Revelation in the Present Tense: On Rethinking Theological Interpretation in the Light of the Prophetic Office of Jesus Christ

Abstract

Abstract Revelation is often assumed to be what God does, and interpretation what persons do in response. The latter is a matter of making the former real or relevant in relation to a new situation. But what if revelation, understood as Christ's self-attestation, were present to and active in our interpretation of itself? This article deploys the munus propheticum Jesu Christi in conversation with John's Gospel so as to disrupt the usual construal of the objective/subjective relationship as regards revelation and interpretation. This is undertaken in order to advance an account of revelation in the present tense and thus of interpretation as being a human hearing of and correspondence to what Christ says and does. Such an emphasis strengthens the theological interpretation of Scripture by yielding to the written Word as the locus of Christ's prophetic presence and activity. Interpretation is thus a matter of becoming transparent to the humanizing presence and contemporaneity of the risen One who speaks himself by the power of the Spirit in the prophetic and apostolic writings.