Theophanies Of Christ

Theophanies Of Christ

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries May 2, 2025 (Donate)

When you think of Jesus, does your mind jump to the baby in the manger, or to His life, death, and resurrection? Or do you think back even further and ponder Christ as the Creator God, who has been intimately involved in His creation since the beginning?

Did you know that Christ appeared many times throughout the Old Testament? Remember, Christ is God—the second person of the Triune God!

Image from Presentation Library

How Could Jesus Have Created Everything If He Wasn’t Born Until About 2,000 Years Ago?

Usually, when people ask something like this, they forget—or neglect—that Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God (John 1:1–3). In other words, they overlook the triune nature of God and mistakenly limit Jesus to having come into existence when Mary conceived Him around 2,000 years ago.

The God of the Bible has existed far longer than this. In fact, God has no beginning or end. Sometimes I hear people say, “God has been around long before time began in Genesis 1:1,” which is technically inaccurate. Saying this implies that there is time outside of the time God created.

God, however, is more precise in Scripture. He doesn’t merely say He existed before the beginning—He says that He is the beginning and the end (Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:13). God is not bound by time in any way. Time is a created entity (fourth dimension if you will) and is sustained into existence by God!

So, with Jesus being God and God not being bound by time, are there any passages prior to Jesus’ birth to Mary that show He has existed all along? Yes—there are several theophanies, or more specifically, Christophanies, that confirm this!

What Is A “Theophany”?

A theophany is a divine appearance of God—usually in the form or appearance of a man. Keep in mind that this is no difficult task for an all-powerful God.

Scripture makes it clear that we cannot see the face of God—that is, God the Father in all His glory—because of our sin nature. Otherwise, we would die, as God will not look upon sin. This is evident in Exodus 33:20, Habakkuk 1:13, John 1:18, and John 6:46.

Yet, people spoke directly to God in many cases—even face to face! This happened because God appeared in the form of a theophany, or in the case of Christ’s life, He manifested in the flesh, having emptied Himself to become the baby in the manger.

Where Can We Read About Some Of These Theophanies Of Christ/God?

There are many instances of God manifesting Himself in visions—such as sitting on the throne in Isaiah 6 or appearing in the burning bush to Moses in Exodus 3. However, these are typically not referred to as theophanies.

A theophany occurs when God appears in a temporary physical form. An excellent example is when Abraham spoke with the Lord, killed a calf, and ate with Him (Genesis 18:1–8).

The following is a partial list of theophanies—cases in which God appeared in physical form with human attributes, shown through actions like shutting the Ark’s door, walking, departing from people’s presence, and speaking face to face.

Theophany Table

Passage	Who was Christ speaking to/action?	Event in history	Date in history[1]
Genesis 3:8-24	Adam, Eve, the serpent	Adam and Eve sinned and brought death into the world	4004 BC (The tenth day after creation began; according to Ussher)
Genesis 1:4-15	Cain	Cain murdered his brother Abel and was banished to the land of wandering (Nod)	3984-3874 BC (Prior to Seth’s conception yet after Abel was old enough to give his own sacrifices and tend his own flocks)
Genesis 7:13-16	The Lord shut Noah and his family in the Ark	The Flood was about to over take the world	2349 BC
Genesis 8:15-9:17	Noah and his family	Calling Noah and his family from the Ark and making a covenant and giving out a blessings to Noah’s sons and smelling the sacrifice[2]	2348 BC
Genesis 11:1-9	Noah’s family at the Tower of Babel	After refusing to spread across the earth, they built a Tower at Babel in the plain of Shinar in an effort to defy the Lord’s command (Genesis 9:7, Genesis 11:4)	2242 BC
Genesis 12:6-7	Abraham	Appearing to Abraham to tell him he will give the land that the Canaanites were occupying to his descendants	1922 BC
Genesis 17-18	Abraham	Covenant with Abraham assuring him of offspring and hearing Abraham’s plea for Sodom and Gomorrah	1897 BC
Genesis 26:1-6; 26:24-25	Isaac	Telling Isaac not to go down to Egypt confirming he would have many descendants	1804 BC
Genesis 32:24-30	Jacob/Israel	Wresting with God for a blessing	1739 BC
Exodus 5:22-6:8	Moses	Discussing God’s instructions about Pharaoh	1491 BC
Exodus 24:9-31:18	Moses	Instruction for the Israelites and the 10 Commandments	1491 BC
Exodus 33:10-34:3	Moses	Speaking to Moses in the tent of meeting	1491 BC
Numbers 12:1-15	Moses, Aaron and Miriam	Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses and the Lord putting them in their place	1491 BC
Deuteronomy 31:14-23	Moses and Joshua	Commissioning of Joshua	1451 BC
Joshua 5:13-6:5	Joshua	Prior to taking Jericho	1451 BC
2 Chronicles 7:11-22	Solomon	Accepting the Temple Solomon had built	1004 BC

Conclusion

Again, this is not an exhaustive list. There are some appearances that may or may not have been theophanies, which are not discussed here.

Theophanies are a powerful reminder that Jesus Christ is God and has always been engaged with humanity and our sin problem since the beginning. They reveal the personal nature of God and His care for mankind, such as shutting the door of the Ark and giving Moses instructions to deliver the Israelites.

They also show that God is the righteous Judge. Examples include Christ judging Adam and Eve’s sin with death, confusing the languages at Babel in response to disobedience, and leading the siege of Jericho. Yet Christ also made the righteous decision to save mankind through His suffering, death on the cross, and resurrection to atone for our sins.

When someone claims that Jesus was just a man, remind them of the theophanies of Christ and His consistent involvement throughout biblical history.

 

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[1] Using James Ussher’s dates.

[2] This is an instance where God may or may not have appeared in physical form. It is counted in part due to its parallel since it was the Lord who shut at the onset of the Flood—and now He bids them off the Ark. Did He also open the door? We are not told, but at the sacrifices that followed, where Noah offered of the clean animals, God “smelled” the aroma which is a physical sense, which indicates, this might be a theophany event. Of course, God can use any and all senses being He is God without being in a theophany.