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Leviathan: Part III. Of a Christian Commonwealth

Chapter xxxviii. Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption

[12] And first for the tormenters, we have their nature and properties exactly and properly delivered by the names of the enemy, or Satan; the Accuser, or Diabolus; the Destroyer, or Abaddon. Which significant names, Satan, Devil, Abaddon, set not forth to us any individual person, as proper names use to do, but only an office or quality; and are therefore appellatives; which ought not to have been left untranslated, as they are in the Latin and modern Bibles, because thereby they seem to be the proper names of demons; and men are more easily seduced to believe the doctrine of devils, which at that time was the religion of the Gentiles, and contrary to that of Moses and of Christ.

[13] And because by the Enemy, the Accuser, and Destroyer is meant the enemy of them that shall be in the kingdom of God; therefore if the kingdom of God after the resurrection be upon the earth (as in the former chapter I have shown by Scripture it seems to be), the enemy and his kingdom must be on earth also. For so also was it in the time before the Jews had deposed God. For God’s kingdom was in Palestine; and the nations round about were the kingdoms of the Enemy; and consequently by Satan is meant any earthly enemy of the Church.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan: with selected variants from the Latin edition of 1668. Ed. Edwin Curley. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994.

https://cwspangle.substack.com/p/leviathan-part-iv-of-the-kingdom

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❝For so also was it in the time before the Jews had deposed God.❞ . . .

MEANING: the Jews usurped the place of their God and became servants of the Enemy (Satan).

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❝For God’s kingdom was in Palestine; and the nations round about were the kingdoms of the Enemy . . .❞

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