Introduction

In the first part of this volume we have studied the nature and conditions of supernatural revelation; now we come to the question of its existence and divine origin. Objectively the existence or historical actuality and the divine origin of revelation coincide; but notionally they can be distinguished, and it will be in the interest of clarity to treat them separately. This second part of our treatise, therefore, will comprise two chapters, of which the first will deal with the existence or historical actuality of revelation, and the second with its divine origin.

In employing the term “revelation” in this part of our treatise, we refer not so much to the activity of God in revealing, as to the subject-matter revealed. This is for the most part deposited in the writings which constitute the Bible. In order, therefore, to demonstrate the existence or historical actuality of revelation, we have first to prove the genuineness and credibility of the Bible. If this point is established, the reliability and truth of the contents of the Sacred Book follow as a matter of course.

The Catholic Church teaches that revelation is not only contained in the Bible, but also comprises many truths which, though not embodied in Sacred Scripture, have been handed down by ecclesiastical tradition. Of these latter truths we shall treat in Volumes III and IV of this Handbook, in connection with the Church and the ecclesiastical teaching office.

1. The Old Testament

The Revelation contained in the Old Testament, in contradistinction to that of the New Testament, is frequently referred to as pre-Christian. This does not mean that there is any opposition between the two. On the contrary, pre-Christian and Christian revelation stand in an intimate relationship to each other. Both have their goal and center in Jesus Christ. The relation of pre-Christian to Christian revelation is that of the imperfect to the perfect, of the preparation to the consummation, of the promise to the fulfilment. Both together form a divine guidance of mankind, which finds its culmination in Jesus Christ.

The pre-Christian revelation of the Old Testament falls naturally into three divisions: primitive, patriarchal, and Mosaic.

1. Primitive Revelation extends from the creation of the world to Abraham. It embraces the doctrine that there is but one God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, who is a personal Being, Lord of the world and Ruler of mankind. Immediately after the Fall of our First Parents, the Old Testament, in its prophecy of the seed of the woman who was to crush the head of the serpent, held out the prospect of a Redeemer.¹1Gen. III, 15.

2. During the era of the Patriarchs, from Abraham to Moses, God addressed Himself to one particular people only, the descendants of Abraham, and gradually unveiled to them the picture of the Messias. He promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in his seed.²2Gen. XII, 3; XXII, 18. This promise was repeated to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and to his grandson, Jacob.³3Gen. XXVI, 4; XXVIII, 14. Inspired by God, Jacob announced at the end of his life that “the sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.”⁴4Gen. XLIX, 10.

3. The Mosaic Revelation comprises the period from Moses to Jesus Christ, and may be divided into the Pentateuchal (so called because it is contained in the four last books of the Pentateuch) and the prophetic.

a) The Pentateuchal Revelation was transmitted to the Israelites almost exclusively by a prophet whom God sent for this particular purpose, namely, Moses. It consists partly of doctrines and partly of practical precepts. The doctrines refer to God and His relation to man. God reveals Himself as Yahweh, the absolute Being.⁵5Ex. III, 14: God said to Moses: “I am who am.” Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God, His Knowability, Essence, and Attributes, pp. 165 sqq. The divine attributes, too, omnipotence, omniscience, eternity, wisdom, sanctity, justice, mercy, and fidelity are more clearly revealed,⁶6Ex. XV, 1-19; XXXIV, 6 sq.; Deut. XXXII, 1-43. On the divine attributes see Pohle-Preuss, op. cit., pp. 177 sqq. God appearing as the Creator, the Preserver, and the Ruler of the universe, as the Lord and Judge of men.⁷7Ex. XX, 1-17; Deut. IV, 35-39. Man stands in a most intimate relation to Him, is loved by God, and obliged to love Him in return, to keep His commandments, and to strive to be holy as He is holy.⁸8Deut. X, 12-22; Lev. XX, 26. Cfr. Koch-Preuss, A Handbook of Moral Theology, Vol. IV, “Man’s Duties to God,” 2nd ed., St. Louis, 1921.

The precepts of the Mosaic law are partly ethical, designed to regulate man’s conduct towards God and his fellowmen;⁹9Deut. VI, 5; XIII; Lev. XIX, 18; Ex. XX, 13-17; XXI; XXII; XXIII, 1-12; Deut. XV. partly ritual or ceremonial, governing the manner of divine worship;¹⁰10Lev., passim. and partly civil or political, ordering the social relations of the Jews.¹¹11Ex. XXI; XXII; Deut. XV and XIX sqq.

Two prophecies made at this time clearly point to a coming Redeemer; one of them represents Him as a star arising out of Jacob,¹²12Numb. XXIV, 17. Balaam, called upon by the King of Moab to curse the Hebrews, who, about to enter the Promised Land, were menacing his territory, on the contrary blessed them in four successive oracles, the last of which clearly has a Messianic import: “I shall see him, but not now.
I shall behold him, but not near.
A star shall rise out of Jacob
And a scepter shall spring up from Israel.” It is, in effect, a repetition of Jacob’s prophecy. Cfr. L. C. Fillion, The Life of Christ, tr. by N. Thompson, Vol. I, St. Louis, 1928, p. 215. while the other describes Him as a great prophet like Moses.¹³13Deut. XVIII, 15.

b) The revelation given through the prophets develops these ideas and promises, especially that of a Redeemer, more fully. The series of prophets as bearers of divine revelation begins with Samuel, towards the end of the period of the Judges, and concludes a short time after the Babylonian exile with Malachias. The picture of the Messias drawn by the prophets gradually grows more and more distinct. His person,¹⁴14Is. IX, 6; Mich. V, 2; Jer. XXIII, 5; Mal. III, 1; Is. XLII, 1 sqq. His various offices,¹⁵15Ps. II, 6; LXXI; Jer. XXIII, 5; Is. XLII, 1 sqq. His death,¹⁶16Ps. XXI; Dan. IX, 24 sqq.; Is. LII, 13 to LIII, 12. and the time of His appearance in the world,¹⁷17Dan. IX, 24 sqq.; Agg. II, 7 sqq.; Mal. III, 1. are the outstanding features of the prophetical writings of the Old Testament.

