BIBLICAL EXPERIENCE OF REVELATION

* Indication of biography about this matter for personal deepening:

. CIPRIANI, Settimio. La bibbia oggi per me. Roma: Llibreria Editrice Rogate, 1978.

. CONCÍLIO ECUMÊNICO VATICANO II, 1962-1965, Cidade do Vaticano. Ad Gentes. In: VIER, Frederico (Coord. Geral). Compêndio do Concílio Vaticano II. 22. ed. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1991, p. 348-399.

. ______. Dei Verbum. In: VIER, Frederico (Coord. Geral). Compêndio do Concílio Vaticano II. 22. ed. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1991, p. 119-139.

. ______. Gaudium et Spes. In: VIER, Frederico (Coord. Geral). Compêndio do Concílio Vaticano II. 22. ed. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1991, p. 141-256.

. CONGAR, Ives. La Parola e il soffio. Roma: ed. Borla, 1985.

. SINODO DEI VESCOVI, Doc. Finale. I giovani, la fede e il discernimento vocacionale. Torino: Editrice Elledici, 2018.

. FORTE, Bruno. La parola della fede. Milano: Edizioni San Paolo, 1996.

. LA BIBBIA DI GERUSALEMME. Bologna: Centro Editoriale Dehoniano, 1977.

. LIBÂNIO, João Batista. Teologia da revelação a partir da modernidade. São Paulo: Loyola, 1992.

. LIMA VASCONCELLOS, Pedro. A história humana como lugar permanente da revelação divina. Disponível em http://www.ihuonline.unisinos.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5122&secao=425. Acesso em 28 set. 2018.

. MESTERS, Carlos. Abc de labibia. Disponível em

http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/biblioteca/bibliodatos1.html?bibl01. Acessoem 20 jan. 2019.

. _________. La lectura fiel de la bibia: de acuerdo con la tradición e el magisterio de la iglesia. Disponível em http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/biblioteca/bibliodatos1.html?bibl01. Acesso em 20 jan. 2019.

. PAOLO II, Giovanni. RedemptorisMissio: Validità permanente del mandato missionario. Milano: EdizioniPaoline, 1991.

. PIAZZA, Waldomiro Otavio. Teologia fundamental para leigos: a Palavra de Deus na Sagrada Escritura. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1974.

. QUINZIO, Sergio. Un commento alla bibbia. Milano: Adelphi edizioni, 3ª. ed. 1995.

. TANZELLA, Giuseppe. Questioni propedeutiche di teologia della rivelazione e della credibilità. Disponível em http://www.tanzella-nitti.it/sites/default/files/media/pdf/12_QTF_LicenzaLezioni.pdf. Acesso em 10 out. 2018.

. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Autocompreensão cristã: diálogo das religiões. São Paulo: Paulinas, 2007.

. ­­­_________. Repensar a revelação. Repensar a revelação. São Paulo: Paulinas, 2010.

. ________. Revelação como dar-se conta de: razão teológica e magistério pastoral. Disponível em https://ciberteologia.com.br/assets/pdf/post/revelacao-como-dar-se-conta-de-razao-teologica-e-magisterio-pastoral.pdf. Acesso em 28 ago. 2018.

. WIKIPEDIA. Método socrático. Disponível em https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metodo_socratico. Acesso em 28 jul. 2018).

Until now, we have reflected that God always reveals himself in all parts and to all people, cultures and religions, in the free and unconditional generosity of an always active and dynamic love that wants to give himself fully. If there are limits, they do not come from a reserve of God because His desire is always to reveal Himself to the fullest but it is due to the human incapacity and sin that brake, deform the divine manifestation. From this item, we want to turn our attention to the peculiar path of biblical revelation. We will make some reference to the ‘historical maieutic’[1] method, considering that the Bible as revealed word, is born from the experience of faith of a people who discovers the constant presence of God in his daily life and, attentive to the inspirations of this God, transforms into scripture what he tries to speak to everyone. This same word, as a midwife, helps us to “give birth to the most intimate and profound reality that we already are and in which we live because of the free initiative of the love that creates and saves us”.[2] In the way of saying of the author Sergio Quinzio, “the Scriptures are the horizon that contains us”.[3]

