Notes for Reading the Bible with John Locke by George Gross

The preference for republican government over monarchy in the He brew Bible appears to be revisited in the writings of the modern political philosophers, especially John Locke. The revival of this preference in the teaching of the moderns occurs in the mode of ideology, and rests upon a new epistemology that skirts the classic contention about the relationship of knowledge and virtue. Even so, the modern teaching is at once an interpretation and a qualified revival of the Scriptural teaching that man is to "be fruitful and multiply, abound in the earth, conquer it and rule" (Genesis 1:28).