Hebrew Scripture Theology

As I read the literature, I am struck increasingly by the different emphases between the discussion of “revelation” as a theological motif, and how the concept is displayed through many biblical texts.

It tends to be the case, that theological treatments of “revelation” are expecially related to matters of content and classification. As our discussion indicated, the (contentious?) relationship between general revelation (or “natural theology”) and special revelation can easily come to dominate proceedings. Our look at Psalm 19 was meant to earth that discussion in the workings of a particular biblical text, and even then, quite different conclusions have been drawn from observations of that single psalm!

However, the matter of reception of revelation does not get nearly so much attention, although it seems to me that a survey of the OT texts points quite insistently in this direction. The “problem” is not one of divine disclosure; the problem is human perception.

Here's a quote from the first page of Ludwig Koehler’s Old Testament Theology (see full context here):

The assumption that God exists is the Old Tesatment’s greatest gift to mankind. In the Old Testament God’s existence is entirely a foregone conclusion, always presupposed; reference is continually being made to it; it is never denied or questioned.

Almost every one of the texts we touched on today inevitably raises questions concerning the capacity for the human recipient to perceive and receive some aspect of God’s communicative act—whatever it might consist in! Look again at Exodus 3 (the whole chapter), at 1 Samuel 3, at Balaam’s oracular introduction in Numbers 24:15-16.

And if you would like to see a masterful, and brief, overview of a Christian theology of revelation, do read David Fergusson’s article (q.v.) in the Oxford Companion to Christian Thought (OUP, 2000), pp. 618-20.