theocracy

noun

Etymology: From theo- + -cracy, originally from Ancient Greek θεοκρατία (theokratía, “rule of (a) God”), a term coined in the 1st century by Josephus (Against Apion 2.17) in reference to the ancient Israelite polity under the Mosaic covenant. Attested in English from the 1620s, first by John Donne in A Sermon upon the fifth of November 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason: "The Jews were onely under a Theocratie, an immediate government of God..."

1. Government under the control of a state religion.

   “Near-synonym: clericocracy”

   “Tibet was a Buddhist theocracy ruled by the Dalai Lama prior to Chinese annexation.”

2. Rule by a god.

   “For quotations using this term, see Citations:theocracy.”