THEOPHANY (θεοφανία and θεοφάνεια). — From Greek θεός “god” and φαίνω “I appear,” it is the manifestation of a deity to human beings; the meaning is analogous to that of Epiphany (v.) when this refers to a divine figure; thus in the Byzantine liturgy the feast of the Lord’s Epiphany is called τὰ ἅγια θεοφάνεια, and the same name is used by the Greek Fathers St Basil, St Gregory Nazianzen, and St Gregory of Nyssa.
Theophany can occur either through the manifestation of a deity: famous is that of Jahweh to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 34:29–30) and that of Zoroaster amid a blaze of flame that amazed the Persian king and the nobles of his retinue (Dio Chrysostom, Or., 36, 40); or through the hearing of the deity’s voice, as occurred after the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. The term also denotes the plastic representation of a deity seen on Mycenaean seals. Herodotus (I, 51; cf. Plutarch, Quaest. gr., 9) calls the festival of the theophany (τὰ θεοφάννιζα) that celebrated at Delphi the periodic return of Apollo to the sanctuary from his distant Hyperborean regions.
In a more general sense the word hierophany is adopted to signify every manifestation of the sacred in myth, rite, dream, superstition, or legend through minerals, plants, or animals.
For the threefold meaning of the feast of the Lord’s Epiphany V. EPIPHANY.