"God Has Made It Clear":Revelation Theology and Biblical Dream Narratives in Genesis 37-50 and Matthew 1-2

Abstract

Christian revelation theology has developed from stories and experiences featuring a God who communicates with people. The Scriptures are full of narratives and discourses in which characters are addressed by God or a divine messenger. It seems that revelation theology and the biblical texts depart from the same presupposition. But is this impression confirmed when the texts are closely examined and allowed to speak for themselves? To make this determination, it is necessary to examine how God speaks in the biblical texts. This is why I study certain biblical dream narratives through the lens of the Communication Oriented Method of Textual Analysis (COMTA). This method is explained in chapter 2; it approaches a text as communication between the text-internal author and the text-internal reader. The analyst follows this text-internal communication by paying careful attention to the syntax, the semantic patterns within this syntax, and the way the text-internal author draws the text-internal reader into the unfolding communication, with consequences for thought and action. This method is chosen to avoid starting within a specific systematic-theological framework. Various existing approaches of revelation theology are drawn from the work of Avery Dulles, who distinguishes five models of revelation: revelation as doctrine, as history, as inner experience, as dialectical presence, and as new awareness. These conceptual models are introduced in chapter 3. The biblical texts this study focuses on are dream narratives. In particular, I discuss the dream narratives related to Joseph, son of Jacob, in the Old Testament (Genesis 37-50), alongside the dream narratives related to Joseph, husband of Mary, in the New Testament (Matthew 1-2). More specifically, in chapters 4-8 I investigate the communication in Genesis 37:2b-11 (Joseph’s dreams), 40:1-23 (the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker), 41:1-41 (Pharaoh’s dreams), and lastly 50:15-22a (Joseph’s reflection on his life, considered as a kind of coda to the initial dreams). The same analysis is applied in chapters 9-10 to the dream reports of Joseph and the Magi (Matthew 1:20-21; 2:12; 2:13; 2:20; 2:22). This work serves as a necessary basis to answer the main question of this dissertation: is there a model of revelation that aligns with the modes in which revelation is given in and through the dream narratives of Genesis 37-50 and Matthew 1-2? The narratives offer input for revelation theology on two levels: (1) the level of character interaction, and (2) the level of communication between the text-internal author and the text internal reader. The first level offers a narrative exploration of divine communication and human reactions to it; the second level helps explain how contemporary text-external readers can receive these narratives as divine communication. The study concludes in chapter 11 that the texts align with different models. Genesis 37-50 aligns most closely with the models of revelation as history and revelation as new awareness, whereas Matthew 1-2, with its prominent scriptural quotations, aligns more closely with the model of revelation as doctrine. However, the alignment is never perfect on both levels of communication simultaneously (revelation to the characters and revelation to the reader). In view of this, I ask whether Dulles’s concept of symbolic mediation can be helpful, since he uses it to retrieve and connect what he considers most valuable in each of the separate models. I conclude that the concept is neither clearly defined nor particularly helpful. In chapter 12 I take stock of the way in which this thesis contributes to revelation theology. I argue that a measure of friction remains between revelation as present in the biblical narratives on the one hand, and the systematic-theological accounts of revelation on the other hand. Moreover, methodological considerations prevent me from arguing that a specific model should be adopted on the basis of the examined texts. Firstly, some models of revelation presuppose that the text-internal world stands in a specific relationship to the text-external world, and this cannot be argued from textual analysis alone. Secondly, the communication to the text-internal reader cannot be equated with a potential divine revelation to the text-external reader. This also means that I cannot construe an improved model of revelation based on my reading of Genesis 37-50 and Matthew 1-2. The contribution to revelation theology lies on another level. In light of the fact that the alignment of the models varies not only between texts but also between levels of communication within the same text, this thesis asks which level of communication is central to the existing models. How does revelation relate to author, reader and world, both text internal and text-external, according to each of the models? Though this question is no longer directly about revelation theology in relation to the dream narratives of Genesis 37-50 and Matthew 1-2, it arises out of the failure to find a definite direction for revelation theology there. The answer offers an important theoretical contribution at the intersection of theology and hermeneutics.