Epiphany
06/01/24 01:45
The Google dictionary website of the English Language is provided by Oxford Languages, the company that produces the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED is considered by many to be the world’s most authoritative source on the use of English. Among the features of the Google/Oxford online dictionary is a chart that shows the frequency of a word’s use over time. One axis of the chart is the number of mentions in published writing. The other axis is time. I don’t know how the charts are determined. I suspect that there must be some database of writings that can be compared through the use of a computer. However it is produced, I have been fascinated by the chart of the use over time of the word epiphany.
Epiphany is the word for today. January 6 is the traditional day for the celebration of the visit of magi from the East to the infant Jesus. According to the chart, during the period between roughly 1925 and 1975, the use of the word was at its lowest, with a steady rise in the use of the word until recently when its use has leveled somewhat. Sometime towards the end of the 20th century the use of the word became more common than at any other time depicted on the chart. To put it simply, we use the word more now than ever before and that increase in usage has occurred during my lifetime.
The chart roughly corresponds to my personal experience. I don’t think I was aware of the word or its meaning until about the time I went to college. The celebration of Epiphany as a part of church life wasn’t emphasized in my childhood religious experiences. We rolled the story of the visit of the wise ones into the story of Christmas. It was only when I began to study the Bible in the academic setting that I took time to understand the distinction between the seasons of Christmas and Epiphany.
Epiphany has grown to be important to my faith and my faith practices over the span of my adult life.
It is important, in a discussion of this day, to recognize that cycles of Church life and the calendar of festivals in the church do not date back to the beginnings of Christianity. Celebrating Christmas on December 25 wasn’t a practice of the early church. The timing of the celebration arose during Roman times when the church experienced a time of rapid growth. Initially Christmas was added to the year’s cycle of observances to accommodate rapid growth and allow for more new converts to officially join the church. The elements of the observance of the time between Christmas and Easter developed slowly over a long span of time. The cycle of readings in which I immersed myself in my career, known as the Revised Common Lectionary, was developed near the beginning of my career. The rise in the use of the word epiphany noted by the OED corresponds roughly to the increase in the use of the Revised Common Lectionary. There is no evidence to link the two. The use of the legionary did not cause the rise in the use of the word and the use of the word did not cause the rise in the use of the lectionary.
The season of Epiphany is based on an obscure story that appears in only one of the four Gospels. It is reported in just 12 verses at the beginning of the second chapter of the Gospel. The story reports that “magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.’” It goes on to report that they succeed in finding the child and, filled with joy, saw the child and his mother and paid him homage. They offered gifts and then left to return to their own country.
Upon those few verses layers of tradition have been piled, with many aspects of the story coming from sources other than the Bible. For example, in our collection of creche sets, several feature camels. Our grandchildren and their parents before them enjoy playing with the camels in the sets. There is, for example, no mention of camels in the stories of Jesus’ birth. Although a great deal of art has depicted camels in association with the magi, it may well be that there were no camels involved. And the biblical story does not give a number for the magi. There are three gifts reported: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I guess that the tradition of three kings came from the three gifts. And the crowns that appear in so many Christmas pageants are the products of someone’s imagination, not the way that scholars would have dressed at the time.
For me, while the story in Matthew’s Gospel has become beloved and worth reading and pondering over and over again, there is more to the season of Epiphany than just an ancient story. The name of the days between the end of Christmas and the beginning of Lent, Epiphany, is a word with roots in both Greek and Latin. It refers to a revelation or perception of the meaning of something. An epiphany is a discovery, realization, or disclosure of what something means. Often when we use the word we think of it as a sudden and sometimes surprising discovery.
Often when I have an epiphany it takes me time to fully understand what I have experienced. After the surprise of a sudden understanding that was not previously present, I need to mull the experience and test the meaning. It seems natural to me, then, that Epiphany is a season in the church and more than just a single day.
Today Christians once again begin a journey of discovery of deeper meanings of our faith and our relationship with God. Focusing our attention each year leads to deeper understanding over time. As one who has traveled the journey of the Christian calendar for many years, I pray that I might be open to surprise, wonder, and new discoveries along the way.
Epiphany is the word for today. January 6 is the traditional day for the celebration of the visit of magi from the East to the infant Jesus. According to the chart, during the period between roughly 1925 and 1975, the use of the word was at its lowest, with a steady rise in the use of the word until recently when its use has leveled somewhat. Sometime towards the end of the 20th century the use of the word became more common than at any other time depicted on the chart. To put it simply, we use the word more now than ever before and that increase in usage has occurred during my lifetime.
The chart roughly corresponds to my personal experience. I don’t think I was aware of the word or its meaning until about the time I went to college. The celebration of Epiphany as a part of church life wasn’t emphasized in my childhood religious experiences. We rolled the story of the visit of the wise ones into the story of Christmas. It was only when I began to study the Bible in the academic setting that I took time to understand the distinction between the seasons of Christmas and Epiphany.
Epiphany has grown to be important to my faith and my faith practices over the span of my adult life.
It is important, in a discussion of this day, to recognize that cycles of Church life and the calendar of festivals in the church do not date back to the beginnings of Christianity. Celebrating Christmas on December 25 wasn’t a practice of the early church. The timing of the celebration arose during Roman times when the church experienced a time of rapid growth. Initially Christmas was added to the year’s cycle of observances to accommodate rapid growth and allow for more new converts to officially join the church. The elements of the observance of the time between Christmas and Easter developed slowly over a long span of time. The cycle of readings in which I immersed myself in my career, known as the Revised Common Lectionary, was developed near the beginning of my career. The rise in the use of the word epiphany noted by the OED corresponds roughly to the increase in the use of the Revised Common Lectionary. There is no evidence to link the two. The use of the legionary did not cause the rise in the use of the word and the use of the word did not cause the rise in the use of the lectionary.
The season of Epiphany is based on an obscure story that appears in only one of the four Gospels. It is reported in just 12 verses at the beginning of the second chapter of the Gospel. The story reports that “magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.’” It goes on to report that they succeed in finding the child and, filled with joy, saw the child and his mother and paid him homage. They offered gifts and then left to return to their own country.
Upon those few verses layers of tradition have been piled, with many aspects of the story coming from sources other than the Bible. For example, in our collection of creche sets, several feature camels. Our grandchildren and their parents before them enjoy playing with the camels in the sets. There is, for example, no mention of camels in the stories of Jesus’ birth. Although a great deal of art has depicted camels in association with the magi, it may well be that there were no camels involved. And the biblical story does not give a number for the magi. There are three gifts reported: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I guess that the tradition of three kings came from the three gifts. And the crowns that appear in so many Christmas pageants are the products of someone’s imagination, not the way that scholars would have dressed at the time.
For me, while the story in Matthew’s Gospel has become beloved and worth reading and pondering over and over again, there is more to the season of Epiphany than just an ancient story. The name of the days between the end of Christmas and the beginning of Lent, Epiphany, is a word with roots in both Greek and Latin. It refers to a revelation or perception of the meaning of something. An epiphany is a discovery, realization, or disclosure of what something means. Often when we use the word we think of it as a sudden and sometimes surprising discovery.
Often when I have an epiphany it takes me time to fully understand what I have experienced. After the surprise of a sudden understanding that was not previously present, I need to mull the experience and test the meaning. It seems natural to me, then, that Epiphany is a season in the church and more than just a single day.
Today Christians once again begin a journey of discovery of deeper meanings of our faith and our relationship with God. Focusing our attention each year leads to deeper understanding over time. As one who has traveled the journey of the Christian calendar for many years, I pray that I might be open to surprise, wonder, and new discoveries along the way.
