revelation, n.
The disclosure or communication of knowledge, instructions, etc., by divine or supernatural means.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌrɛvəˈleɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌrɛvəˈleɪʃ(ə)n/
Forms: ME reuelacioun, ME reuelacyun, ME revelacioun, ME–15 reuelacion, ME–15 reuelacyon, ME–15 revelacion, 15 reuealation, 15 revelacyon, 15–16 reuelation, 15– revelation, 16 revelatyon, 18– revelashun nonstandard; Sc. pre-17 reuelacione, pre-17 reuelacioun, pre-17 reuelacioune, pre-17 reuelation, pre-17 reuelatioun, pre-17 revelacioun, pre-17 revelatione, pre-17 revelatioun, pre-17 revelatyoune, pre-17 rewelacoun, pre-17 rewelatioun, pre-17 rewlacion, 17– revelation. N.E.D. (1908) also records forms ME reuelaciun, ME revelation.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman revelaciun, revelacioun, revelatiun, Anglo-Norman and Middle French revelacion, revelation (French révélation) an instance or experience of disclosure or communication of knowledge by divine or supernatural means (second half of the 12th cent in faire une revelatiun), the fact of such disclosure or communication of knowledge by divine or supernatural means (c1190), disclosure or exposure by a person of something previously unknown or kept secret (c1300; rare before 1611), the last book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse (14th cent. in plural in le livre des revelacions, 1553 in singular la revelation de Saint-Jean), enlightenment (a1419 in Anglo-Norman), a work by an author other than St. John the Divine in which a person's divine revelations are described (1476 in the passage translated in quot. 1483 at sense 2b; the sense ‘an unexpectedly excellent person or thing’ is not paralleled in French until later: 1902) and its etymon post-classical Latin revelation-, revelatio manifestation, revealed truth (Vulgate), divine disclosure (late 2nd or early 3rd cent. in Tertullian), action of uncovering or revealing, the last book of the New Testament (4th cent.), a work by an author other than St. John the Divine in which a person's divine revelations are described (13th cent. in the passage translated in quot. 1483 at sense 2b) < classical Latin revēlāt-, past participial stem of revēlāre reveal v. + -iō -ion suffix1. Compare Old Occitan revelacio (14th cent.), Catalan revelació (14th cent.), Spanish revelación (early 14th cent.), Portuguese revelação (14th cent. as reuelaçom, reuelaçon), Italian rivelazione (end of the 13th cent.; also †revelatione, †revelazione).
In form reuealation influenced by reveal v.
1.
a. The disclosure or communication of knowledge, instructions, etc., by divine or supernatural means.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Rom. xvi. 25 To him that is myȝty for to conferme ȝou by my gospel and preching of Jhesu Crist, vp the revelacioun [L. revelationem] of mysterie holdun stille.in tymes euerlastynge..is..honour and glorie.
a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) viii. 49 Metodre seith to his matiere, As he be revelacion It hadde upon avision.
a1400 (1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 441 Hyt was shewyd pryuyly To iosep..Þat with þe chyld þey shulde fle To egypt..þys ys clepyd reuelacyun, To shewe byfore what ys to doun.
?a1475 (1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl.) (1872) IV. 343 Seynte Iohn Baptiste schewede his hedde by reuelacion to ij monkes.
a1500 (1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) lxxxviii. 19 Thou spak in visyon, that is, in pryue reuelacioun til prophetis
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. clxxxxii. f. cxiiiiv, Whan he hadde vnderstandynge, of the dethe of this Edwyn by Reuelacyon or otherwyse, He made his speciall prayer.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. lvv, He sayd, how he had all thinges shewed him by reuelation.
1612 B. Jonson Alchemist iii. ii. sig. Gv, A man, by reuelation, That hath a competent knowledge of the Truth.
1686 J. Scott Christian Life Pt. 2 II. vii. 612 The Gift of Revelation..seems to have been continued no longer than till the whole New Testament was revealed.
1725 I. Watts Logick ii. v. §3 Divine Revelation must be confirmed by some divine and supernatural Appearances.
1795 W. Paley View Evidences Christianity (ed. 3) II. iii. vii. 384 The object of revelation is to influence human conduct in this life.
a1832 Encycl. Metrop. II. 692/1 A distinction has frequently been taken between the law of nature and revelation, to which we cannot assent.
