COCCEIUS, the latinized name of Johannes Koch (1603 1669) , Dutch theologian, who was born at Bremen, on Aug. 9, 1603. After studying at Hamburg and Franeker, where Sixtinus Amama was one of his teachers, he taught at Bremen and at Franeker, and in 1650 succeeded Fr. Spanheim the elder as pro fessor of theology at Leyden. He died there on Nov. 4, 1669. His chief services as an oriental scholar were in the department of Hebrew philology and exegesis. As one of the leading exponents of the "covenant" or "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 Hugo Grotius found him nowhere. He taught that before the Fall, as much as after it, the relation between God and man was a covenant. The first covenant was a "Covenant of Works." For this was sub stituted, after the Fall, the "Covenant of Grace," to fulfil which the coming of Jesus Christ was necessary. 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 Campeius Vitringa. His most valuable work was his Lexicon et Commentarius Sermons Hebraici et Chaldaici (Ley den, 1669), which has been frequently republished; his theology is fully expounded in his Summa Doctrinae de Foedere et Testa mento Dei (1648) .
His collected works were published in 12 folio volumes (Amsterdam, See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopidie.