Theocracy
Theocracy
A form of civil government in which God himself is recognized as the head. The laws of the commonwealth are the commandments of God, and they are promulgated and expounded by the accredited representatives of the invisible Deity, real or supposed—generally a priesthood. Thus in a theocracy civic duties and functions form a part of religion, implying the absorption of the State by the Church or at least the supremacy of the latter over the State.
The earliest recorded use of the term “theocracy” is found in Josephus, who apparently coins it in explaining to Gentile readers the organization of the Jewish commonwealth of his time. Contrasting this with other forms of government—monarchies, oligarchies, and republics—he adds: “Our legislator [Moses] had no regard to any of these forms, but he ordained our government to be what by a strained expression, may be termed a theocracy [theokratian], by ascribing the power and authority to God, and by persuading all the people to have a regard to him as the author of all good things” (Against Apion, book II, 16). In this connection Josephus enters into a long and rather rambling discussion of the topic, but the entire passage is instructive.
The extent to which the ideals of the Mosaic theocracy were realized in the history of the Chosen People is a matter of controversy. Many eminent scholars are inclined to restrict its sway almost exclusively to the post-exilic period, when unquestionably the hierocratic rule and the ordinances of the Priestly Code were more fully carried into effect than in any of the preceding epochs. Be that as it may, and waiving critical discussion of the Old Testament writings with which the solution of the question is intimately connected, attention may be called to the fact that a belief in the theocratic rulership of nations and tribes is, in form more or less crude, characteristic of the common fund of Semitic religious ideas. The various deities were considered as having a territorial jurisdiction, fighting for their respective peoples and defending the lands in which they dwelled. This is amply proved by the extant historic and religious records of the Assyrians and Babylonians, and the same idea finds occasional expression in the Old Testament itself (see, for instance, Judges 11:23 sq.; 1 Samuel 26:19; Ruth 1:15-16, etc.). In a passage of the Book of Judges, Gideon is represented as refusing to accept the kingship offered to him by the people after his victory over the Madianites, in terms implying that the establishment of a permanent monarchy would involve disloyalty to the rule of Yahweh. “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but the Lord shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23). More explicit and stronger expression is given to the same view in the First Book of Kings in connection with the appeal of the people to the aged prophet Samuel to constitute a king over them after the manner of the other nations. The request is displeasing to Samuel and to the Lord Himself, who commands the prophet to accede to the wishes of the people that they may be punished for their rejection of His kingship. “And the Lord said to Samuel: Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to thee. For they have not rejected thee, but me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). Again in chap. xii Samuel, in his final discourse to the people, reproaches them in similar words: “you said to me: Nay, but a king shall reign over us: whereas the Lord your God was your king”. And at the call of the prophet the Lord sends thunder and rain as a sign of His displeasure, “and you shall know and see that you yourselves have done a great evil in the sight of the Lord, in desiring a king over you”.
The bearing of these passages on the historic institution of the theocracy varies in the estimation of different scholars according to the date assigned by them to the sources to which the passages belong. Wellhausen and his school, chiefly on a priori grounds, consider them a retouches of the post-exilic period, but it is far more probable that they form a part of a much older tradition, and indicate that a belief in the Lord’s kingship over the Chosen People existed prior to the establishment of the earthly monarchy. At the same time, there is no sufficient warrant for assuming on the authority of these texts that the theocratic rule in Israel came to an end with the inauguration of the monarchy, as is plain from the narration of the Lord’s covenant with King David and his descendants (2 Samuel 7:1-17). According to the terms of this covenant the earthly monarch remains under the control of the heavenly King, and is constituted His vicegerent and representative. And this direct dependence of the king on the Lord for wisdom and guidance is assumed throughout the historical records of the Hebrew monarchy. The supreme test of the worthiness of any king to occupy his exalted position is his fidelity to the Lord and His revealed law. The historical books, and still more the writings of the prophets, voice the constant belief that God exercised a special and efficient rule over Israel by blessings, punishments, and deliverances. In the post-exilic period the hierocratic rule became the dominant feature of the Jewish theocracy, and, in spite of its limitations and perversions, it prepared, according to the designs of a wise Providence, the way for the New Dispensation—the Kingdom of Heaven so often mentioned in the Gospels.
———————————–
VIGOUROUX, Dictionnaire de la Bible, s.v.
