Evangelizing with Biblical Theophanies

What is a “theophany,” and how might we use the theophanies of the Bible to share the Gospel with others?

A theophany is a supernatural manifestation of God. God makes Himself known to human beings by “appearing” to them in some extraordinary way. The Bible recounts a great number of theophanies in both the Old and New Testaments. Common elements include fire, light, clouds, smoke, thunder, voices, and angelic intermediaries.

There are different ways of identifying and counting biblical theophanies, but according to a broad reckoning, an incomplete list would include:

Old Testament

1. God’s Appearances to Abraham, including the Three Visitors (Genesis 12:7; 15:1–21; 17:1–22; 18:1–33)
2. The Angel of the Lord at the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:1–19)
3. Jacob’s Ladder and the Wrestling at Peniel (Genesis 28:10–22; 32:22–32; 35:9–15)
4. The Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1–22)
5. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire (Exodus 13:21–22; 14:19–24; 33:7–23; Numbers 9:15–23)
6. Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1–25; 20:1–21; 24:15–18; 33:18–23; 34:5–35)
7. God’s Presence in the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34–38)
8. The Commander of the Lord’s Army (Joshua 5:13–15)
9. Gideon and Manoah (Judges 6:11–24; 13:2–23)
10. Elijah at Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:9–18)
11. Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord (Isaiah 6:1–13)
12. Ezekiel’s Vision of the Divine Glory (Ezekiel 1:1–28; 10:1–22; 43:1–12)
13. Daniel’s Vision of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man (Daniel 7:9–14; 10:1–21)

New Testament

14. The Birth and Epiphany of Christ (Luke 2:1–38; Matthew 2:1–12)
15. The Baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22)
16. The Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36)
17. The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ (Matthew 28:1–10; Luke 24:1–53; Acts 1:1–11)
18. Pentecost (Acts 2:1–41)
19. Stephen’s Vision of Christ in Glory (Acts 7:55–56)
20. Paul’s Encounter with Christ on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–19; 22:6–21; 26:12–23)
21. John’s Vision of Christ in Glory on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9–20)

Each of these theophanies is important in its own way, but some are more central to divine revelation than others. In the Old Testament, the appearances of God to Abraham, the revelations to Moses surrounding the Exodus and the giving of the Law, God’s presence in the Tabernacle, and Daniel’s great vision stand out in particular. The New Testament theophanies, for obvious reasons, possess an even greater significance.

Theophanies in the Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions or alludes to most of these theophanies and can help us understand their place within the unfolding of divine revelation.

According to the Catechism, the theophanies of the Old Testament are part of a divine pedagogy in which the Lord both “revealed … and concealed” His divine Word in “the cloud of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 707; see CCC 697). What would later be revealed fully in Christ is already anticipated in the Old Testament.

Among all these Old Testament theophanies, however, the Catechism gives special prominence to one: “The revelation of the divine name to Moses in the … burning bush” is “the fundamental revelation” of God “for both the Old and New Covenants” (CCC 204).

Why?

Because at the burning bush God reveals His Name, His holiness, His transcendence and immanence, His creative power, and His everlasting mercy and faithfulness (CCC 203–221). In explaining the revelation of the Divine Name, the Catechism also draws upon another theophany involving Moses: the later revelation in which God makes His goodness “pass before” him (see Exodus 33:18–34:8), part of the larger complex of theophanies surrounding Mount Sinai.

But how can an Old Covenant theophany—the burning bush—be called “the fundamental revelation” if the fullness of divine revelation does not come until the New Covenant?

Here again the Catechism helps us. It stresses the importance of several New Testament theophanies as revelations of the Holy Trinity (see CCC 528, 555, 731–732, 1137). But through the Incarnation, Birth, and Epiphany of Christ, it also draws a special connection between them and the burning bush:

In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifests the Son of the Father, now become the Son of the Virgin. She is the burning bush of the definitive theophany. Filled with the Holy Spirit she makes the Word visible in the humility of his flesh. It is to the poor [the Birth] and the first representatives of the gentiles [the Epiphany] that she makes him known.

CCC 724, emphasis mine

The central point, then, is that the varied theophanies given to the people of God—with special emphasis on the burning bush—find their fulfillment in Christ.

The Incarnation manifests and reveals God (see CCC 262), but it is also far more than a theophany in the ordinary sense. A theophany is God appearing; the Incarnation is God becoming man: the divine nature forever united to a human nature in the one divine Person of the Son. In Christ, we encounter the definitive manifestation of God.

In the light of the Incarnation, the New Testament theophanies fulfill and complete those of the Old Testament.

Consider, for example, Christ’s Baptism. The Catechism states that “the Old Covenant prefigurations” of Baptism “find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus.” Among these prefigurations is the crossing of the Red Sea, which takes place within the larger theophany of the pillar of cloud and fire (see CCC 1221, 1223–1224).

