Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan

Image: Title page of the first edition of Leviathan (1660).





Very few people have ever read Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and the majority of Americans have never heard of Thomas Hobbes or his book Leviathan. And yet, as the editors of The New York Times wrote in a recent article, “Leviathan is arguably the most influential work of Western political thought, and one of the most analyzed..”

Although Leviathan was written in 1660, the translation of Hobbes’s book into Hebrew was published for the first time last month.

To celebrate this monumental occasion, The New York Times has invited five scholars to comment on the significance of Hobbes’s book and what modern readers can learn from a book that was written in 1660.

Follow the links below to read the significance of Leviathan and Hobbes’s views on religion.

Yoram Hazony, Shalem Center

Stephen Darwall, Yale professor of philosophy

Rebecca Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza

Fania Oz-Salzberger, historian of ideas

Menachem Lorberbaum, Tel Aviv University


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes