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Chapter 34
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
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.
This passage reflects one of Hobbes’s primary arguments regarding God and religion, which is that God’s Kingdome is not of the present world. For Hobbes, God’s Kingdome is created through a covenant, just like any other common-wealth, and a covenant cannot be created unless the terms are willingly accepted by both parties. Thus, to enter into a covenant with God, there must be direct communication with God.
Themes
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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.”
God reigns “naturally,” which is to say he rules by his power through the Laws of Nature, and since all humans are subject to the Laws of Nature, all humans are God’s subjects. Hobbes has already stated that the Laws of Nature are communicated through natural reason, not words; however, God did speak to some people, like Abraham, more directly and institute an additional covenant above and beyond the Laws of Nature.
Themes
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.
Here, Hobbes cites Exodus 19:5, in which God enters into a covenant with the people of Israel through Moses. In this covenant, the Israelites become unified as one in God’s Kingdome (a common-wealth); however, this covenant extends only to the people of Israel, not the world at large. The whole world already belongs to God—meaning the whole world is subject to the Laws of Nature—but the Israelites are God’s subjects in addition to this universal power.
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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.
This passage further explains the special pact the Jews have with God above and beyond those instituted through the Laws of Nature. Popular opinion assumes that God’s Kingdome is the present-day Christian Church, but Hobbes argues here that God’s Kingdome is a common-wealth in which God’s law (the Laws of Nature) are civil law and God is the sovereign power, like the covenant the Israelites entered into in Exodus 19:5.
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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.”
Hobbes ultimately argues that God, or Christ through God’s power as his son, is the sovereign power of God’s Kingdome. However, God, or Christ, is only the sovereign power of the common-wealth that was created by his covenant with the Israelites. Thus, Hobbes argues, God is not the sovereign power of every other Christian person on earth.
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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.
Hobbes argues that a sacrament, like circumcision or baptism, is only an oath one swears to God, and he further implies that such an oath alone does not make a person one of God’s “peculiar people.” In swearing an oath to God, one has no way of knowing if God has accepted the terms of their oath; therefore, there can be no agreement and no covenant. Again, to truly be part of God’s Kingdome and to accept God as one’s sovereign power, there must be direct communication with God, either with God himself or through a representative, like Moses. This argument is crucial in Leviathan, as it suggests that one is beholden to their earthly sovereign before God.
Themes
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