Revelation - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Revelation :  (noun)
1: the speech act of making something evident [syn: disclosure, revealing]
2: an enlightening or astonishing disclosure
3: communication of knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency
4: the last book of the New Testament; contains visionary descriptions of heaven and of conflicts between good and evil and of the end of the world; attributed to Saint John the apostle [syn: Revelation, Revelation of Saint John the Divine, Apocalypse, Book of Revelation]

Based on WordNet 2.0

Revelation : \Rev`e*la"tion\, n. [F. r['e]v['e]lation, L. revelatio. See Reveal.] 1. The act of revealing, disclosing, or discovering to others what was before unknown to them.

2. That which is revealed.

3. (Theol.) (a) The act of revealing divine truth. (b) That which is revealed by God to man; esp., the Bible.

By revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words. --Eph. iii. 3.

4. Specifically, the last book of the sacred canon, containing the prophecies of St. John; the Apocalypse.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Revelation :  an uncovering, a bringing to light of that which had been previously wholly hidden or only obscurely seen. God has been pleased in various ways and at different times (Heb. 1:1) to make a supernatural revelation of himself and his purposes and plans, which, under the guidance of his Spirit, has been committed to writing. (See WORD OF GOD.) The Scriptures are not merely the "record" of revelation; they are the revelation itself in a written form, in order to the accurate presevation and propagation of the truth.

Revelation and inspiration differ. Revelation is the supernatural communication of truth to the mind; inspiration (q.v.) secures to the teacher or writer infallibility in communicating that truth to others. It renders its subject the spokesman or prophet of God in such a sense that everything he asserts to be true, whether fact or doctrine or moral principle, is true, infallibly true.



Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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