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
In Holy Scripture, Christ is said to hold three official offices. Christ is a “Saviour,” “Counsellor,” and lastly, the “eternall King.” In Christ’s office as Savior, he paid the ransom for humankind’s sins when he sacrificed his life. As Christ paid the ransom, he cannot be the King of the same people he saved. “My Kingdome is not of this world,” Christ says in John 18:36. And, perhaps even more convincing, is John 12:47, in which Christ says: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
This passage, too, reflects Hobbes’s argument that, despite popular opinion, the Kingdome of God is not the earthly Christian Church of the present day. God’s Kingdome, which is also Christ’s Kingdome, is “not of this world.” Therefore, Hobbes argues that God’s Kingdome cannot possibly be the current Christian Church or anyone in it.
Themes
The very purpose of Christ’s coming was to act as a counselor unto the people and convince them to follow God and renew the covenant. Up to this point, there was nothing unlawful in Christ’s plea to the people of Israel, whose common-wealth at that time was under Caesar’s rule. At the time, the Jews expected a Savior to come. If such an expectation was unlawful, Hobbes says, the people would not have had it. Furthermore, Christ told the Jews his Kingdome was elsewhere and taught them to obey their earthly king in the meantime, whomever that may be.
Caesar ruled the Roman Republic (a common-wealth) from 49 to 44 BCE, and he was the sovereign power of the people. Christ wanted the people to renew their covenant with God, but that covenant obligated the people to obey their civil sovereign in all things, not God. This argument is important for Hobbes, who dismisses claims that God is a Christian’s sovereign power over their earthly, civil sovereign.
Themes
In keeping with the third part of his office, Christ is to be King, but his power will be second to God’s: “The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his Angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Thus, Hobbes argues, Christ represents God to the people, just as Moses did, and every Lieutenant thereafter.
Hobbes argues that Moses was God’s Lieutenant on Earth and served as spiritual and civil sovereign power to the Israelites, just as Christ will to all Christians upon his second coming and the establishment of his Kingdome. Until then, Hobbes implies there is no such Lieutenant on Earth.
Themes
