A non-academic once explained to me that Judaism was a reaction to theocracies. In this context their reaction to Jesus Christ saying he was the son of God was completely understandable. Is there any truth behind this?

by [deleted]

Thanks!

gingerkid1234

Without more information, it's very difficult to actually debunk this, beyond just saying "it's wrong". Basically, neither of these two pieces make a whole lot of sense.

First, how exactly would Judaism have been a reaction to theocracies? The Hebrew bible depicts lots of theocratic governments as not being bad, unless their choice of religion to support is polytheistic. Really, it's difficult to imagine a premodern government that's a rejection of theocracy in general, since the concept of having religion as a distinct part of life, separable from other stuff, is relatively modern.

As for the last bit, I have no idea why rejection of theocracies would imply rejection of the concept of being the son of god. I just don't see the causality. Not really sure what else there is to say for that, really.