God's Revelation in the Old Testament
God's Revelation in the Old Testament Higher still than in the attributes, God's revelation ascends in the personal names, which make known to us the distinctions that exist within the Unity of His Essence. This revelation begins already in the Old Testament. It is not yet fully present there, as the church fathers and later theologians often taught, disregarding the historical character of the revelation; but neither is it correct to say that it is not at all found there, as was taught after the Socinians and the Remonstrants by Semler, Herder, Doederlein, Bretschneider,
Hofmann, among others. The Old Testament only obscurely makes known the Trinitarian existence of God; it is the document of the developing doctrine of the Trinity. Yet, it contains, not only in isolated texts but especially in the organism of His revelation, moments that are of the highest significance for the doctrine of the Trinity. First of all, the name Elohim is considered. That this name, in its plural form, is no proof of the Trinity, was already noted earlier. Yet, it is remarkable that this Name, among proponents of monotheism, has never encountered objection because of its form.
This can only be explained by the fact that it contains no reminiscence of polytheism, but denotes the Deity in her fullness and richness of life. The God of revelation is not an abstract Unity, but the living, true God, who includes the highest variety in the infinite fullness of His life. Right from the creation, this is evident. Elohim creates through the speaking of His Word and through the sending of His Spirit. The Word that God speaks is not a sound, but a power, so great that by it He creates and sustains the world; He speaks, and it is there, Gen. 1:3; Ps. 33:6,9; 147:18; 148:8; Joel 2:11. That Word, spoken by God, proceeding from Him and thus distinguished from Him, is later hypostatized as wisdom in Job 28:23-27, Prov. 8:22 ff.,
Prov. 3:19, Jer. 10:12, 51:15. This wisdom has been possessed by God
from eternity, prepared, appointed, searched out, as His nursling and workmistress, through whom He created and sustains all things.
But not only through the Word and wisdom, also through the Spirit of God, does the work of creation and sustenance come about, Gen.
1:2, Ps. 33:6, 104:33, 139:7, Job 26:13, 27:3, 32:8, 33:4, Isa. 40:7,13; 59:19. While the Word is the Mediator through whom God calls all things into being, it is His Spirit through whom He is immanent in all created things, and makes everything alive and adorns it. Thus, according to the doctrine of the Old Testament in creation, it is evident that all things owe their origin and continuation to a triune cause. Elohim and cosmos do not stand dualistically next to each other, but the world, created by God, has His Word as its objective principle, His Spirit as its subjective principle. The world is first thought by God and therefore comes into being through His almighty speaking, and when it has received reality, it does not stand outside and against Him but remains resting in His Spirit.
Even clearer in the Old Testament, this triune cause emerges in the realm of special revelation, in the work of re-creation. Then it is not just Elohim, but Yahweh who reveals Himself, who makes Himself known as the God of the Covenant and the oath, of revelation and history. But even so, He does not reveal Himself directly and immediately, Ex. 33:20. Again, it is through His Word that He makes
Himself known and saves and preserves His people, Ps. 107:20. And the bearer of that Word of salvation revelation is the Malak Yahweh, the Messenger of the Covenant. Not always, where the expression
Angel of God or Angel of the Lord appears in the Old Testament, should one think of the uncreated angel, as Hengstenberg believed.
In 2Sam. 24:16ff., 1Kings 19:5-7 2Kings 19:35, Dan. 3:25,28; 6:23; 10:13; we have to think of a regular angel, just as also in Matt.