At the beginning of our study, it is worth remembering some classical definitions that help us synthesize the biblical experience, for example: “History of God with humanity”; “God walks with His people”; “Experience of the faith of a People”; “God’s love letter to his people,” etc. They are definitions that have helped a lot in the faith experience of our communities who seek in the Bible inspiration and motivation for their journey. They bring a very positive image of God, that is: An accessible God, a God who speaks and who also listens to, a fellow God, a God present in the quotidian of our lives. The Biblical God is indeed the God of the word. The word is not with God as a friend next to another one, but as our thought to our spirit. Through this word, the whole world was created. From this, it is said of the possibility of the world being a word of God because it exists from the Word and is inhabited by the Word.[4]

Before some postures and affirmations still present nowadays, it is important that we ask ourselves: would God have really dictated all that is written in the Scriptures? Did someone write while he was talking? Can we attribute to God the absurd of wars and violence against people? The experience lived by Jesus of Nazareth tells us not to.[5] What can really be attributed to God, with some exception, was already experienced in the family bosom, with a decisive maternal participation, very first of any school influence, as expressed very well Sergio Quinzio: “’The teachings of your Mother’ (Prov 1, 8) that from mouth to mouth descended from the Most High, it was the language of all”.[6] This same author ahead, speaking of the Bible as The Book, states that the proper way to read it is with “the eyes of the ancient Israelite, for whon the Scriptures was the mother language”.[7]

But our goal here is not to enter into exegetic and historical details of the events presented in the sacred books, but to reflect the dynamics of the revealing process that will “take body” marvellously from the experience of faith of a people. In the past the idea was that there was a direct intervention of God in Scripture in order to affirm that he would be the author himself and the human being was only an instrument and mediator. With the passing of time and maturing in the councils, it was admitted that the human being is co-author and that revelation is not the doctrine itself, but the source, the Illumination so that the prophets and other leaders could perceive the truth, adhere to it and communicate it.[8]

Revelation, as it is presented in the Bible, aims to establish a relationship of friendship between God and the human being, who is called from his own experience (cf. DV 2). In this sense, it is very original and unique, according to Waldomiro Otavio Piazza: “The God of the Bible is a ‘living’ God, that is: conscious of his personal reality, He is ahead of man with the freedom of a Creator (Transcendentalism) and with the interest of a Father (and even of a spouse, according to the prophet Hosea)”.^[9] In other words, it is a god who does not only create, but who takes care of the created work. Thus, he entertains himself with the human being to call him to communion with him and receive him in it (cf. DV 2). As it is a call, it remains always space for the use of freedom in the response. In fact, it is a meeting of two freedoms. There is no “life” outside this communion.

 The concrete experience is highly valued, for it is through it that the human being captures the revealing presence of God, committing himself to it. With this, a new understanding emerges which parts from the experience to theory, from the theological to theology. One could not continue accepting an acritical, almost ‘mythological’ conception of revelation as a saying that falls ready directly from heaven without allowing an authentic experience of revelation itself.[10] This does not demerit the Divine initiative[11] in the revealing process, but recognizes an active participation of the human being,[12] that is, the human being is not a spectator in this process. God is near and may be found, but the human being must seek him (cf. Is 55, 6). Commenting on the innovative character of Dei Verbum, the author Pedro Lima Vasconcellos says:

God reveals himself, in the understanding of the Dei Verbum, not in the margins of human history, but within it (...) Human history is the place of divine revelation on a permanent way. There is no other way for God to communicate to mankind, but within human history, immersed into it. And that Sacred Scripture is a witness about this reality. This understanding of revelation in human history, that is, of God making history in human history, is something that was absolutely revolutionary.[13]

As the author says above, the Sacred Scripture witnesses a “dip” of God in human history. Moreover, to be even more concrete, as we will see later, what marks the dynamism of all Biblical revelation is the total love manifested in Christ. In him, God Himself loves and raises love, welcoming all people, without discrimination of any kind; forgives without imposing conditions or penalties and neither judges nor condemns; as “Father/Mother”, from every person, expects a free love for him and servant love to the other brothers and sisters.[14] Therefore, from ‘liberation’ through Moses as a founding experience to the Abbah of Christ, as a culminating experience, runs a thread of unconditional love,[15] incomparable in its authenticity, which characterizes all biblical history. Thus, “Scripture is the line of growth along which God manifests in fullness the truth that makes his people to live”.[16] In this perspective, it becomes a reference in our reflection a phrase that is not always perceived: “God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth” (1 Tim. 2, 4).[17] According to the decree Ad Gentes, here is the reason for all the missionary activity of the Church (cf. AG 7), understanding it “not by proselytism, but by attraction”, which is a work caused by the power of the Gospel.

