Theophany, from the
Ancient Greek (ἡ) Θεοφάνεια -
Τheophaneia (meaning "appearance of God"), refers to the
appearance of a
deity to a human, or to a
divine disclosure.
This term has been used to refer to appearances of the gods in the
ancient Greek and Near Eastern religions. While the
Iliad is our earliest source for descriptions of
theophanies in the Classical tradition (and they occur throughout
Greek mythology), probably the earliest description of a theophany
is in the
Epic of Gilgamesh.
The term
theophany has acquired a specific usage for
Christians and
Jews
with respect to the
Bible: It refers to the
manifestation of God to man; the sensible sign by which the
presence of God is revealed. Only a small number of theophanies are
found in the
Hebrew Bible, also known
as the
Old Testament.
Greek tradition
At
Delphi
the "Theophania" (Θεοφάνια) or "Theophanies" was an
annual festival in spring celebrating the return of Apollo from his winter quarters in Hyperborea. The culmination of the
festival was a display of an image of the gods, usually hidden in
the
sanctuary, to worshippers. Later Roman
mystery religions often
included similar brief displays of images to excited
worshippers.
The appearance of
Zeus to
Semele, is more than a mortal can stand and she is
burned to death by the flames of his power. However, most Greek
theophanies were less deadly. Unusual for Greek mythology is the
story of the immortal
Prometheus, not an
Olympian but a
Titan, who brought knowledge of fire to
humanity. There are no descriptions of the humans involved in this
theophany, but Prometheus was severely punished by Zeus. Divine or
heroic epiphanies were sometimes experienced in historical times,
either in dreams or as a waking vision, and frequently led to the
foundation of a cult, or at least an act of worship and the
dedication of a commemorative offering.
Hebrew Bible
The original Biblical terms used for the former were "mar'eh" (=
"sight") and "maḥazeh","ḥazon," or "ḥizzayon" (= "vision"). The
fact that God revealed Himself to man is stated in the Bible as a
simple fact. Only occasionally is the state of mind of the persons
seeing God described. God speaks with
Adam and
Eve in
Eden (Gen. iii.
9-19); with
Cain (iv. 9-15); with
Noah (vi. 13, vii. 1, viii. 15) and his sons (ix. 1,
8); with
Abraham.
The first revelation that
Moses had of God at
the burning bush was "a great sight"; "he was afraid to look" at
Him (Ex. iii. 3, 6); so the first revelation Samuel had in a dream
is called "the vision"; afterward God was frequently "seen" at
Shiloh (I Sam. iii. 15, 21, Hebr.). Isaiah's first revelation was
also a sight of God (Isa. vi. 1-5); Amos had his visions (Amos vii.
1, 4; viii. 1; ix. 1); and so with Jeremiah (Jer. i. 11, 13),
Ezekiel (Ezek. i. 1 et seq., viii. 1-3), and Zechariah (Zech. i.,
vi.), and, in fact, with all "seers," as they called
themselves.
The polytheist Balaam also boasted of being one who saw "the vision
of the Almighty" (Num. xxiv. 4). Most vividly does
Eliphaz describe such a revelation: "In thoughts
from the vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear
came upon me, and trembling . . . a spirit passed before my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up. He stood still, but I could not
discern his appearance; a figure was before mine eyes, a whispering
voice I heard" (Job iv. 13-16, Hebr.). The
Torah lays stress on the fact that, while to other
prophets God made Himself known in a vision, speaking to them in a
dream, He spoke with Moses "mouth to mouth," "as a man would speak
with his neighbor," in clear sight and not in riddles (Num. xii.
6-8; comp. Ex. xxxiii. 11; Deut. xxxiv. 10).
On Mount Sinai
The
theophany at Mount
Sinai
is related in calm, simple language in Exodus
xix. 16-25. God's manifestation is accompanied by thunder
and lightning; there is a fiery flame, reaching to the sky; the
loud notes of a trumpet are heard; and the whole mountain smokes
and quakes. Out of the midst of the flame and the cloud a voice
reveals the
Ten Commandments. The
account in Deut. iv. 11, 12, 33, 36 and v. 4, 19 is practically the
same; and in its guarded language it strongly emphasizes the
incorporeal nature of God. Moses in his blessing (Deut. xxxiii. 2)
points to this revelation as to the source of the
election of Israel, but with this difference:
with him the point of departure for the theophany is Mount Sinai
and not heaven. God appears on Sinai like a shining sun and comes
"accompanied by holy myriads" (comp. Sifre, Deut. 243).
Likewise, in the song of
Deborah the
manifestation is described as a storm: the earth quakes; Sinai
trembles; and the clouds drop water. It is poetically elaborated in
the prayer of
Habakkuk (Hab. iii.); here
past and future are confused. As in Deut. xxxiii. 2 and Judges v.