Thus the Chosen People were being slowly prepared and trained for the reception of the more perfect Christian revelation that was to follow.

2. The New Testament

The revelation of the New Testament, called Christian because it was communicated to mankind through Jesus Christ, is contained mainly in the Four Gospels, which are supplemented by the Acts of the Apostles (written by St. Luke), twenty-one Apostolic Epistles, and the Apocalypse of St. John.

The revelation given through Jesus Christ is the continuation and completion of the pre-Christian revelation of the Old Testament, and, unlike the latter, is addressed to the whole of mankind.

Christ instructed men concerning the infinite value of their immortal souls;¹⁸18Matt. XVI, 26. He taught them to regard God as their Father and themselves as His children,—not, as in the Old Testament, on account of the external bond of membership in the Chosen People, but because they are expected to conform themselves interiorly to Him¹⁹19Matt. V, 45-48. and because the love of the Heavenly Father for His only-begotten Son includes those who believe in the latter.²⁰20John XVII, 26. Christ called God His Father in a much higher sense than we can do so,²¹21Matt. XI, 27; Luke X, 22. in fact He declared Himself to be consubstantial, i. e., of the same essence with the Father,²²22John X, 30. and said that the Father dwelled in Him and He in the Father.²³23John XIV, 10 sq. Later He revealed to His disciples the existence of a Third Person in the Godhead, namely, the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from both the Father and the Son.²⁴24John XV, 26; Matt. XXVIII, 19; cfr. Pohle-Preuss, The Divine Trinity, pp. 169 sqq. Thus for the first time the dogma of the Trinity was fully revealed; there had been only faint traces of it in the Old Testament.²⁵25Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, The Divine Trinity, pp. 11 sqq.; F. McGloin, The Mystery of the Holy Trinity in Oldest Judaism, Philadelphia, 1916; J. Lebreton, Les Origines du Dogme de la Trinité, Vol. I, 6th ed., Paris, 1927, pp. 100-141.

The Son of God is the Redeemer of mankind. He “is come to save that which was lost.”²⁶26Matt. XVIII, 11; Luke XIX, 10. He will shed His blood “for many unto remission of sins,” and will establish “a new testament,”²⁷27Matt. XXVI, 26 sqq.; Luke XXII, 19 sq. and thereby break the dominion of Satan, “the prince of this world,” with whom death and sin originated.²⁸28John VIII, 44; XII, 31; XVI, 11; cfr. Pohle-Preuss, Soteriology, pp. 84 sqq.; Koch-Preuss, A Handbook of Moral Theology, Vol. II, pp. 11 sqq.

Although He was the Founder of a new covenant, Jesus Christ did not wish to destroy the Old Testament, but to “fulfil the law and the prophets.”²⁹29Matt. V, 17. The law of Moses He fulfilled by obeying its precepts³⁰30Matt. XXVI, 17 sqq.; VIII, 4. and teaching men a more perfect and more reasonable mode of observance.³¹31Matt. XXII, 36 sqq.; XV, 3 sq. But at the same time He declared that He was greater than the law³²32Mark II, 28; Matt. XII, 6 sqq. and with the authority of an all-powerful legislator not only opposed the narrow-minded interpretations of the Pharisees, but abrogated portions of the law itself.³³33Matt. V, 27-47; Mark X, 11 sq.; cfr. Koch-Preuss, A Handbook of Moral Theology, Vol. I, pp. 135 sqq., 146. In doing this He desired to show that the time had come when the Old Law was to assume a more perfect form and the worship of God³⁴34John IV, 21-24. and the observance of the moral precepts would no longer be limited by national boundaries, thereby fulfilling the predictions of the prophets about the Messias and His universal kingdom.³⁵35Cfr. K. Benz, Die Stellung Jesu zum alttestamentlichen Gesetz (Biblische Studien, ed. by O. Bardenhewer, XIX, 1), Freiburg i. B., 1914.

Christ came to found a new kingdom which was “not of this world.”³⁶36John XVIII, 36. He called it sometimes the “Kingdom of God,” sometimes the “Kingdom of Heaven.” His chief mission was to announce the Gospel (“glad tidings”) of this Kingdom.³⁷37Luke IV, 43. The Kingdom of God began with John the Baptist, He said;³⁸38Matt. XI, 12; Luke XVI, 16. it was destined to spread far and wide among the nations and to endure to the end of time.³⁹39Matt. XXVIII, 19 sq. He commissioned Peter to govern this Kingdom⁴⁰40John XXI, 15 sqq.; cfr. Vols. III and IV of this Handbook. and instructed him to continue His mission together with the other Apostles for the salvation of mankind.⁴¹41John XX, 21. The Jewish Synagogue was to be gradually absorbed by the universal Church established by Christ. Those Old Testament institutions and precepts which, like the ceremonial and judicial laws of Moses, had been particular and national in character and were intended to serve merely as a preparation for the Messianic age, had now to disappear. But whatever was of universal and permanent value, like the precepts of the moral law, received its completion and higher sanction in the Christian Church.