Christophanies

Definition

A christophany is a visible, pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ in human or angelic form during the Old Testament period.

What’s the difference between a theophany and a christophany?

Theophany

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 12:7 ESV

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 17:1 ESV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,

What I want us to see is that the christophanies in the OT introduce the second person of the Trinity to us, so that by the time He is incarnate in the NT, He is not an obscure, unfamiliar figure.

Identifying Christophanies

Exodus 3:1-6

Exodus 3:1–6 ESV

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The Names

“angel of the Lord” in verse 2 can mean messenger of the Lord

the messenger “appeared” (v. 2) or became seen.

The messenger who became seen in verse 2 is subsequently called Yahweh (when the LORD saw) who saw in verse 4.

In verse 4, God called to Moses

But also in verse 4, we are told that God called to him out of the burning bush.

So there are three names of designations to describe or identify God:

Messenger

Yahweh (LORD)

God (Elohim)

In addition to identifying Himself in these ways, God tells Moses that He is the God of his fathers. Verse 6: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

And at the end of verse 6, Moses hides his face from God.

The Identity

So far we know there was a messenger and that the Lord sent Him. Simultaneously, He is called Yahweh and Elohim.

To see Him, who is sent by God is to see God. He is the image of Yahweh.

The Messenger also has a past with the patriarchs, in that He is the God of them.

But, there’s another passage we should look at to strengthen the connection between the names and identity of the messenger.

Shortly after Israel camped at Mt Sinai, the messenger who initially met Moses there is reintroduced in the conversation. God says:

Exodus 23:20–24 ESV

“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.

The messenger is sent by God

And the meaning behind the word sent in verse 20 carries the idea of ambassadorship. Ambassadors speak with the full authority of the sender.

In verse 21, the people are instructed to pay careful attention to Him and obey His voice and not to rebel against Him.

And what reason are they given for the command to obey? Because if they disobey Him, He will not forgive their transgression. So this messenger has the power of absolution.

But what about the phrase at the end of verse 21: for my name is in Him.

Often, I will write my name inside a book I lend out to someone. It’s my attempt to claim ownership of the book. But that not how we should think of the meaning of this phrase.

For the Lord to put His name in this messenger is to say to that the Lord put Himself in Him.

In the Hebrew mind, names are much more significant than we typically think of them. Names to them were synonyms with the person.

So Yahweh was saying, who I am is in Him. To see Him is to see me. He is Yahweh to you.

And this clarifies what happened earlier at the burning bush.

The messenger was sent by God but also called God. He was sent by Yahweh, but called Yahweh. And the reason this was so was that His (Yahweh’s) name was in Him.

This is what the author of Hebrews was getting at when he said of Jesus:

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

We do not have time to look at other examples, but let me just mention some others:

The messenger who appeared to run away Hagar after she fled from Sarai (Gen 16:7-14)

The messenger that appeared to the anonymous mother of Samson in Judges 13 to tell her she would soon conceive a Nazarite boy.

As Jacob blessed his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh on his death bed referenced a christophany in his benediction:

Genesis 48:15–16 ESV

And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

Note, the God, the God in verse 15

the angel or messenger who has redeemed me from all evil…

The messenger in verse 16 is the same as the God before whom the patriarchs walked and the God who has shepherded Jacob.

The Value of Christophanies

1. Proof of Christ's Eternal Pre-Existence

They show that Jesus did not begin His existence at Bethlehem. 

Recognizing christophanies in the Old Testament underscores the doctrine of Christ’s eternal pre-existence as the second person of the Trinity. 

2. Revealing the True Nature of God's Presence

Christophanies beautifully navigate the tension between God's transcendence (His exalted, invisible, holy majesty) and His immanence (His closeness and presence with us). 

Because God the Father is invisible spirit, these Old Testament visitations are the pre-incarnate Son making the invisible God visibly present to human beings.

3. Foreshadowing the Incarnation

These brief, localized appearances of Christ under the Old Covenant served as vital precursors. 

While christophanies were real and powerful, they pointed forward to the ultimate display of God's presence: the Incarnation, where the Son did not merely appear temporarily but permanently assumed human nature to secure our salvation.

If we except the identity of the messenger is the second person of the God-head, and that He was sent by Yahweh and doing the will of Him, then perhaps we will see that the incarnation was alluded to, hinted at, foreshadowed throughout the OT.