Leviathan: Chapter 35 Summary & Analysis

Most writings about the Kingdome of God, especially sermons and other homilies, assume that the Kingdome of God is one of eternal happiness in Heaven, but Hobbes disagrees. In Hobbes’s interpretation of the very same scripture, the Kingdome of God is any kingdom so named and created by the votes of the Israelites, in which they enter into a direct covenant with God, wherein he promises them eternal salvation. However, Hobbes points out, this covenant is not usually metaphorical.

Beginning with creation, God has reigned “naturally,” which is to say “by his might,” or by command through his own voice. God spoke to Adam when he commanded Adam to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge, and in the Book of Genesis, God speaks to Abraham: “I will establish my Covenant between me, and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God to thee, and thy seed after thee.”

This covenant is again seen in the Book of Exodus with Moses at the Foot of Mount Sinai, in which God commands Moses to say to the people of Israel: “If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Covenant, then yee shall be a peculiar people to me, for all the Earth is mine; And yee shall be unto me a Sacerdotall Kingdome, and an holy Nation.” Hobbes’s interpretation of the word “peculiar” assumes that the people are special in their covenant with God. Since the whole world belongs to God, only those who also share a pact with him are out of the ordinary.

Hobbes also considers the title “holy Nation” to signify a nation that is especially God’s, above and beyond those God holds by natural right. All the earth belongs to God, but every nation is not holy. The “Nation of Jews” is holy, however, which means the Kingdome of God is a common-wealth, in which God’s law is instituted as civil law and God is the sovereign power.

God as King is reflected in many places in Holy Scripture. In the Book of Samuel, God says to Samuel after the people of Israel ask for a king: “Hearken unto the voice of the People, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” It is clear that God is King of the people, not Samuel. God as King is also seen in the New Testament, when the angel Gabriel says of Christ: “He shall be great, and be called the Son of the most High, and the Lord shall give him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his Kingdome there shall be no end.” 

For Hobbes, God’s Kingdome is a “Civill Kingdome” that is based on a covenant between God and the people. The king of any given nation is the public king, and that king represents his subjects; however, God was the Holy King of Israel, and the Jews were his subjects. It is understood that which is Holy belongs to God—like a “Holy day,” a “Holy house,” or a “Holy man”—and the same goes for a “Holy nation.” There are degrees of holiness, and some things are nearer to God than others. A sacrament is something consecrated for God’s service that is used to signify one’s admission into the Kingdome of God to become one of God’s “peculiar people.” That sign is circumcision in the Old Testament and baptism in the New Testament, but both represent one’s loyalty and “implies an oath” to God.