What we today call “revelation”, applying it to the whole of what appears in the Bible, is a derived concept, elaborated a posteriori, because the Israelite was not involved in a kind of light of revelation, that would wash him whole. He lived, that is, like the other peoples around him, in an environment imbued with religiosity, without the clear distinction between the sacred and the profane, according to modern understanding. Those who approach seriously of the Old Testament realize that everything moves in a religious background identical to that of the neighbours. Revelation in the Bible refers not to a fact or event in itself, but to various facts and events in which the biblical human recognizes the divine presence and will.[18]

“The whole Bible is built by successive interpretations of antecedent revelations. There are several kairos, through which in different times is written the word of God and there are several kairos through which in the different times is read the Word of God”.[19] God’s saying is incarnated in the experience of a living word. The centrality of the word will determine human history and natural events.[20] The revelation will identify itself with its expression in the words of the holy books. Learn them, study them and comment on them is to contact the revelation.[21]

From that, several conceptions of revelation emerge, diverging at their starting point, but trying to converge in the essential. The more known are classic and modern.  The classical conception accentuate the extrinsecismo, which has as characteristic to conceive the revelation as ‘communication’ of something that was hidden, that is, something external to the subject.[22] The modern conception accentuate the intrinsecismo, whose characteristic is to conceive the revelation as an immediate presence of the revealed in the human experience, that is, the revealed is internal or intimate to the subject. Seeking a balance between these two positions, we acknowledge the action of Divine grace in the heart of the human being and at the same time the discovery that he makes of his “being-from-God-in-the-world”.[23] This process is known as ‘historical maieutic’:[24]

The historical maieutic, by supporting itself in the concrete conception of human reality whose definition belongs to its being founded on God - with its savific and revealing presence - allows to maintain balance without losing wealth. It saves the intrinsecismo of revelation and with it the possibility of its proper human appropriation, since the word is sometimes a midwife so that the listener perceives the revelation for himself. But it maintains the total gratuity of the Divine Initiative, since the birth of this word of the mediator – ‘external’ to the listener – is only possible and has meaning in the quality of capture of what God in his love wants freely to manifest and, in fact, is manifesting to all.[25]

Revelation as mayeutica makes it possible to consider that the revealing process is not something arbitrary or alienating. God’s creative and saving action, before all news and every option, has always been shaping the intimacy of every man and woman, calling them to discover Him and inviting them to accept Him.[26] God, in other words, is “pressing” the human spirit with His love so that every man and woman can discover Him. We can say with the author Bruno Forte that God is “the Eternal who has time for the human being”.[27] What is missing is never the “word” of God, but the human will to open the “window” or sharpen the ears. “Like Socrates, the Prophet  does not ‘put’ in his listeners something external or something oblivious to them, but helps them to realize, to ‘give birth’ – ‘maieutic’ is the art of the midwife – to what they are already in their innermost reality, from the living and acting presence of God in the creation and in the history”.[28]

We state again that the biblical word - as historical mayéutica - demonstrates that God has continually revealed Himself, requesting acceptance from the human consciousness. The final document of the last Synod of Bishops on young people affirms that God is present in the consciousness and in this “secret and sacred nucleus of the human being” (cf. GS 16) makes his voice resonate. This is why consciousness becomes a privileged place of encounter with God and of special intimacy with Him (cf. Doc. Synod, 107). This God who speaks especially in intimacy, knocks at the door with love and hopes to be welcomed, as the Book of Revelation says: “See that I am at the door and I knock; If anyone hears my voice and opens, I will enter...” (Ap 3.20).

When the discovery happens, it is always the discovery of a God who was there trying to make himself being felt through the ambiguity of history. On this, it is good to remember the experience of Jacob: “Now, Yahweh was here and I did not know!” (Gen 28.16). In this case, the prophet is someone who discovers the presence in which everyone is already living and even, in some way, sensing.[29] Thus, all, prophet and listeners, know that the whole process which comprises the original discovery and community acceptance happens and is possible thanks to God. He is felt in the intimacy of the human being, according to what the Samaritans tell the woman: “We no longer believe because of your words; we ourselves hear and know that this truly is the Savior of the World” (Jn 4.42).[30]

