The Name ‘Leviathan’ – or the Shadow that Fell on a Work
Hobbes and Bodin, the Bible and a Commentary or Two on Job
Abstract
Is the reference to the Book of Job sufficient to explain why Hobbes gave the name ‘Leviathan’ to the state he advocated? Had he not been aware of how maligned this name had been for centuries: that it not only referred to a monster, but soon became synonymous with the devil himself? - The “long shadow” that, according to Carl Schmitt, the name ‘Leviathan’ alone had cast on Hobbes’s work from the very beginning was first cleared somewhat in 2007 by Noel Malcolm’s reference to Jacques Boulduc’s Job- commentary of 1619/37. As far as the “extraneous influence” in question is concerned, however, reference could also be made to the Job-commentary of a certain Joseph Caryl of 1643, which in turn took away some of the scandalous connotation of the biblical Leviathan. The real key to Hobbes’s naming, however, may lie with Jean Bodin, with whom Hobbes shares everything that the name ‘Leviathan’ stands for in his political philosophy.
Keywords
biblical name of Hobbes’s masterpiece | reception by the contemporaries | Boulduc’s and Caryl’s commentaries on Job | Bodin’s influence on Hobbes’s naming | concept of sovereignty vs. mixt government | biblischer Name von Hobbes’ Meisterwerk | zeitgenössische Rezeption | Boulducs und Caryls Hiob-Kommentare | Bodins Einfluss auf Hobbes’ Namensgebung | Souveränität vs. gemischte Staatsform