01,1GIOUS LIBERTY .4ss, 
WAS ISRAEL A REPUBLIC? 
Turs question must sound strange to the ears of every reader of 
the Bible ; but it is the position taken by a certain party in our land, 
who, in their wondrous zeal for a religious government in the United 
States, actually assert that the government of Israel, instituted at Sinai, 
was a republic ! The following from their organ, the Christian States-
man, may be taken as a sample of their utterances upon this point :— 
" The nation of Israel was organized at mount Sinai, 'as 'the custo-
dians of the law, liberty, and religion of mankind.' A republican form 
of government was given them. The three departments of government, 
— the legislative, executive, and judicial, were substantially represented 
in it. Moses, as the judge or president, was the chief executive officer. 
The seventy elders formed the 'congress of general government. The 
court of the gate or civil Sanbedrim was the arbiter of justice. The 
heads of the tribe and princes thereof constituted the tribal or State gov-
ernments. It was a representative government. The people were. sov-
ereign. They elected their rulers to represent them in office." 
Such assertions are not only absurd, but a shameful perversion of 
Bible history, as the following statements will show :- 
When Israel was called out of Egypt, the government under 
which they were led was a theocracy, pure and simple. And every one 
knows that a theocracy is the very opposite of a republic. 
There was no' legislative department in the government. A 
republic was well described by President Lincoln, as a government "of 
the people, by the people, and for the people." But no such govern-
ment was instituted at Sinai, or at any other place or time, for Israel. 
Even Moses, the highest among them, was not a legislator ; Moses never 
made any laws. He enforced that, and that only, which he received di-
rectly from the Lord. 
The seventy elders were not legislators ; they never made any 
laws ; they did not constitute a "Congress" in any sense in which that 
word is used in a republic or, in any representative government. The 
Statesman and its correspondents can make these assertions good only 
by pointing to the act by which they'were constituted a legislative body, 
or pointing to some law which' they enacted. This they cannot do. But 
by their failure to do this, they will stand convicted of misrepresenting 
the Bible to serve the purpose of their worldly ambition. There is not 
in the land a Sunday-school scholar of intelligence and study, who does 
not know that Go'cl alone gave laws to Israel, Which[Nes and the sev-
enty elders were to enforce and administer, with the explicit direction 
to add nothing to them, nor take anything from them. 
The assertion that " the people were sovereign," is false even to 
an absurdity. They possessed no sovereignty in the government in any 
respect whatever. Neither the people, nor Moses, nor the seventy, were 
consulted in regard to the laws they were to obey, dr to .the penalties to 
be enforced. They entered into covenant with God to be his people 
and to obey him, but God conferred no legislative power upon any of 
them. 
Although the government was a theocracy, under the immediate 
and sole direction of God, the religious and civil elements were kept 
distinct, the priests having no inheritance with the tribes, and all but 
those designated by the Lord as priests being ineligible to the priest-
hoOd. All religious rites being ordered by the Lord, the civil rulers had 
no authority to control them, or interfere in their performance. The 
prophets through whom the Lord directed the affairs of the Govern-
ment, might or might not be priests. Sometimes this office was given 
to women. All was ordered of the Lord, and the people had no voice 
in any of these matters. 
The people finally demanded a king, not to better their govern-
ment, but to be as the nations around them. Though the Lord listened 
to their request, the thing displeased him. He gave them a king, but 
he reserved to himself the right to choose the king for them. Even 
in this they were not consulted. Saul was chosen of the Lord, and 
anointed before the people knew anything about him. He was re-
jected, — not by the people, but by the Lord, — and David was chosen 
and anointed in like manner, without the knowledge of the people. 
And the powers of the kings were so limited by the rules and laws 
which were given to them, that Israel was once sorely afflicted because 
king David presumed to take a census of the people without consult-
ing the Lord. 
And now, reader, we leave it to you to judge in this matter. Was 
there any semblance of a republic in the government of Israel, in any 
period of its history ? Is not any one guilty of deception who would 
try to palm off such statements as those we have quoted, as historical 
truths of the Bible ? 
-- A DD RES S 
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