Religious Implications in John Milton ’s Paradise Lost and Thomas Hobbes

will heare thee, but let not God speak to us, lest we dye. This is absolute obedience to Moses” 
(Lev. XXXII; 20, 114). The rest of the people, who God has not shared neither his will nor 
divine right, do not know this to be neither truth nor false. Hobbes argues that people who 
claim that God has spoken to them in their dreams, is the same as to have dreamed that God 
spoke to then, which should not be believed by any man (Lev. XXXII; 32, 210).
The Scriptures in the Bible, as expressed earlier in the texts, are open to different 
interpretations and translations, and Hobbes believes that they can only be trusted if the civil 
sovereign was to interpret it. He points to other Biblical incidents where one has gained 
political power and thus, I will now introduce Hobbes’ point of false religion. The Catholics 
and Protestants, amongst others, practiced what Hobbes’s would claim to be false religion 
with the intention of gaining private benefits and rewards. Hobbes explains that there are two 
sorts of men in regards of religion, each with a seed. One that;
“have nourished, and ordered them, according to their own invention. The other, have
done it, by Gods commandment, and direction: but both sorts have done it, with the

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purpose to make those men that relyed on them, more apt to Obedience, Lawes, Peace,
and Charity, and civill Socety. So that the religion of the former sort, is part of humane
Politiques” (Lev. XII; 12, 62).
Hobbes is recognizing religion as politics, and how rulers have based their selfish actions 
upon religious and Godly arguments, much like the “Founders of Common-Wealths”. One 
sort of religious man has made commands of his own invention, and the other has done it to 
satisfy his followers, but both men, observes Hobbes, have done it to gain obedience from the 
people. He also recognizes that Moses and Abraham were simply acting out of obedience and 
in accordance with reason, society and law, and are therefore “Of the later sort, were 
Abraham, Moses, and our Blessed Saviour” (62).
In introducing such a detailed and critical reading of the Scripture, Hobbes encourages a 
skeptical analysis of the Holy Bible, and the words of God. He questions who the original 
writers of several of the Books in the Holy Bible were, and claims that no evidence, other than 
historical proof, has been provided of the facts. Reason, Hobbes claims, “nor can be by any 
arguments of natural Reason: for Reason serves only to convince the truth (not of fact, but) of 
consequence.” (Lev. XXXII; 33, 214) If one cannot trust that the divine power of prophets is 
not truth nor fact, then one cannot trust in the commandments that they introduce,. By which 
authority, then, are men required to believe in them and possibly call such uncertain 
commandments for laws?
Reason, as I have repeatedly explained, dictates man in the direction which will benefit 
his own good. (Lev. XV; 15, 81). Men who, in pursuit of power over other men, and 
motivated by personal gain rather than the good of the collective, will see fit to use divine 
right as a tool for their own, selfish winnings. The calculated outcome of this reason results in 
sin, and therefore, Hobbes assumes that God’s will cannot be revealed immediately nor 
internally through reason. He doubts, in the same manner, that prophets then can receive
God’s commandments. Their reason display that they know not “when he is to obey, or not 
obey his Word, delivered by him, that says he is a Prophet” (Lev. XXXII; 31, 211) This type 
of critical thinking towards the Scriptures was not something that was common in England 
before the Civil Wars. These points of the Scriptures that Hobbes speaks of and openly 
challenges, were previously considered factual and rarely questioned. However, the 
importance of such critical thinking is necessary. After all, as Hobbes reminds us; “Of 400
Prophets, of whom the K. of Israel asked counsel, concerning the warre he made against
Ramoth Gilead, only Micaiah was a true one” (211).

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Hobbes introduces several issues that makes him skeptical about the Mosaic 
authorship, including the “last chapter of Deuteronomic, verse 6.” (Lev. XXXIII; 33, 214). He 
mentions that no one knows of Moses’ “sepulcher” and therefore, assumes that the words of 
Moses were written after his burial. “Moses spake of his own sepulcher (though by Prophecy)” 
when he was alive. He also mentions Genesis, chap 12; 6, where it is written; “And Abraham