1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter (ed. 3) p. v, On the supposition of an eternal universe, science would necessarily antagonize Revelation.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 9/2 Aristotelian rationalism..threatened the authority of the Old Testament..the belief in miracles and revelation.
1941 A. C. Bouquet Compar. Relig. x. 207 Religion for the Moslem centres upon Wahj or revelation.
2000 Church Times 7 Apr 19/4 Only supernaturalist revelation can offer a remedy for the human predicament of knowing good and doing evil, and it offers a vision of what life is for.
b. An instance or experience of this; something disclosed or communicated by divine or supernatural means.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) 2 Cor. xii. 7 Lest the greetnesse of reuelaciouns [L. revelationum] enhaunce me in pride, the pricke of fleisch..is ȝouun to me.
a1413 (1385) Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1882) v. l. 366 Prestes of þe temple tellen þis..That dremes ben þe reuelacions..Of goddes.
a1475 Revelations St. Birgitta (Garrett) 104 This is a reuelacion sende to..saint Birgitte, in whiche oure lady saint Marye repreueth the pryde of wymmen.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection i. sig. Bi, The seruaunt of god Moyses, had moste hye reuelacions and visions.
a1598 R. Rollock Lect. Passion (1616) 418 Away with these fantasticke reuelations of the Anabaptistes.
1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici 63, I do think that many mysteries ascribed to our own inventions have been the courteous revelations of spirits.
1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. xxvii. 168 A good Monk..had in the Night-time a Revelation, that the Body was in the top of the Hill.
1727 D. Defoe Syst. Magick i. iii. 62 Magick..was not a Revelation from Hell, made at once to Mankind.
1788 Gibbon Decline & Fall V. l. 205 Six legislators..have announced to mankind the six successive revelations of various rites.
1850 R. W. Emerson Swedenborg in Representative Men iii. 139 His revelations destroy their credit by running into detail.
1892 B. F. Westcott Gospel of Life 86 If anything human lies without the scope of a revelation to man, that revelation cannot be final.
1912 Catholic Encycl. XIV. 340/2 Wholesale believers in supernatural apparitions, visions, revelations, which serve no good purpose.
1941 A. C. Bouquet Compar. Relig. vi. 81 He [sc. Zarathustra] retired into the mountains for meditation and.received a revelation.
2007 N.Y. Rev. Bks. Nov. 63/1 The theological doctrine according to which Islam supersedes the previous revelations of Judaism and Christianity.
2. Chiefly with capital initial.
a. In early use chiefly with the. In full the Revelation of St. John the Divine. The last book of the New Testament; the Apocalypse.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Royal) (1850) Apoc. p. 681 Heere endith the Apocalips, or Reuelacioun of Seynt Joon the euangelist.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Rev. (heading) The summe of the Reuelacion
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. xxxvjv, They call the Bishop of Rome..the whore of Babilon, described in the Reuelation.
c1585 R. Browne Answere to Cartwright 43 In the Reuelation, the twelue Apostles are called the twelue foundations.
a1658 J. Cleveland Wks. (1687) 49 What Scriptures call The Revelation, is most mystical.
1685 R. Baxter Paraphr. New Test. Rev. i. 1 It is eminently call'd the Revelation.
1756 T. Amory Life John Buncle I. 392 The third painting in this series is the subsequent vision, in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Revelation of John the Divine.
a1768 T. Secker Serm. (1771) VI. 69 The Revelation of St. John is accused of Obscurity, and consequently of Uselessness.
1846 Tennyson in Mem. I 238 There was no more sea, says St. John in Revelation.
1883 R. L. Stevenson Treasure Island vi. xxix. 181 One side was blank, for it had been the last leaf; the other contained a verse or two of Revelation.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 905/1 The Anabaptists were great readers of Revelation and of the Epistle of James.
1959 Mag Fantasy & Sci. Fiction Dec. 91/1 Cooper has had the gall to interpolate this.screed with passages from Ecclesiastes and Revelation.
1996 J. Updike In Beauty of Lilies 473 Jesse's Bible-study sessions had moved from Revelation and the Old Testament prophets..to the Gospels.
b. Usu. in pl. Designating other works in which a person's divine revelations are described.
