Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

excited Othniel, Gideon, Jephtha, and Samson to deliver them from
servitude, Judges, 3. 10, 6. 34, 11. 29, 13. 25, 14. 6, 19. And of
Saul, upon the news of the insolence of the Ammonites towards the
men of Jabesh Gilead, it is said that "The Spirit of God came upon
Saul, and his anger" (or, as it is in the Latin, his fury) "was
kindled greatly."* Where it is not probable was meant a ghost, but
an extraordinary zeal to punish the cruelty of the Ammonites. In
like manner by the Spirit of God that came upon Saul, when he was
amongst the prophets that praised God in songs and music,*(2) is to be
understood, not a ghost, but an unexpected and sudden zeal to join
with them in their devotion.
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* I Samuel, 11. 6
*(2) Ibid., 19. 20
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The false prophet Zedekiah saith to Micaiah, "Which way went the
Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee"* Which cannot be
understood of a ghost; for Micaiah declared before the kings of Israel
and Judah the event of the battle as from a vision and not as from a
spirit speaking in him.
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* I Kings, 22. 24
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In the same manner it appeareth, in the books of the Prophets,
that though they spake by the Spirit of God, that is to say, by a
special grace of prediction; yet their knowledge of the future was not
by a ghost within them, but by some supernatural dream or vision.
It is said, "God made man of the dust of the earth, and breathed
into his nostrils (spiraculum vitae) the breath of life, and man was
made a living soul."* There the breath of life inspired by God
signifies no more but that God gave him life; and "as long as the
spirit of God is in my nostrils"*(2) is no more than to say, "as
long as I live." So in Ezekiel, 1. 20, "the spirit of life was in
the wheels," is equivalent to, "the wheels were alive." And "the
spirit entered into me, and me, and set me on my feet,"*(3) that is,
"I recovered my vital strength"; not that any ghost or incorporeal
substance entered into and possessed his body.
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* Genesis, 2. 7
*(2) Job, 27. 3
*(3) Ezekiel, 2. 30
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In the eleventh chapter of Numbers, verse 17, "I will take," saith
God, "of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, and
they shall bear the burden of the people with thee"; that is, upon the
seventy elders: whereupon two of the seventy are said to prophesy in
the camp; of whom some complained, and Joshua desired Moses to
forbid them, which Moses would not do. Whereby it appears that
Joshua knew not they had received authority so to do, and prophesied
according to the mind of Moses, that is to say, by a spirit or
authority subordinate to his own.
In the like sense we read that "Joshua was full of the spirit of
wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him":* that is,
because he was ordained by Moses to prosecute the work he had
himself begun (namely, the bringing of God's people into the
promised land) but, prevented by death, could not finish.
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