Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Edgar Foster <questioning1 AT yahoo.com>]

Hi George,


---George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au> wrote:

>What about Exodus 33:18-23? Wouldn't that qualify as a revelation -
even if only partial?<

>Nevertheless, what is exactly meant by 'revelation' - a demonstration
of character? Letting in on a secret? A statement of divine will or
purpose?<

Pannenberg defines a Divine revelation as "the disclosure of [the
Divine]ESSENCE" over against "a purely phemonenal understanding of
manifestation." According to most modern theologians, Divine
revelation does not involve a communication of propositions about God.
Revelation unveils God Himself.

Basically, "revelation" is viewed theologically as a disclosure of
Godself (autotheos). It is the Divine activity in which God encounters
or confronts a finite I. Contemporary theologians call it a person to
person encounter. Pannenberg also defines revelation as
self-disclosure, but also points out that God reveals (denudes) His
"essence" in the I-Thou encounter. 

I am not so sure that a true revelation has to involve an uncovering
of God's essence. Even if this theorem is correct, is it accurate to
say that YHWH does not "reveal" Himself in this manner in the Hebrew
Scriptures? I find this notion somewhat dubious.

  



==

Edgar Foster
Classics Major
Lenoir-Rhyne College



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