Or consider the Transfiguration. When discussing the revelation of prayer in the life of the Prophet Elijah, the Catechism observes that Moses and Elijah, although they desired to see the face of God, did not see it during the mountain theophanies they received. Yet on the Mount of Transfiguration, they finally behold the Face of the Lord (see CCC 2583).

The Transfiguration and Ascension are likewise presented as fulfillments of the “cloud and light” imagery associated with Old Testament theophanies—with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting, during Israel’s wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. The Catechism says plainly: “In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures” (CCC 697).

A Special Case: Moses at Mount Sinai

The mountain theophany given to Moses holds a special place among the biblical theophanies. Within it we find a precious revelation of the character of God:

So the Lord passed before him and proclaimed: The Lord, the Lord, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity, continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation!

Exodus 34:6–7

Of special interest is the proportion between love and punishment: a thousand generations compared with three or four. Like the Lord’s teaching about forgiving again and again in Matthew 18:22, we might call this the mathematics of mercy.

The importance of this revelation is underscored by the fact that its language is repeated again and again throughout Scripture. See Numbers 14:18; Psalms 86:15, 103:8, and 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; and Nehemiah 9:17.

God wants His people to know what He is like: gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving sin—and yet also perfectly just.

The Cross: The Culmination of the Definitive Theophany

One could argue that the Resurrection and Ascension are the greatest theophanies of the New Testament. In them, Christ’s life, deeds, teaching, and divine identity are gloriously vindicated.

And yet the definitive manifestation of God is Christ Himself, and the culminating work of Christ’s earthly life is His death on the Cross.

Does that make the Cross the culmination of the definitive theophany?

At first glance, the idea seems almost contradictory. Considered by itself, the Cross appears to conceal God more than to reveal Him. It seems less like a theophany than an “anti-theophany”: weakness rather than power, humiliation rather than glory, apparent defeat rather than divine victory. To those who stood watching without faith, it could appear to be nothing more than the failure of a man who claimed to be the Son of God.

But the Resurrection and Ascension change the way the Cross is seen. The Crucified One is vindicated. The man who died in apparent defeat is revealed to be the true Son of God and Lord of glory.

In their light, the Cross itself becomes revelatory. It shows us who God is.

The Cross reveals the depth of divine love, the seriousness of sin, the justice and mercy of God, the obedience of the Son, and the astonishing lengths to which God will go to save us.

In this sense, the Cross is both an “anti-theophany” and the culmination of the definitive theophany. God’s glory is hidden there—and, through faith in the crucified and risen Christ, revealed there.

Preaching “the Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Those who believe are those who see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). God is truly made manifest through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the heart of that Gospel is that Jesus, crucified and risen, shares fully in the glory of God: Jesus is Lord.

St. Paul continues:

For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of [Jesus] Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:5–6

Evangelization is about bringing people into an encounter with Jesus Christ, the definitive manifestation of God, so that they might continue to encounter Him throughout their lives—in the preaching of the Church, in prayer, and especially in the Sacraments—and ultimately behold Him in heaven.

The Christian life begins with God making Himself known to us in Christ. We encounter “the glory of God” in “the face of Jesus Christ.” And the Christian life continues through deeper and repeated encounters with that same divine glory.

There is, then, an important analogy with the biblical theophanies. In them, God makes Himself known. In Christ, everything toward which those manifestations pointed reaches its fulfillment.

This suggests one possible approach to evangelization: sharing the Gospel through the biblical theophanies.

We can explain what a theophany is. We can walk people through the great biblical theophanies. We can ask what they reveal about God. And then we can show how they converge upon and find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

What picture of God emerges from these biblical theophanies? What false images of God do they challenge? How does the New Covenant bring unity and completion to what God revealed in the Old?

Through the theophanies, we can show that God is holy, ineffable, transcendent, mysterious, and the foundation of all that exists. We can show that He is all-powerful and possesses all authority; that He establishes covenants and gives His law; that He is merciful and kind, slow to anger, and just in His judgment, while His mercy vastly exceeds His punishment.

We can show that He guides His people, protects them, and dwells among them.

And finally, in the fulfillment of the theophanies in Christ, we can show that God is Trinitarian love; that the eternal Son united Himself to our human nature; that He suffered and died for us; that He has conquered sin and death; and that He calls us to share in His victory as we await the final redemption of the world.

The biblical theophanies do more than give us a collection of extraordinary encounters with God. Taken together, they tell a story. God gradually makes Himself known to His people until, in the fullness of time, He gives us not simply another manifestation of His presence, but His own Son.

And in the face of Jesus Christ, we behold the glory toward which all the theophanies were pointing.