1:20,28 [???]; Luke 1:11, 2:9, Acts 5:19; 8:26; 10:3; 12:7,23; 27:23; Jude 9, Revelation 12:7. About other places, there can be doubt, such
as Num. 22:22ff., Josh. 5:13,14, Judges 2:1-14, 6:11-24, 13:2-23. But in the places that were mentioned earlier, the subject that speaks and acts in the Angel of the Lord goes far beyond a created angel. The church fathers before Augustine unanimously saw in this Angel of the Lord a theophany of the Logos. Often, however, this view was connected with the opinion that the Father is actually invisible, unapproachable, ineffable, but the Son can reveal Himself and is the principle of all revelation; so with Justin Martyr, Theophilus,
Irenaeus, Tertullian. But this separation and contrast between the Father and the Son was rightly contested by the later church fathers,
Athanasius, the three Cappadocians, etc. The Son was truly God and thus just as invisible as the Father. Thus, the view of Augustine was prepared, who also thought the theophanies of God in the Old
Testament always mediated by created angels. The scholastic and Roman theologians usually adopted this exegesis of Augustine.
Luther and Calvin sometimes thought of a created, then of the uncreated angel; but the later Protestant interpreters understood those places mostly of the Logos, especially also in contrast with the Socinians, Remonstrants, and Rationalists, who saw nothing but angelophanies in them. While Hofmann, Baumgarten, Delitzsch,
Cremer join the latter view, the old view has been defended again by Stier, Hengstenberg, Keil, Kurtz, Ebrard, Filippi, etc. The difference between these two interpretations is not as great as it seems. The proponents of the old-church view must acknowledge that the Logos assumed a human form; and Augustine and his followers must admit that in that created angel, the Logos revealed Himself in a very special way. And with that, the places where the Angel of the Lord is spoken of cannot all be understood in the same sense. So much is also certain, that in the Malak Yahweh, who preeminently bears that Name, God and then specifically His Word was present in a wholly unique way. This is clearly evident from the fact that He, though distinguished from Yahweh, is also one with Him in Name, in power,
in salvation, in blessing, in worship, and honor. This exegesis is furthermore recommended by the entire Old and New Testament. and are not in conflict with it.Job 33:23, Ps. 34:8 [Ps. 34:7], 35:5,
Prov. 8:22ff., Prov. 30:4, Isa. 9:5 [Isa. 9:6], Hos. 12:5-6 [Hos. 12:45], Mic. 5:6 [Mic. 5:7], Zech. 1:8-14, 3:1 Zech. 12:8 Mal. 3:1, John
8:56,58, cf. John 1:1-5, 1Cor. 10:4,9; Acts 7:30,35,38, Gal. 3:19, Heb.
2:2 And just as Yahweh now objectively reveals Himself in recreation through His Word, in the Malak Yahweh; so He does it subjectively in and through His Spirit. The Spirit of God is the principle of all life and salvation, of all gifts and powers within the realm of revelation; of courage, Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25;
1Sam. 11:6, of physical strength, Judges 14:6, 15:14, of craftsmanship, Ex. 28:3; 31:3-5; 35:31-35; 1Chron. 28:12, of governance, Num.
11:17,25, 1Sam. 16:13, of understanding and wisdom, Job 32:8, Isa.
11:2, of holiness and renewal, Ps. 51:13 [Ps. 51:11], Isa. 63:10, cf. Gen.
6:3, Neh. 9:20, 1Sam. 10:6,9, of prophecy and prediction, Num.
11:25,29; 24:2-3; Mic. 3:8 etc. In a special way, He will rest on the Messiah, Isa. 11:2, 42:1, 61:1, but thereafter also be poured out over all flesh, Joel 3:1-2, Isa. 32:15, 44:3, Ezek. 36:26-27; 39:29; Zech.
12:10, and give everyone a new heart and a new spirit, Ezek. 36:2627.
This triune Divine principle, which underlies both creation and recreation, and supports the entire economy of Old Testament revelation, is occasionally also mentioned together. The triple repetitions in Dan. 9:19, Zech. 1:3, Isa. 6:3, 33:22 are not considered here; only the high priestly blessing, Num. 6:24-26, with its tripartite nature of blessing, hints at a threefold revelation of God and thus serves as the Old Testament prototype of the apostolic blessing, 2
Cor. 13:13. The plural forms in Gen. 1:26-27; 3:22; Isa. 6:8, etc., lack sufficient force because they can be explained in the same way as the plural Elohim. More significant are places like Gen. 19:24, Ps. 45:8