Theocracy

Holman Bible Dictionary

Eschatology

Such a rule could be unmediated or mediated through a messianic ruler. Theocracy is shown in action as Yahweh is portrayed as the Heavenly King in His divine council, as He governs the affairs of humanity and His court. The divine will is expressed in decrees that are implemented by members of Yahweh's court (see  1 Kings 22:1;  Isaiah 6:1;  Job 1-2;  Zechariah 3:1 ). Typically, three kinds of theocracy have been outlined.

1. A premonarchic form was based on the Sinaitic covenant ( Exodus 19:1 ) and on the charismatic leadership of the judges and the prophets. The experience was more religious, less political.

2. The monarchic form brought a compromise between anti- and pro-monarchic forces in Israel. The king was Yahweh's representative and was called Yahweh's anointed or prince. He was a king, yet he was Yahweh's subordinate. God worked or ruled through the monarchy.

3. A postexilic priestly form saw both the prince and the priest as Yahweh's representative. This move reflected the rising political importance of the priest. In postexilic Israel, theocracy becomes more idealized and future looking. Throughout Israel's history theocracy was often more an ideal God's messengers proclaimed rather than a reality Israel lived out.

David M. Fleming

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) The state thus governed, as the Hebrew commonwealth before it became a kingdom.

(2): ( n.) Government of a state by the immediate direction or administration of God; hence, the exercise of political authority by priests as representing the Deity.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 1 Samuel 8:6-9

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

thḗ - ok´ra - si ( θεοκρατία , theokratı́a , from θεός , theós , "a god," and κράτος , krátos , "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  Judges 8:23; 1 Sam 8; compare  1 Samuel 12:12;  2 Chronicles 13:8; 2 Sam 7:1-17;  Psalm 89:27;  Deuteronomy 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.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Θεοκρατία , 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 (T Ü b. 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).

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Government of a State professedly in the name and under the direction as well as the sanction of Heaven.