JAMES F. DRISCOLL Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Theocracy
(, rule of God), a form of government such as prevailed among the ancient Jews, in which Jehovah, the God of the universe, was directly recognized as their supreme civil ruler, and his laws were taken as the statute-book of the kingdom. This principle is repeatedly laid down in the Mosaic code, and was continually acted upon thereafter. SEE KING. Moses was but the appointee and agent of Jehovah in giving the law and in delivering the people from Egypt; and throughout the Exode the constant presence of God in the pillar and the cloud, as well as upon the mercy seat, was on every occasion looked to for guidance and control. So, likewise, Joshua and the Judges were special legates of the skies to perform their dictatorial factions. Even under the monarchy, God reserved the chief direction of affairs for himself. The kings were each specifically anointed in his name, and prophets were from time to time commissioned to inform them of his will, who did not hesitate to rebuke and even veto their actions if contrary to the divine will. The whole later history of the chosen people is but a rehearsal of this conflict and intercourse between the Great Head of the kingdom and the refractory functionaries. Under the New Economy, this idea passed over, in its spiritual import, to the Messiah as the heir of David’s perpetual dynasty, and thus Christ becomes the ruler of his Church and the hearts of its members. See Spencer, De Theocratia Judaica (Tb. 1732); Witsius, De Theocratia Israel. (Lugd. 1695); Blechschmidt, De Theocratiac Populo Sancto Instituta; Deyling, De Israeli Jehova Domino; Goodwin, De Theocratia Israelitarum (Ultraj. 1690); Hulse, De Jehova Deo Rege ac Duce Militani in Prisco Israele; Dannhauer, Politica Biblica; Conring, De Politia Iebsrceorum (Helmst. 1648); Michaelis, De Antiquitatibus AEconomnic Patriarchalis; Schickard, Jus Regium Hebraeorum, culm animadversionibus et notis Carpzovii (Lips. 1674, 1701); Abarbanel, De Statu et Jure Regio, etc., in Ugolino, Thesaurus, vol. 24. SEE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Theocracy
a word first used by Josephus to denote that the Jews were under the direct government of God himself. The nation was in all things subject to the will of their invisible King. All the people were the servants of Jehovah, who ruled over their public and private affairs, communicating to them his will through the medium of the prophets. They were the subjects of a heavenly, not of an earthly, king. They were Jehovah’s own subjects, ruled directly by him (comp. 1 Sam. 8:6-9).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Theocracy
the-okra-si (, theokrata, from , theos, a god, and , kratos, power; after the analogy of the words democracy, aristocracy, and the like): Theocracy is not a Biblical word. The idea, however, is Biblical, and in strictness of speech exclusively Biblical. The realization of the idea is not only confined to Israel, but in the pre-exilic history of Israel the realization of the idea was confined to the Southern Kingdom, and in post-exilic history to the period between the return under Ezra and the days of Malachi.
For the word theocracy we are, by common consent, indebted to Josephus. In his writings it seems to occur but once (Apion, II, xvi). The passage reads as follows: Our lawgiver had an eye to none of these, that is, these different forms of government, such as monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and others of which Josephus had been speaking, but, as one might say, using a strained expression, he set forth the national polity as a theocracy, referring the rule and might to God (Stanton’s translation). It is generally agreed that the language here used indicates that Josephus knew himself to be coining a new word.
If, now, we turn from the word to the Old Testament idea to which it gives fitting and apt expression, that idea cannot be better stated than it has been by Kautzsch – namely, The notion of theocracy is that the constitution (of Israel) was so arranged that all the organs of government were without any independent power, and had simply to announce and execute the will of God as declared by priest and prophets, or reduced to writing as a code of laws (HDB, extra vol, 630, 1, init.). The same writer is entirely correct when he says that in what is known in certain circles as the PC – though he might have said in the Old Testament generally – everything, even civil and criminal law, is looked at from the religious standpoint (ibid., ut supra).
If the foregoing be a correct account of the idea expressed by the word theocracy, and particularly if the foregoing be a correct account of the Old Testament representation of God’s relation to, and rule in and over Israel, it follows as a matter of course that the realization of such an idea was only possible within the sphere of what is known as special revelation. Indeed, special revelation of the divine will, through divinely-chosen organs, to Divinely appointed executive agents, is, itself, the very essence of the idea of a theocracy.
That the foregoing is the Old Testament idea of God’s relation to His people is admitted to be a natural and necessary implication from such passages as Jdg 8:23; 1 Sam 8; compare 1Sa 12:12; 2Ch 13:8; 2 Sam 7:1-17; Psa 89:27; Deu 17:14-20.
Upon any other view of the origin of the Old Testament books than that which has heretofore prevailed, it is certainly a remarkable fact that whenever the books of the Old Testament were written, and by whomsoever they may have been written, and whatever the kind or the number of the redactions to which they may have been subjected, the conception – the confessedly unique conception – of a government of God such as that described above by Kautzsch is evidenced by these writings in all their parts. This fact is all the more impressive in view of the further fact that we do not encounter this sharply defined idea of a rule of God among men in any other literature, ancient or modern. For while the term theocracy occurs in modern literature, it is evidently used in a much lower sense. It is futher worth remarking that this Old Testament idea of the true nature of God’s rule in Israel has only to be fully apprehended for it to become obvious that many of the alleged analogies between the Old Testament prophet and the modern preacher, reformer and statesman are wholly lacking in any really solid foundation.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Theocracy
Established
Exo 19:8; Exo 24:3; Exo 24:7; Deu 5:25-29; Deu 33:2-5; Jdg 8:23; 1Sa 12:12
Rejected by Israel
1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 8:19; 1Sa 10:19; 2Ch 13:8 God, Sovereign; Government
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Theocracy
(Gr. theos, god, kratos, government, power) A view of political organization in which God is sole ruler. All political laws come under what is held to be the Divine Will. Church and State become one. Examples the development of the Hebrew ideal and Judaism, Mohammedan politics, Calvinism in Geneva, Puritan New England. — V.F.