[ad. L. theophania (c. 400 in Rufinus), a. Gr. θεοφάνεια and θεοφάνια (neut. pl.), f. θεός god + φαίνειν to show: see -PHANY. So F. théophanie. Cf. TIFFANY.] A manifestation or appearance of God or a god to man.
a. 1633. Austin, Medit. (1635), 56. First, the Starre manifested him … from the Heavens. That’s, the Epiphany: Secondly, it manifested him from God (in Trinity): for hee sent the Starre. There’s, the Theophany. And lastly; It manifested him on Earth (in Domo):… There’s the Bethphany.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, II. III. 193. Neither was the name Theophanie, which signifies the apparition of God or the Gods, unusual even among the Gentiles.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., VIII. v. III. 352. The universe is but a sublime Theophany, a visible manifestation of God.
1894. F. Watson, Genesis a true Hist., vi. 141. In the records of the Theophanies to Joshua, Gideon, and Manoah. Ibid. The Theophany to Elijah at Horeb.
b. A festival celebrating the manifestation of a deity. (Sometimes spec. applied to Christmas.)
1745. A. Butler, Lives Saints (1836), I. 26, note. The Greeks still keep the Epiphany with the birth of Christ on Christmas-day, which they call Theophany, or the manifestation of God.
[1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Theophania, θεοφάνεια,… a festival observed by the Delphians upon the day whereon Apollo first manifested himself to them.]
Hence Theophanic a., of or pertaining to theophany; Theophanism, theophany; Theophanous a., characterized by theophany.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2346. No vision is without a *theophanic element.
1886. C. A. Briggs, Messianic Proph., I. vi. § 10. 20. It is the theophanic manifestation of God in forms of time and space and the sphere of physical nature.
1849. Lady Wilde, trans. Meinhold’s Sidonia Sorc., III. xiii. II. 184, note. All the *theophanisms (God-manifestations) recorded in the Old Testament.
1909. 19th Cent., Oct., 676. This *theophanous land.