This aspect of individuality and intimacy is important, but the biblical experience of revelation cannot be reduced only to this dimension. Speaking of a people who knew how to interpret the historical events and the community experience in the light of faith, that is, by an inspiration from God,[31] it is to be thought that these events, in a certain way, were carriers of a divine revelation. In other words, the reality was “pregnant” of God and continually interpelled the people:

The transfer to Egypt, the oppression, the exit under the leadership of Moses, the passage through the desert. Thus, the people learn to struggle, to observe and to reflect on everything that occurs. They will discover God’s hand in all this and express their faith in the festive celebrations, in the songs and prayers. They narrate from fathers to sons the great works of God.[32]

The author Carlos Mesters refers to a great discovery, which does not happen on the part of a person only, but of all the people. That doesn't mean the people could take this step alone. He always needed the contribution given by some people, who were more attentive and sensitive to divine inspiration and, for that, they were able to interpret and guide. In this sense, the prophets “will help the people to reflect better and understand what God expects. They will help the people to live better, to celebrate, to struggle, not losing the hope”.[33] The Scripture is full of facts that prove that God has always used mediations (dream, liturgy, daily life, people, invasions, etc.) to reveal something to someone or to all people. We can then talk about a precious rapport between individual experience and community interaction (and with reality) in order to be able to capture divine revelation.

This reality reminds us of one of Pope Francis’ speeches to the young people in preparation for the synod of 2018. He affirmed that “God speaks in intimacy, but also in the relationship, in the journey and in the relationship with others.” In addition, he concluded with this call: “Seek God in prayer, seek him in dialogue with others. Seek him always moving, seek him in the journey”.[34] These realities, that is, journey and alterity, as important aspects of human experience, are fundamental characteristics of the revealing process, which the people of the Bible searched for keeping in their hearts (cf. Lc 2. 51) as “theological places”, where they pursued always an inspiring word from God that served as “light for their ways.” It is, therefore, in the word-life relationship that will happen the revelation: what God inspires the people to live becomes text and this text becomes a sight to see better, eliminating the veil that prevents from experiencing the liberating presence of God.[35]

Author: Josuel dos Santos Boaventura PSDP - Fr Ndega

Theological review: ThD Fr Luis Carlos Susin

English review: EdM Mary Kung'u

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[1] This expression is used by author Andrés Torres Queiruga in his writings. This author recovers the mayéutic method of the Socratic tradition. Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who lived in the period 470 to 399 B.C. His method of knowledge was based on dialogue, that is, the master asked questions and the disciple answered. Thus helped, the student could express the truth that was within him. Socrates defined this technique as Mayéutica. This term comes from the Greek maiutiké, which means ‘art or technique of the Midwife’. He followed the example of his mother, who was a midwife. He did not inculcate in his students his own ideas, but helped them to give birth to the truth they brought into themselves. Mayéutica, therefore, is not the art of teaching but the art of helping (cf. Wikipedia. Socratic method).

[2] TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Repensar a revelação, p. 19.

[3] QUINZIO, Sergio. Op. cit., p. 22. “The bible reveals us a design of God about us, which has his culmination in a communication of his own life with the sending of his Word in our flesh and his Spirit (CONGAR, Ives. Op. cit., p. 20)”.

[4] CONGAR, Ives. Op. cit., p. 21.

[5] This does not mean that God was absent while his people experienced all this. It is good to bear in mind that “throughout the Scriptures the yeast of Salvation leaven secretly, with divine fatigue, through pain and death” (QUINZIO, Sergio. Op. cit., p. 20). 

[6] Ibid., p.13.

[7] QUINZIO, Sergio. Op. cit., p. 13.

[8] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Repensar a revelação, p. 38s. Behind every human action expressed in the Bible, there is a divine inspiration, which is not always welcomed. However, this does not take from the Bible the merit of being the Word of God, as the author Settimio Cipriani says: “By the fact of being inspired, the Bible is authentic ‘word of God’” (CIPRIANI, Settimio. Op. cit., p. 9).

[9] PIAZZA, Waldomiro Otavio. Op. cit., p.138.

[10] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Repensar a revelação, p. 16s. “Revelation has to do for its own nature with human experience. Revelation is an experience expressed with words; is the saving action of God as experienced and expressed by man” (Ibid., p. 98).

[11] We want to reaffirm that “it is fundamental this emphasis on the Divine Initiative, on the gratuity of his message” (TANZELLA, Giuseppe. Op. cit., p. 17). Otherwise, we would lose our conductor wire.

