COCCEIUS, or Coch, Johann (1603-1669), a Dutch theologian, was born at Bremen. After studying at Hambuig and Franecker he became in 1629 professor of Hebrew in his native town. In 1636 he was transferred to Franecker, where he held the chair of Hebrew, and from 1643 the chair of theology also, until 1650, when he became professor of theology at Leyden. He died on t⅛ 4th November 1669. Cocceius was a profound Oriental scholar, and his chief services were rendered in the department of Hebrew philology and exegesis. The common statement that he held that every passage has as many meanings as it can be made to bear is founded on an entire misconception of his fundamental law of interpretation. What he really maintained was the sound principle that individual words and phrases are to be interpreted according to their contextual connection, and not according to any predetermined dogmatic system, w hether patristic or scholastic. As one of the leading exponents of the “federal” theology, he spiritualized the Hebrew scriptures to such an extent that it was said that Cocceius found Christ everywhere in the Old Testament and Grotius found him nowhere. He held millenarian views, and was the founder of a school of theologians who were called after him Cocceians. His most distinguished pupil was the celebrated Vitringa. He wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Old Testament, but his most valuable work was his Lexicon et Commentarius Sermonis Heb. et Chald. (Leyden, 1669), which has been frequently republished. The federal or covenant theology which he taught is fully expounded in his Summa Doctrinae de Foedere el Testamento Dei (1648). His collected works were published in twelve folio volumes at Amsterdam in 1701.