The present book constitutes the first part of a larger, three-part study calling attention to the Christian exegesis of Old Testament theophanies as an essential “ingredient”—one among many, but a very important one—in the gradual crystallization of a distinct Christian exegesis, doctrine, liturgy, and spirituality during the first millennium CE.
This first volume offers a presentation and discussion of a large selection of exegetical, doctrinal, hymnographic, and iconographic materials illustrating the reception history of several important and influential theophanic texts: Genesis 18; Exodus 3 and 33; Psalm 98/99 and 131/132; Isaiah 6; Habakkuk 3:2 (LXX); Daniel 3 and 7. The selection of passages reflects my decision to aim for an illustrative rather than exhaustive treatment of the subject, so as to avoid extreme repetitiveness and the duplication of other scholarly efforts.
Even though these texts and their reception history have already received substantial scholarly attention, all has not been said. The pages to follow contribute to the discussion by focusing on an under-researched strand in the history of interpretation of this text, namely the straightforward—often viewed as “primitive”—identification of the divine agent in theophanies with Jesus Christ. My first intention is to document the coherence and versatility of this exegetical tradition, which found expression in a vast array of written and visual materials and lent itself to doctrinal reflection; apologetics; polemics; and, perhaps especially, liturgical anamnesis and doxology. In several instances I show that the earliest, most widespread and enduring reading of the above-mentioned biblical texts, namely their interpretation as “christophanies”—manifestations of the Logos-to-be-incarnate—gave way, around the fourth and fifth centuries, to an allegorical trinitarian reading.
I argue, finally, in concert with many others, that scholarship has generally failed to apply a sharp enough focus to the multi-layered Christian exegetical tradition and its diverse strategies of appropriating the Hebrew Bible as Old Testament. The lack of an adequate scholarly term is not a trivial issue: without recognizing the phenomenon and crafting an appropriate concept to designate it, we are blind to a fundamental theological assumption of a very large strand of early Christian literature and, therefore, remain unable to grasp an important factor in the development of early Christian theology. For my part I think that, for the time being at least, the term “christophanic exegesis” may be serviceable in designating a performative, experientially (liturgically) located exegesis that discerns and affirms the presence of Christ—not a literary reality but an epiphanic “real presence”—in the theophanic accounts of the Old Testament and in the very act of exegeting such texts.