[12] “To the extent that divine revelation is understood as happening in history, through it, in its interior, the biblical text gains a new life, because it is seen as an expression located in the time, in the space, in the conjuncture of this human capture of revelation. The Biblical text gains historicity, gaining rooting in the history of faith of so many generations of the people of Israel and of the first Christian segments. In this sense, it becomes a parameter to guide the historical experience of faith in the face of the dilemma as posed by the current reality” (LIMA VASCONCELLOS, Pedro. Op. cit., p5).

[13]Ibid. p. 2s.

[14] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés.  Autocompreensão cristã: diálogo das religiões, p. 112.

[15] The author Sergio Quinzio tell us that “from time to time, along the pages of Scripture God is led to always renew his ever betrayed covenant with human beings. The plurality of revelations in the time is the Mysterium iniquitatis, which God always transforms again into felix guilt” (QUINZIO, Sergio. Op. cit., 33). 

[16] Ibid., p. 32.

[17]About this matter, the encyclical Redemptoris Missio affirms: “The Old Testament attests that God chose and formed for himself a people to reveal and fulfil his plan of love. But at the same time, God is the creator and father of all human beings, cares for everyone, brings his blessing to everyone (Gen 12.3) and with all made an alliance (Gen 9.1). Israel makes the experience of a personal God and Savior (Dt 4, 37; 7, 6; is 43.1) becomes his witness and spokesman in the midst of the nations. In the course of its history Israel becomes aware that its election has a universal meaning (Is 2,2; 25,6; 60,1; Ger 3,17; 16,19)” (RM 12).

[18] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Repensar a revelação, p. 27s.

[19] QUINZIO, Sergio. Op. cit., p.32

[20] Here, God speaks and His Word creates (Gen 1-2) calls and elects (Gen 12), frees and saves (Ex 3). This experience that was of a people, expands and receives a universal and definitive interpretation in the person of Jesus Christ. The community will perceive, through his gestures, words and practices that he is the Son of God, revealing of the eschatological project of the Father (cf. LIBÂNIO, João Batista. Op. cit., p. 311).

[21] Cf. TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Repensar a revelação, p. 33s. 

[22] Cf. Ibid., p. 115.

[23] Ibid., p. 123.

[24] “This is why I called the Revelation “historical mayéutica”. It is mayéutica because one does not introduce anything from the outside into the believer, but helps him to “give birth” what God is saying through his most intimate and definitive humanity, as freely based, saved and enlightened by him. Historical because this revelation happens – real and objectively – in the acceptance of the human being, which is accomplished through the unsurpassed novelty of an ever-growing story until that fullness in which ‘we will know how we are known’ (cf. 1 Cor 13, 12)” (Id. Revelação comodar-seconta de, p. 9).

[25] TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Repensar a revelação, p. 150s.

[26] Cf. Ibid., p. 162.

[27] FORTE, Bruno. Op. cit., p. 18.

[28] TORRES QUEIRUGA, Andrés. Autocompreensão cristã, p. 18. “Defining the biblical revelation as a mayéutica wants to indicate that, ultimately, it is also ‘self-affirmtive’. Because the biblical word informs and illuminates, but it does not refer to itself or to those who pronounce it, but it does sometimes as a ‘midwife’ so that the listener perceives by himself the reality that it puts uncovered. Definitively, the believing person should end up saying as Job: ‘I knew only by ear, but now my eyes have seen you’ (Job 42, 5), or as the Samaritans to their fellow countrywoman: ‘It is no longer because of what you have said that we believe. We ourselves hear it, and we know that this truly is the savior of the world’ (Jn4, 42) (...) The Mayéutica makes the interlocutor to discover, to engender or to give birth to the truth that carry into himself” (Id. Repensar a revelação, p. 119).

[29] Cf. Id., Repensar a revelação, p.  448.

[30] Cf. Id. Revelação comodar-seconta de, p. 9.

[31] Cf. MESTERS, Carlos. Abc de la bibia., p. 4.

[32] Ibid., p. 4

[33] Ibid., p. 5

[34] Part of Pope Francis’ speech to young people in Palermo (Sicily - IT) on the occasion of the preparation for the Synod of Bishops on young people, held in Rome in October 2018.

[35] Cf. MESTERS, Carlos. Lectura fiel de la bibia., p. 4