Coooeius, John, one of the most distinguished theologians and Biblical interpreters of the 17th cen- tury, was bom in Bremen July 80 (or August 9, N. S.), 1608. The family name was Oodk (according to others Koch), but he and his brother Gerhard having been in their youth called Cocoeii, ever afterwards re- tained that appellation. The firaaily was an ancient and honorable one in Bremen, many members of it having filled high offices hi Church and State. He was brought up with great moral and religious strict- ness, for he relates in a short autobiography, which he left unfinished, that having been chastised at school for some bojrish falsehood, he ever from that time de- spised lying, and had such a reputation for truthful- ness as never to be compelled to take an oath ; and that, having once been struck on the mouth by his fa- ther with a spoon for the irreverent use of God's name at the table, he never again took it in vain. He was put to the best schools in his native dty, and became, while still a boy, so great a proficient in Greek as to read with delight its historians and poets. He learn- ed from his brother the rudiments of Hebrew, and af- terwards obtamed the Lexicons of Munster and Pagni- nus, and studied them whh great industry of his own accord for the investigation of the themes of the lan- guage. To the Hebrew he added Chaldee and Arabic, and gave his attention also to Babbinical literature. Although most strongly drawn to philological studies, because, as he says, he was persuaded that the Scrip- tures could not be rightly understood without a knowl- edge of the original languages, he did not neglect oth- er branches of learning, but studied physics and meta- physics with Gerhard NeufviUe, and theology with Martinius and Crocius. While still a student he wrote a Greek oration on the religion of the Turics, reading the Koran for that purpose. At the age of 22 he went to Hamburgh, at the suggestion of Msrtbiius, to prosecute his Rabbinical studies with the Jews of that dty. On his return he went to Franeker, in Friesland, preferring the Belgic schools to those of Germany, which, he says, were in bad repute (guod de his non bonus rumor essef). There he formed the ac- quaintance of an eminent Rabbinical scholar, Sixtinus Amama, and with him studied the Talmud. At his request he published a treatise De Syntdrio, which was highly commended by such scholars as Heinsi- us, Rivetus, Grotius, Selden, and Salmasius. While at Franeker' he also became intimately acquainted with Maccovius and the celebrated Puritan divine William Ames. On bis return to Bremen he was made, at the age of 27, professor of sacred philosophy, and began to lecture on the books of the Old Testa- ment. In the followmg year he published a Com- mentary on Ecdesiastes. In 1686 he removed to Franeker, to be professor of Hebrew in the newly-re- vived academy in that city ; and in 1648 he was also appointed to the theological chair. He remained at IVaneker until 1660, giving himself with great dili- gence to the study and public exposition of the Scrip- tures. Amongst the f^its of these labors were a Commentary on Job, Lectures on the Minor Prophets, and on the Epistles to the Hebrews and the Colos- sians, an Exercitatio de Prindpio Epistola ad Ephesios, and a theological treatise, Be Fcodere et Testamenio Bei, to which he added a brief Analysis Temporum Nofri Testamcnti, After fourteen years of laborious and successftil teaching at Franeker, he was invited to Leyden, to succeed the celebrated Frederick Span- helm at professor of theology ; and at his inauguration in October, 1660, he delivered an oration Be causis In- creduUtatis Jutheormn, He soon began to lecture on Isaiah ; but the death of one of his colleagues (Tri- glandius) made a new division of labors necessary, and he afterwards devoted himself to the exposition of the New Testament. In 1662 his Commentary on the Minor Prophets was printed by the fiAmous Elzevir, and in 1664 he published his Consideratio Principii
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EfHtngelH S, Johcamit, an elaborate examination of the first 18 verses of that Gospel, with especial refer- ence to the misinterpretations of Socinos, Schlichtin- gins, and others of that school. The writings of the Socinians having been disseminated ihrongh Holland and other provinces, the Synods of North and South Holland presented to the States a petition that thej might be restrained of this liberty, and an edict was accordingly issued in 1653 forbidding the printing and publishing of Sodnian books, and the preaching of their doctrines. This was done in accordance with the opinion of the theological Ucnlty of Leyden, which the States had asked for; and when an Apology against the edict was written by Eque* Polomu (be- lieved to be the Socinian Jonas Schlichtingius), the task of answering it was conmiitted to Cocceius, who fulfilled the duty so ably as to receive the thanks of the Synods of Dort and of North Holland. In 1656 he was drawn into a controversy with his colleague Hoom- beek on the divine authority of the Sabbath, which became so warm that the States interposed and put an end to it. Cocceius, recoiling from the rigid Judaiz- ing view, went to the opposite extreme, and main- tained that the Sabbath was a Jewish institution, not binding upon the Christian Church, although he was in favor, on grounds of expediency, of observing the Lord's day by public services of worship and preach- ing. The following year he began to write his He- brew Lexicon, at the request of her highness the prin- cess Maria Elepnora of Brandenburg ; but, owing to his many other labors and cares, he did not finish it till a little before his death in 1669. He never intermitted his work as an interpreter of the Scriptures, but sent forth one commentary after another till he had al- most gone through with the sacred boolu. The most elaborate of these are on the Psalms, Job, the Song of Solomon, and the prophetical books of the Old Testa- ment, and on the Epistles of the New Testament, par- ticularly those of Paul, and on the Apocalypse ; but there are many valuable notes on the Pentateuch. He was also much occupied with the controversies of his time, and wrote with great learning and ability against Jews, Socinians, and Papists. He defended the integrity of the Jewish Scriptures against Isaac Vossius, who maintained that they had been corrupt- ed, and that the translation of the Seventy had divine authority. In addition to his treatise De Fcedere, he wrote a much larger work with the title Summa Theo- logias ex ScripturU repetU<Xy the form of which was more in harmony with the systematic theology of his time. But while thus laboriously occupied, and in the foil maturity of his powers, he was suddenly seized with a fever, and, after a sickness of nineteen days, died on the 5th of November, 1669, at the age of 66.