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Joseph Mede (1586 in Berden – 1639) was an English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at
Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...
, where he became a Fellow from 1613. He is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist and Egyptologist. He was a Hebraist, and became Lecturer of Greek.


Early life

In the will of Thomas Meade of Berden, 1595 there is a bequest "Item I give and bequeath to Joseph my son sixty pounds of good and lawful money to be paid to him at his full age of one and twenty years." According to Jeffrey K. Jue, in Heaven Upon Earth, “Little is known of Mede’s childhood, other than the fact that at ten years of age both he and his father fell ill from smallpox. His father never recovered and his mother remarried a certain Mr. Gower from Nasing. Mede had two sisters, Rebecca and Sister Casse.” That Joseph had a sister Rebecca is confirmed in his father’s will: “Item I give and bequeath to my two daughters that is to say Anna Meade and Rebecca Meade to every of hemxxvii li vi s viii d of lawful money to be paid to them and every of them as they come to their several ages of xviii.” According to Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses, Thomas Meade, who had also been at Christ's College Cambridge, matriculating 1564, was "doubtless son of Edward Meade of Berden, Essex". In 1603, while a student at
Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...
, Mede came across an open copy of
Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus ( grc-gre, Σέξτος Ἐμπειρικός, ; ) was a Ancient Greece, Greek Pyrrhonism, Pyrrhonist philosopher and Empiric school physician. His philosophical works are the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and ...
' ''Outlines of
Pyrrhonism Pyrrhonism is a school of philosophical skepticism founded by Pyrrho in the fourth century BCE. It is best known through the surviving works of Sextus Empiricus, writing in the late second century or early third century CE. History Pyrrho of E ...
'' on another student's desk. Upon reading the book, he underwent a skeptical crisis. In search of some foundation for truth, he turned to studies of texts about the Millennium in the Bible.


Works

His ''Clavis Apocalyptica'' (1627 in Latin, English translation 1643, ''Key of the Revelation Searched and Demonstrated'') was a widely influential work on the interpretation of the '' Book of Revelation''. It projected the end of the world by 1716: possibly in 1654. The book also posited that the Jews would be miraculously converted to Christianity before the second coming. Christopher Hill considers that Mede deliberately refrained from publication. His interpretation of the '' Book of Daniel'' and ''The Apostasy of Latter Times'' were published posthumously. On
demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
s, he explained at least some
mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
as demonic. His collected ''Works'' were published in 1665, edited by John Worthington.


Theology

Joseph Mede held
Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...
theological views.


Influence

Those following Mede in part as a chronologist and interpreter included Thomas Goodwin, Pierre Jurieu, Isaac Newton, and Aaron Kinne (1745–1824). As a critical scholar of the Bible, he started the discussion of the possible multiple authorship of the '' Book of Zechariah'', subsequently taken up by
Richard Kidder Richard Kidder (1633–1703) was an English Anglican churchman, Bishop of Bath and Wells, from 1691 to his death. He was a noted theologian. Biography He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was a sizar, from 1649, graduati ...
(1633–1703) and many others.
Richard Popkin Richard Henry Popkin (December 27, 1923 – April 14, 2005) was an American academic philosopher who specialized in the history of enlightenment philosophy and early modern anti-dogmatism. His 1960 work ''The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to ...
attributes Mede's interpretation to countering scepticism, which gave it power to convince others, including the Hartlib circle. John Coffey writes:
''The ecumenist Scotsman John Dury, the German scientist Samuel Hartlib, and the Czech educationalist Comenius had each been profoundly influenced by the millenarianism of Alsted and Mede, and seem to have seriously entertained the idea that London was the centre from which human knowledge and divine rule would spread.
Coffey also says, however, that
millenarianism Millenarianism or millenarism (from Latin , "containing a thousand") is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenariani ...
was rare in the 1630s, coming in only later as an important force. William Twisse, of the Westminster Assembly, added a preface to the 1643 ''Key to the Revelation'', a testimonial to its convincing power. Among Mede's pupils at Christ's was Henry More.
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
studied at Christ's in Mede's time, and is considered to have been influenced by his ideas; but scholars have not found evidence that he was a pupil.''Mede, Milton and More: Christ's College Millenarians'' by Sarah Hutton, in Milton and the Ends of Time, edited by Juliet Cummins, , . Those following Mede's views in ''Doctrine of Demons'' include
Arthur Ashley Sykes Arthur Ashley Sykes (1684–1756) was an Anglican religious writer, known as an inveterate controversialist. Sykes was a latitudinarian of the school of Benjamin Hoadly, and a friend and student of Isaac Newton. Life Sykes was born in London ...
and Dr. Richard Mead.


See also

* '' Vox Piscis''


Notes and references


Citations


Sources

*


Further reading

*Jeffrey K. Jue (2006), ''Heaven Upon Earth: Joseph Mede (1586–1638) and the Legacy of Millenarianism'', Dordrecht: Springer. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mede, Joseph 1586 births 1639 deaths 17th-century apocalypticists 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Arminian theologians British biblical scholars Chronologists English male non-fiction writers English theologians 16th-century Anglican theologians 17th-century Anglican theologians