Cocceius' Eschatology?

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RamistThomist

Puritanboard Clerk
I had always assumed he was amillennial, because that seems to be the standard default labeling, but in Frei's Eclipse of Biblical Narrative he calls Cocceius a "chiliast" (p. 175).
 
I'm certainly no expert on Cocceius, but according to Van Asselt he believed (Summa Doctrinae, 629) that "the teaching of the Chiliasts, that the saints will be bodily resurrected in order to set up an earthly kingdom before the final judgment, must be repudiated. This is a Jewish error that arises from the idea that there will be a resurrection of the dead in the land of Israel, and in the days of the Messiah before the general judgment." (The Federal Theology of Johannes Cocceius, 50f)
 
Of course chilasm can include what we now call postmillennialism and is not to be immediately identified with what has come to be known as premillennialism.

Cocceius' eschatology is handled by van Asselt in Calvin Theological Journal 34 (1999) 76-104. I believe that can be found online.

In sum, he was charged with it, but it was denied by his son. He is generally listed with the moderate chiliasts. His followers sometimes advocated it, and there are distinct elements in his teaching which are chiliast by definition.
 
I can't believe he hasn't been translated. Well, there's another decade of work for me.

I checked his comments on Revelation 20. On pp. 108-110 of this volume, he disagrees with Justin Martyr's chiliasm and interprets the thousand years as not less than 1,000 years. The binding of Satan refers to the Gentile mission. Opera omnia - Johannes Coccejus - Google Books
 
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