The Bible contains a rich vocabulary of terms integral to its teaching about the revelation of God.¹Here condensing two more detailed surveys of the relevant biblical terminology: Joel R. Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology. Volume 1. Revelation and God (Crossway, 2019), 178-181; Mark D. Thompson, ‘The Knowledge of God as Revelation,’ Moore College Doctrine II: Knowledge of God — Lecture 2, unpublished manuscript. It cannot really be overstated that reliance upon and reference to the direct and objective revelation of God is everywhere in both the Old and New Testament Scriptures. God’s revelation is presented using terms for human communication. This is significant: the God of the Bible does not leave his self-disclosure to vague impression or mystical intuition, but expresses it in the ordinary language of appearing, speaking, showing, teaching, and making known — the very words by which persons communicate with one another.

The Most Significant Words

Among the most significant terminology of the Old and New Testaments are the following. In the Hebrew Scriptures we find ra’ah — to appear, see (Gen 18:1; 29:32; Exo 3:2, 7; Jud 6:12; 2 Chr 7:12); khazah — to see, i.e. of prophecy, vision (1 Sam 3:1, 19-21; cf. Gen 15:1; 2 Ki 17:13; Isa 29:10; Amos 7:12-14); amar — to say; diber — to speak;²This verb is used more than 1100 times, and its cognate noun debar on over 1400 occasions. galah — to open, uncover, show (Gen 35:7; 1 Sam 2:27; Isa 22:14; Dan 10:1); yad’a — to show, make known (Psa 25:4, 14); lamad — to teach (Psa 25:4-5, 8-9); and yorah — to guide, instruct (also Psa 25:4-5, 8-9).

In the Greek of the New Testament the vocabulary continues: laleō — to speak (Matt 10:20; John 14:25; 15:11; 16:1, 23, 33; Heb 1:1-2);³This verb is used over 300 times. lego — to say (Rev 21:5);⁴In Rev 21:5 this verb is used alongside its noun logos, and more than 2300 other times in total. apokaluptō — to appear, come, manifest, reveal, uncover, unveil (Matt 10:26; Luke 2:34-35; Rom 16:25; cf. Luke 12:2, 17:28-30; Rom 1:17-18; 2:5; 1 Cor 1:7, 14:6 [cf. 14:26, 30]; Eph 1:17, 3:3; Phil 3:15; 2 Thess 1:6-7; 1 Pet 1:13); phaneroō — to appear, declare, disclose, exhibit, make visible, open to sight, manifest, reveal (Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17; Rom 16:26; 2 Cor 2:14; 3:3; 4:10-11; Col 1:25-26; cf. John 17:6; 2 Cor 5:10; Col 3:3-4, 4:3-4; Tit 1:3; 1 John 3:5, 8, 4:9); and gnōrizō — to certify, know, make known, perceive, tell, understand (John 15:15; 17:26; Rom 9:22-24; 16:26; Eph 1:9-10; Phil 1:22; 4:6; Col 1:27).

Taken together, this vocabulary demonstrates how pervasively the Scriptures ground their claims in a God who genuinely appears, speaks, and makes himself known. Revelation is not one theme among many; it is the presupposition running through the whole. The sheer frequency of these terms — the verb amar (to say) alone is used over five thousand times, more than four hundred of which come in the form ‘this is what the LORD says’ — testifies to how deeply the biblical writers understood their message to be received rather than invented, given rather than discovered.

Messages About Mysteries

The combined overall meaning of biblical terminology revolves ‘around three major foci: first, the idea of a verbal message from God in a form that human beings can receive, understand, and repeat; second, the idea of a gracious revelation of hidden divine truth that man cannot discover on his own; third, the idea of an intrusion of eternal glory into our ordinary, mundane existence.’⁵Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology, 1:181.

In the final words of Romans, we find these three central New Testament terms for expressing ‘revelation by God’ running together in a single statement:

‘Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith — to the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus Christ! Amen’ (Rom 16:25-27).

Thompson remarks: ‘Here it is the eternal purpose of God, focused in the gospel of Jesus Christ which lies at the heart of revelation and therefore it is at the heart of the apostle’s preaching.’⁶Thompson, ‘The Knowledge of God as Revelation,’ 7. The three foci converge on a single point. The verbal message that can be received and repeated, the gracious unveiling of what could never be found out by human effort, and the breaking-in of eternal glory upon everyday life — all three come to rest in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God’s mysteries are not riddles designed to frustrate; they are truths, long hidden, now spoken aloud and made known to all the nations, so that people might respond with the obedience of faith and give glory to the only wise God.

The pattern that emerges from this vocabulary is therefore consistent. Whether the term speaks of appearing or seeing, of saying or speaking, of uncovering or making known, each carries the same underlying assumption: that God takes the initiative to communicate in a form his human creatures can receive, understand, record, and pass on. The words of revelation are the words of ordinary human exchange pressed into the service of an extraordinary end — the making known of the hidden purpose of God, kept secret for long ages but now disclosed. This is why reference to the direct and objective revelation of God is everywhere across both Testaments: it is the ground on which everything else the Scriptures claim to know about God finally stands.

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• 1
  Here condensing two more detailed surveys of the relevant biblical terminology: Joel R. Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology. Volume 1. Revelation and God (Crossway, 2019), 178-181; Mark D. Thompson, ‘The Knowledge of God as Revelation,’ Moore College Doctrine II: Knowledge of God — Lecture 2, unpublished manuscript. ↩︎
• 2
  This verb is used more than 1100 times, and its cognate noun debar on over 1400 occasions. ↩︎
• 3
  This verb is used over 300 times. ↩︎
• 4
  In Rev 21:5 this verb is used alongside its noun logos, and more than 2300 other times in total. ↩︎
• 5
  Beeke, Reformed Systematic Theology, 1:181. ↩︎
• 6
  Thompson, ‘The Knowledge of God as Revelation,’ 7. ↩︎