Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Bible is made up of two main parts, according to Christians: the Old Testament and the New. For Hobbes, the similarities between them are more important than the differences, since he, as a Christian, considers each to contain the revelation of God to human beings. The principal difference between them is that, while the Old Testament was written over a very long period of time and usually long after the events it reports, the New Testament was written within the span of a century and shortly after the events it reports. Hobbes points out that most of the Old Testament was not accepted as revelatory until after the Babylonian Captivity ended in 538 bc.Hobbes first discusses biblical criticism in De Cive, but his discussion of the topic there is limited and not essential to the argument of the book (DC 16.12). By far his fullest and most important treatment of the accuracy, canonicity, and composition of the Bible occurs in part three of Leviathan, as part of his discussion of the nature of a Christian commonwealth. The rest of this entry will be divided into three parts: (1) the accuracy of the Bible; (2) the canonicity of the Bible; (3) the authorship of the Bible.(1) The first topic can be dealt with rather briefly. Hobbes points out that the text of the Bible was under the exclusive control of clerics during the early part of its existence. If the clerics had changed anything ... log in or subscribe to read full text