4, God appears from Teman and Paran. His majesty is described as a
glory of light and brightness; pestilence precedes Him. The
mountains tremble violently; the earth quakes; the people are sore
afraid. God rides in a chariot of war, with horses—a conception
found also in Isa. xix. 1, where God appears on a cloud, and in Ps.
xviii. 11, where He appears on a cherub.
In Isaiah and Ezekiel
The Biblical prophets
Isaiah and
Ezekiel receive their commissions as prophets amid
glorious manifestations of God. Isaiah supposedly sees God on a
high and lofty throne. In reality, however, he sees not Him but
only His glorious robe, the hem and train of which fill the whole
temple of heaven. Before the throne stand the seraphim, the
six-winged
angels. With two wings they cover
their faces so as not to gaze on God; with two they cover their
feet, through modesty; and with the remaining two they fly. Their
occupation is the everlasting praise of God, which at the time of
the revelation took the form of the thrice-repeated cry "Holy!"
(Isa. vi.).
Ezekiel in his description is not so
reserved as Isaiah. The divine throne appears to him as a wonderful
chariot. Storm, a great cloud, ceaseless fire, and on all sides a
wonderful brightness accompany the manifestation. Out of the fire
four creatures become visible. They have the faces of men; each one
has four wings; and the shape of their feet enables them to go to
all four quarters of the earth with equal rapidity and without
having to turn. These living creatures are recognized by the
prophet as cherubim (Ezek. x. 20). The heavenly fire, the coals of
which burn like torches, moves between them. The movement of the
creatures is harmonious: wherever the spirit of God leads them they
go.
Beneath the living creatures are wheels ("ofannim") full of eyes.
On their heads rests a firmament upon which is the throne of God.
When the divine chariot moves, their wings rustle with a noise like
thunder. On the throne the prophet sees the Divine Being, having
the likeness of a man. His body from the loins upward is shining
("ḥashmal"); downward it is fire (in Ezek. viii. 2 the reverse is
stated). In the Sinaitic revelation God descends and appears upon
earth; in the prophetic vision, on the other hand, He appears in
heaven, which is in keeping with the nature of the case, because
the Sinaitic revelation was meant for a whole people, on the part
of which an ecstatic condition can not be thought of.
In the Psalms
Very different is the theophany of the Psalmist (Ps. xviii. 8-16).
He is in great need; and at his earnest solicitation God appears to
save him. Before God the earth trembles and fire glows. God rides
on a cherub on the wings of the wind. God is surrounded with clouds
which are outshone by His brightness. With thunder and lightning
God destroys the enemies of the singer and rescues him.
As may be seen from the descriptions of the various theophanies,
the deep monotheistic spirit of the Israelites hesitates to
describe the Divine Being, and confines itself generally to
describing the influence of the revelation upon the minds and
characters of those beholding it.
Jewish views
The Jewish view of the Bible is discerned through Judaism's
oral law, which is recorded in various
works of
rabbinic literature,
such as the
Mishnah and
Talmud.
The Rabbis say that until the erection of the
Tabernacle in the wilderness, all nations had
prophetic revelations from God. However, from that time forward,
Israel was usually the only recipient of the divine truth. Only
exceptionally did non-Jewish people prophets like Balaam attain
prophetic powers, and at best they had only prophetic dreams
(Midrash Leviticus Rabbah i. 12-13). According to R. Eliezer, each
person among the Israelites, including even the least intelligent
bond-woman, saw God's glory at the Red Sea in clearer form than
did, afterward, prophets of the stamp of Ezekiel; wherefore they
burst forth into the song, "This is my God" (Mek., l.c., with
reference to Ex. xv. 2).
When asked by a Samaritan to explain how the words of God "Do not I
fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. xxiii. 24) could be reconciled with
the words spoken to Moses, "I will meet with thee, and . . .
commune with thee . . . from between the two cherubims" (Ex. xxv.
22),
R. Meïr
made his interlocutor look into two mirrors of different shapes and
sizes, saying, "Behold, your own figure appears differently because
the mirrors reflect it differently; how much more must the glory of
God be mirrored differently by different human minds?" (Midrash
Genesis Rabbah iv. 3).
Christianity
Some Christian Bible commentators interpret “the angel of the
Lord,” who appears in several places throughout the Old Testament,
to be the pre-incarnate
Christ, which is Jesus
before his manifestation into human form, as described in the
New Testament.
