Ministerium, and elected from their midst the spiritual leader of the Lutheran state church. In 1760 his colleagues elected Goeze senior of Hamburg. Goeze was familiar with literature and took up writing histories and apologetics. The latter led him to write against various proponents of the Enlightenment. In 1764, he wrote against Johann Bernhard Basedow, in 1769, against Johann Georg Schlosser, in 1771 against Johann Salomo Semler, the founder of the historical critical method, in 1773, against Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, and in 1769 against Julius Gustav Alberti, the first Rationalist pastor in Hamburg. The next year, in 1770, he published his best work, The True Nature of Religious Zeal. Goeze became well known chiefly for his debate with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing from 1777 to 1781. Goeze urged him to repentance, but little came out of the debate. Lessing responded with a number of rather polemical texts, finally resulting in Lessing being prohibited from writing on religious matters. Privately, Lessing showed respect for Goeze by always making sure to visit him when he came to Hamburg.
Works
Erneuertes Andenken der im Jahr 1659, den 3ten Febr. glücklich vollendeten Wiederherstellung des Thurms und der Hauptkirche zu St. Catharinen in Hamburg : welche im Jahr 1648, den 15ten Februar, durch einen erschröcklichen Sturmwind zerbrochen und verwüstet worden : Durch eine Dank- und Gedächtnis-Predigt, Hamburg: 1759.
„Goezes Streitschriften gegen Lessing“, in: Deutsche Litteraturdenkemale 43/45, Stuttgart: G.J. Goschen'sche Verlangshandlung, 1893, 208 pages.
Etwas vorläufiges gegen des Herrn Hofraths Lessings mittelbare und unmittelbare feindselige Angriffe auf unsre allerheiligste Religion und auf den einigen Lehrgrund derselben, die heilige Schrift, Hamburg: D.A. Harmsen, 1778.
Die wichtigsten Abschnitte der Lehre vom Tode: In einigen heiligen Reden abgehandelt, Breslau and Leipzig: Korn, 1753.
Heilsame Betrachtungen des Todes und der Ewigkeit, auf alle Tage des Jahres, Breslau and Leipzig: Korn, 1767.
Heilsame Betrachtungen der Geschichte des grossen Leydens und Versönungs-Todes Jesu Christi auf alle Tage des Jahrs: Vier Theile, Mevius, 1760. 544 pages.
Eine Probe von der Art, wie der Herr D. Semler seine Zeugen anzuführen pflegt: Kennern und Freunden der Wahrheit zur unpartheyischen Beurtheilung, und zur Erweckung, zum Vortheile der Wahrheit und der Religion, ähnliche Untersuchungen anzustellen, Hamburg: Bode, 1771, 32 pages.
