Devil in the Details

This chapter documents where and how Hobbes’s scriptural quotations diverged from contemporary translations of the Bible. While Hobbes usually relied on these translations, it reveals that on some points—especially regarding supernatural phenomena—he took considerable liberties to reconcile the Bible with the key tenets of his own political philosophy. The chapter also shows that attending to Hobbes’s translations both helps to locate some of the key sources for his biblical exegesis, such as work by the biblical scholar Joseph Mede, and provides further evidence confirming that a Latin text of Leviathan did not predate the English version. Hobbes’s alterations were of great interest to contemporary critics like Edward Hyde and Alexander Ross; this chapter shows why they should be of interest to modern critics as well.