Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
Abraham was the first to make a covenant with God, and in this contract, Abraham agreed to obey God in all things. Hobbes argues there are some important points to be taken from Abraham’s covenant with God. For instance, God spoke to Abraham only; thus, the covenant was with Abraham only. To correct this, God said: “All the Nations of the Earth shall be blessed in him, For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.” Still, Abraham only had power to command “his own people.”
The distinction that Abraham only had dominion over “his own people” is an important one for Hobbes, a Protestant. Catholics often view the Pope as God’s sovereign on Earth. Hobbes ultimately argues this isn’t true, but even if the Pope was God’s sovereign, that would make the Pope sovereign only to “his own people” (i.e., Catholics), not all Christians everywhere.
Themes
This same covenant with God was later renewed, first with Isaac and later with Jacob; however, the covenant was not renewed again after that until the Israelites were freed. Then, the covenant was with Moses at the Foot of Mount Sinai. This contract between God and Moses marks the beginning of the “Peculiar Kingdome of God.” The first Lieutenant of this Kingdome was Moses, and then succession moved down the line to Aaron and his heirs.
Here, Hobbes is tracing the line of succession of God’s Lieutenants on Earth. Hobbes doesn’t begin with Moses, but Moses is the most important. The Catholic Church claims the Pope is God’s sovereign on Earth through this very same line of succession, but Hobbes ultimately argues that line, beyond Moses and a few others, can never be certain.
Themes
According to Hobbes, the people were not required to take Moses as God’s Lieutenant. As God spoke to Moses, not the people, the people were not commanded by God to accept Moses. In John 5:31, Christ says: “If I bear witnesse on my self, my witnesse is not true.” If Christ says this of his own witness, Hobbes asks, then what of Moses’s? Under God’s command, Moses was the sovereign power of the Jews, and after Moses’s time, Aaron was sovereign.
Again, Hobbes is tracing the line of succession of God’s Lieutenant, but God’s Lieutenant only has sovereign power over the people if the people in turn accept and submit to that power. The Jews accepted Moses and later Aaron, but not all Christians have accepted the Catholic Pope as this power in modernity.
Themes
In Moses’s time, there were no false prophets, as every prophet was authorized by Moses and had the “Spirit of God.” Numbers 11:25 explains, “God came down in a cloud, and took of the Spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it to the Seventy Elders.” While there were many prophets, they were all subordinate to Moses. After the time of Moses and Aaron, sovereign Power went to the High Priest, starting with Joshua. After Joshua, however, there was no one until Saul. The Book of Judges says: “there was in those dayes no King in Israel.”
Just as there is no sovereign power in Israel in the Book of Judges, Hobbes implies there is no spiritual sovereign power on Earth presently. As such, humans are beholden to their earthly, civil sovereign before they can be subjects of any given spiritual power, like the Pope.
Themes
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The Kings of Israel had authority in all things religious and civil. This sovereign power was divine, but it was also made by covenant. When the people of Israel say to Samuel, “make us a King to judge us,” Samuel is angry, but God says: “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected mee, that I should not reign over them.” With this rejection, there is no authority in the High Priest, except that which was allowed by the King.
Hobbes’s point here is that the authority of the High Priest is given by God through a covenant. God has this authority by way of his power, but also because he was the civil sovereign, as well as the spiritual sovereign, of the Israelites. Thus, God’s High Priest only has authority in any given common-wealth if the civil sovereign decrees it.
Themes
During the Jews’ captivity, they did not belong to a common-wealth. After the Jews were freed, they entered into a covenant with God; however, that contract made no promise of obedience to any king. So, as far as the Old Testament is concerned, it can be concluded that whoever was the sovereign power of the common-wealth of the Jews was also God’s “Supreme Authority” on Earth.
This passage again speaks to the distinction between a civil sovereign and a spiritual sovereign. For the Israelites, God’s Lieutenant or High Priest was the civil and spiritual sovereign, but this was a unique case in this one “peculiar” common-wealth and does not extend in a broader sense to all common-wealths in general.
Themes
