In this essay, I examine Hobbes’s interpretation of Scriptural passages that figure prominently in contemporaneous political debates. Hobbes’s interpretative practices affirm his major systematic aims but also contribute to his inventive reenvisioning of Hebraic and Christian political history. The privileged position Hobbes gives Hebraic forms of rule together with his treatment of I Samuel 8 are motivated, in part, by a need to counter Aristotle’s influence on an exegetical tradition that opposes monarchy-as-tyranny in connection with this central, much-debated text. Hobbes conjoins his counter-revolutionary interpretation of 1 Samuel 8 with specific passages in the Christian New Testament that permit him to insert Jesus as “king of the Jews” into a startlingly unique conception of Hebraic and Christian history. This revisionary history and eschatology support Hobbes’s theorization of absolute sovereignty and undercut fantastical beliefs in an immaterial world.

在这篇文章中，我研究了霍布斯对在同时代政治辩论中占有重要地位的圣经段落的解释。霍布斯的解释实践肯定了他的主要系统目标，但也有助于他创造性地重新构想希伯来和基督教政治史。霍布斯赋予希伯来式统治形式的特权地位以及他对撒母耳记 8 的处理，部分原因是需要对抗亚里士多德对反对君主制作为暴政的解释传统的影响，这种传统与这个中心的、备受争议的文本。霍布斯将他对撒母耳记上 8 章的反革命解释与基督教新约中的特定段落结合起来，这些段落允许他将耶稣作为“犹太人的王”插入到一个惊人的独特的希伯来和基督教历史概念中。