The Hebrew Republic, also “''De Republica Hebraeorum''”, and also “''Respublica Hebraeorum''”, is an early modern concept in political theory in which Christian scholars regarded the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

as a political constitution framing a perfect and

republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

an government designed by God for the children of Israel. In 1582,

Carlo Sigonio Carolus Sigonius (Carlo Sigonio or Sigone) (c. 152412 August 1584) was an Italian Humanism, humanist, born in Modena. Biography Having studied Ancient Greek, Greek under the learned Franciscus Portus of Heraklion, Candia, he attended the ph ...

published a text entitled ''De Republica Hebraeorum''. It used the format of the ''De repubblica Athenensium'' manual. The question of the political structure in ancient Israel had already been addressed before, but Sigonio was the first to adopt a systematic approach. However, he did not know

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and so used the translation of the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, giving rise to not a few problems. Among the most notable works in the genre are “''De Republica Hebraeorum''” by

Petrus Cunaeus Petrus Cunaeus (1586, in Vlissingen – 2 December 1638, in Leiden) was the pen name of the Dutch Christian scholar Peter van der Kun. His book ''The Hebrew Republic'' is considered "the most powerful statement of republican theory in the earl ...

and Eric Nelson's "The Hebrew Republic". A Catholic contributor to the ''respublica Hebraeorum'' genre was the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

Giovanni Stefano Menochio Giovanni Stefano Menochio, - , was an Italian Jesuit biblical scholar. Life Menochio was born at Padua, and entered the Society of Jesus on 25 May 1594. After the usual years of training and teaching the classics, he became professor of sacred ...

, who published his own ''De republica Hebraeorum'' in 1648.

References

Further reading