Biography

Joseph Mede (or Joseph Mead) was a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge 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.

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.

Those following Mede in part as a chronologist and interpreter included Thomas Goodwin, pierre Jurieu, Aaston Kinne and Isaac Newton. As a critical scholar of the Bible, he started the discussion of the possible multiple authorship of the Book of Zechariah. His collected Works were published in 1665.

Among Mede's pupils at Christ's was Henry More. John Milton 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. "This biography, in part, based on an article from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mede