The Divine Theophany by His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

The Feast of the Theophany refers to the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan by Saint John the Forerunner, who is called the Baptist. This took place when Christ reached the age of thirty (30) years, before He began His formal work (His earthly Ministry) of teaching and before His later Sufferings for the salvation of the human race.

The choice of thirty years for the beginning of Christ's formal activity in the world is related to the fact that the biological formation of the human organism reaches its fullness at that time. Moreover He would have been more acceptable to the Israelites at this time.

This event is described by the Holy Evangelists (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:32-34). We shall not go into all its details, but will emphasize some basic theological and Christological Truths.

Not many events are mentioned in Holy Scripture in the interval between the Meeting of Christ and Baptism of Christ. What we know about are the flight into Egypt and the return from there, as well as the presence of Christ in the Temple when he was twelve years old.

This is not without reason and purpose. The Gospels were not written to describe the whole history of Christ, but to present the Incarnation Son and Logos/Word of God, and what Christ taught, what He did and what He suffered for the human race. In essence the Gospels were catechetical aids. So the historical events of Christ's life and the references to His childhood years were not needed. His appearance in the Temple was included in the Gospel because it was the early evidence that He was the Son of God.

The absence of the events of His childhood and adolescent age does not mean that Christ was absent from Judaea. Christ lived close to His mother and foster-father Joseph and was "subject to them" (St. Luke 2:51). The things that some people say without any evidence are not valid but are the invention of imagination, that Christ went to other countries, such as the Indies, and there spent his life until the age of thirty years, when He suddenly made His appearance in Nazareth and at the River Jordan. For if such a thing had happened, it would have made an enormous impression on His compatriots when He appeared.

The Nativity and Baptism of Christ

When we talk about the birth of Christ we are speaking of two births. One is the pre-eternal birth of the Word from the Father, according to the divine nature, and the other is the birth in time from the All-Holy Virgin, according to the human nature. This refers to Christ’s two natures: the divine and the human.

“The important thing is that this Word, before His birth in the flesh, is like the Father in every respect. He does not come from nothing. The Word has two births. One birth was before all ages and the other birth was in time, which is the birth as a man, the incarnation.”

This theological fact is revelational and above all it is empirical, as the glorified flesh of Christ becomes a source of life for the members of the Church, particularly the saints.

“It is not only the Old and New Testaments that clearly teach the fact that the Word, the Lord of Glory, Who is God by nature and co-essential (homoousios) with the Father, truly took flesh and was born in His own normal and separate humanity of the Virgin Mary – who is literally, really and truly the Theotokos or Mother of God. Thus He became man by nature, not just by indwelling, and, as the Word in flesh, He became co-essential with us through His humanity. This truth is clearly revealed to all who have reached glorification, from which they learn empirically that Christ is the Word, that He is God by nature and man by nature, and also by nature the source of glory. He passes on to His human nature the existence of the source of glory, by means of which the actual flesh of the Word becomes the source of our life and life-giving, because the Word Himself is incarnate, and on account of the union and exchange of natural properties between the divine and human natures of the Word.”