The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VIII. Cocceius Denies Grotius’ Fallacy; Reaffirms Historical View

JOHANNES COCCEIUS, or Koch (1603-1669), was born at Bremen and educated in Bremen and Holland, specializing in ancient Biblical languages. In 1629 he became professor of Biblical philology at Bremen, then professor of theology at Franecker in 1636 and at Leyden in 1650. He composed a famous Hebrew dictionary, and definitely affected the religious tendencies of his day. He helped lead men back to the Bible, but carried the system of figurative interpretation to extremes. PFF2 613.4

He certainly led out in a new way of approach to theological problems. He based his exegesis first on the original text of the Bible, and stood for the principle that the passages should be explained according to their real meaning in their original connections and in agreement with each other, and not according to church dogma. By him the Reformed Church in the Netherlands was deeply influenced. Unfortunately he had a tendency to allegorize, and therewith his own exegesis was some what discredited. ⁶² PFF2 614.1

Cocceius’ conception of the historical phases of the prophecy led him to write a work on Daniel which refuted Bellarmine’s theses and proved the pope to be Antichrist. In this work he interprets the kingdoms of Daniel 2 as Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, followed by the divided kingdoms rising from the Roman Empire; yet in the four beasts of Daniel 7 he sees Constantine and the succeeding Catholic emperors; the Arian Goths, Vandals, and Lombards (who devour the three ribs of Italy, Gaul, and Spain); the Mohammedans; and the empire of Charlemagne (the ten horns being the various ruling houses of the Holy Roman Empire through the centuries, and the Little Horn the Roman pope). ⁶³ It was an odd sequence. PFF2 614.2

He makes the “time, times, and a half,” as well as the forty-two months, the 1260 days, and even the three and a half days (as “years of years”), all refer to 1260 years, within which also is embraced the 1,000 years, but regards the “2300 evening-mornings” as literal days in the. time of Antiochus and the Maccabees. ⁶⁴ As for the seventy weeks, Cocceius remarks that our faith should not hang on chronology, yet we do not throw away the argument derived from time, by which to prove that Christ came. He regards the period as being “not less than 70 weeks, that is 490 years,” but inexact, for he extends it “between the decree of Cyrus and the ascension of Christ and the overthrow of the city.” Like Mede, he makes the sixty-two weeks a separate period, which he reckons from the time of Darius (Nothus) to the thirty-third year of Christ. ⁶⁵ PFF2 614.3

The 1290 days, which “no one doubts” are years, he reckons as ending with the restoration of the mass in certain parts of Germany, and therefore beginning in 332 or 333, in which he locates, for some unknown reason, the Council of Nicaea, where the false prophets erected an image to the Beast. ⁶⁶ PFF2 615.1

In 1643 Grotius’ interpretations stirred Cocceius to write a commentary on all the prophecies relating to the Antichrist, in which the preface bemoans the loss of clear understanding by recent commentators in glossing over the prophecies. ⁶⁷ He shows how the popes fulfill the specifications of Antichrist, and how Rome is the seat of the Antichrist, handed over to the woman riding the Beast at the fall of the pagan empire. ⁶⁸ He points out that the beasts of Daniel 7 are combined in the first beast of Revelation 13, and applies the symbols to the Papacy, with the Little Horn as the Roman pope. ⁶⁹ The seven heads are the same as those noted in Revelation 12:3, the divisions of the Roman Empire (Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Africa, Spain, Gaul); and the ten horns, those mentioned in Revelation 17:12, the kings of the Christian world (Italy, Spain, France, England, Scotland, Denmark and Norway, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary). ⁷⁰ The second beast from the earth is the rule of ecclesiastics, with the two horns denoting legitimate office and hypocrisy, and the image the papal Antichrist. ⁷¹ PFF2 615.2

The number 666 is found in Lateinos, Romith, Paulo V., Vice Deo, etc., but various other interpretations are given which are not entirely clear. ⁷² The woman of Babylon is papal Rome. ⁷³ PFF2 616.1