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Anonymous Johannes Coccejus (1603-1669). Copy after original of about 1666 in Amsterdam University by Antho-nie Palamedesz. Canvas, 86 × 67.5 cm.

Franeker, Museum 't Coopmanshûs, inv.nr. Sch. 33. From the Senate Chamber of Franeker University.

Coccejus had a reputation as a brilliant student of Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and, especially, Talmudic Aramaic when he came to Franeker to study in 1626. In 1630 he took a chair in his native Bremen, but returned to Franeker as professor of Oriental languages in 1636. In 1650 he moved on to the university of Leiden. His philological approach to Scripture led him into a vicious polemic with his Utrecht colleague Gisbertus Voetius, who read the New Testament as a succession of dogmas. When they crossed swords in 1659 over the issue of the Sabbath, feelings ran so high that the States General had to forbid preaching on the subject to prevent a new schism in the church.

NNBW, vol. 1, cols. 616-618. Ekkart 1977, nr. 103.