Catholic tradition
The
New Catholic
Encyclopedia cites examples such as Gen 3:8a. The same
source then quotes Gen 16:7-14. In this case, initially it is an
angel which appears to
Hagar, however it then says that God spoke
directly to her, and that she saw God and lived (Gen 16:13). The
next example the
New Catholic Encyclopedia cites is Gen
22:11-15, which states explicitly that it was the angel of the Lord
speaking to
Abraham (Gen 22:11a). However,
the angel addressing Abraham speaks the words of God in the first
person (Gen 22:12b). In both of the last two examples, although it
is an angel present, the voice is of God spoken through the angel,
and so this is a manifestation of God Himself.
A similar case would be Moses and the burning bush. Initially Moses
saw an angel in the bush, but then goes on to have a direct
conversation with God himself (Ex 3).
In the case of Jesus Christ according to the gospels and tradition,
Christians understand him to be God the Son, become man (Jn 1:14).
The
New Catholic Encyclopedia, however, makes few
references to a theophany from the gospels. Mk 1:9-11, and Lk
9:28-36 are cited which recount the Baptism, and the
Transfiguration of Jesus Christ respectively. Although Jesus Christ
is believed by Christians to be truly God, it is only when his
divine glory is not veiled by his humanity, that it could be termed
theophany.
Traditional analysis of these passages led Christian scholars to
understand
theophany as an unambiguous manifestation of
God, to man, where "unambiguous" indicates that the seers or seer
are of no doubt that it is God revealing himself to them.
Orthodox Christianity
The 4th century bishop
Eusebius of
Caesarea wrote a treatise "
On Divine Manifestation" (
Peri
theophaneias), referring to the
Incarnation of Jesus.
The
Eastern Orthodox Church
celebrates the
Feast of Epiphany
or Theophany on
6 January; in churches
using the
Julian Calendar, this
corresponds to
19 January.
The
Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrates
Timkat on the 10th day of
Terr (which usually corresponds to
19 January in the
Gregorian Calendar).
Latter-day Saints
Joseph Smith, Jr., the prophet and founder of
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claimed that when he was 14
years old, he was visited by
God the
Father and
Jesus Christ in a grove
of trees near his house, a theophany in answer to his first spoken
prayer.
This vision is considered to be the start of the
Latter Day Saint movement altogether.
Hinduism
In Hinduism, the most well-known theophany is contained within the
Bhagavad-Gita, itself representing one
chapter of the epic,
Mahabharata. In the
Gita, the famed warrior
Arjuna begs for
Krishna to reveal his true form after a
series of teachings given by Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield
of Kurukshetra indicates Krishna to be far more than mortal.
Krishna complies and gives Arjuna the spiritual vision which
enables him to see Krishna in his true form, a magnificent and
awe-inspiring manifestation, containing everything in the universe;
this forms the main part of Chapter XI.
Hinduism is based on the concept of one
all-embracing Supreme Spirit known as
Nirguna Brahman, that is, Brahman
without form. (This is to be contrasted with the
appearance of God in various physical forms, or avatars, which is
then known as
Saguna Brahman, i.e.,
God with
form.) Nirguna Brahman is the first spirit, similar to the
Judaic/Christian God before the creation of the universe. Nirguna
Brahman thereafter is referred to as three different supreme
manifestations according to their current activity. In the creation
of all that exists, it is known as
Brahma,
the Creator. In the maintenance and development of existence, it is
known as
Vishnu, the Maintainer. And in the
end, when the Great Spirit gathers everything back into itself, it
is known as
Shiva, the Destroyer.
The Shiva
aspect of the Great Spirit was paraphrased by Robert Oppenheimer upon witnessing the
first atomic
bomb test
, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of
worlds."
Only the Maintainer
Vishnu aspect of the
Great Spirit is considered to be currently active. Vishnu sometimes
manifests himself as a human for purposes of setting mankind back
on the path toward spiritual perfection that will allow mankind and
all of existence to reunite eventually with the Great Spirit
Nirguna Brahman.
The manifestations of Vishnu as a human being are referred to as
Vishnu's avatars. As such, they are similar to Jesus, who as a
human manifestation of God is sometimes considered an
avatar. The most popular avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism
is Krishna, who showed himself as described above in his
spectacular spiritual form in a theophany.
Glimpses of the Hindu Supreme Reality Nirguna Brahman continue to
occur. Swami
Vivekananda experienced
cosmic consciousness and a merging with the Nirguna Brahman when
touched by the Hindu master
Ramakrishna Paramahansa.
Modern
More recently,
science fiction
author
Philip K. Dick reportedly had a theophany on 3 February
1974, which was to become the later basis for his semi-
biographic works
Valis (1981)
and the posthumous
Radio Free
Albemuth (1985).
In 1977, a man, in France,
Michel Potay
testified he witnessed five theophanies.He published the text he
says he received from God in
The Book,
second part of
The Revelation of
Ares.
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