1483 Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f. cclv/2, It is redde in the reuelacions [Fr. reuelacions; L. reuelationibus] of saynt Elysabeth, that..she sawe in a place moche fer fro folk a tombe or a sepulcre enuyronned with moche lyght.
1551 J. Bale Actes Eng. Votaryes ii. f. cxi, A crafty knaue, an holye monke, I shulde saye, in the abbeye of Euesham,..wrote a newe Apocalips or boke of reuelacions.
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1953) I. 253 The Revelations of Brigid, and of Katherine, and such She-fathers as those.
1691 A. Gavin Frauds Romish Monks iv. 190 Many of these have themselves Pen'd their own Revelations, as S. Brigit, S. Melchilda, S. Catharine of Sienna, S. Gertrude.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Apocalypse, Porphyry..makes mention of the Apocalypses or Revelations of Zoroaster, Zostrian,..&c.
?1768–9 Encycl. Brit. (1771) I. 546/2 The apocryphal books of the New Testament are..several spurious gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelations.
1845 J. Kitto Cycl. Biblical Lit. (1849) II. 628/1 We shall first treat of the apocryphal revelations no longer extant.
1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 179/2 A fragment of the apocryphal Revelations of St. Bartholomew.
1911 Catholic Encycl. X. 276/1 St. Michael also guards the body of Eve, according to the ‘Revelation of Moses’.
1996 J. I. Friedman in R. Voaden Prophets Abroad 100 The illuminations are reserved exclusively for the first pages of individual books of the Revelations[of St. Brigit].
c. In pl. in sense 2a, now regarded as informal and by some as incorrect.
(a) Without the. More fully Book of Revelations. Also in extended use.
[c1450 (1400) Bk. Vices & Virtues (Huntington) 10 Þe holy apostle seynt Iohn..in þe booke of his reuelaciouns þat is cleped þe Apocalips, seiþ þat he seiȝ a best, [etc.].]
1531 tr. E. Fox et al. Determinations Moste Famous Vniuersities vii. f. 138v, If any man shall adde vnto them [sc. the writings of St. John], god shall cast vnto hym those plages and vengeances, whiche be wrytten in his boke of reuelations.
1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare i. 12 S. Iohn that wrote the bookes of Apocalyps, or Reuelations, shal come againe with Elias, and Enoch to reproue Antichriste.
1676 W. Cave Antiquitates Apostolicae (new ed.) 153 It was about the latter end of Domitian's Reign, (as Irenaeus tells us) that he wrote his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations.
1691 T. P. Blount Ess. 15 The Rhemists in their Annotations upon Revelations the 14th.
?1706 E. Hickeringill Priest-craft. 2nd Pt. ii. 26, I have heard a little Domine or Curate..tell the People from—Revelations.
1791 M. De Fleury Diuine Poems & Ess. (Contents), Meditations on Revelations xii. 6.
1818 T. L. Peacock Nightmare Abbey i. 19 He would condole with Mr. Glowry,..quote Revelations with Mr. Toobad.
1842 R. I. Wilberforce Rutilius & Lucius 81 In..the book of Revelations, they are called the angels of the Churches.
1898 G. Parker Battle of Strong x, He saw..the gracious figure of a girl; and a book of revelations was opened and begun.
1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables xi. 115 The text was Revelations, third chapter, second and third verses.
1945 Folklore 56 257 Six hundred and sixty-six was the number of the Beast in Revelations.
1991 in B. MacArthur Despatches from Gulf War 191 Our vehicle, named the Whore of Babylon by someone who knew his Book of Revelations, could not keep pace.
(b) With the.
In early use it is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether the reference is to the book or to the revelations themselves.
[?1542 R. Taverner On Saynt Andrewes Day Gospels f. xxxiii, The reuelacions of saynt Ihon set forth in the boke of the Apocalipse.]
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum at Iohn, He treateth mooste of the Deuinitie in his gospell, who also dyd wryte the reuelations.
1643 E. Douglas Star to Wise (title-page), Her petition, Shewing cause to have her Book Licensed, Being The Revelations Jnterpretation.
1656 A. Wright Five Serm. 211 Many prophesies are to be fulfilled.., among which that in the Revelations is one.
1672 H. Dodwell Two Lett. Advice i. xxiii. 101 The scandalous licentious person is like the Dragon in the Revelations.
1708 Brit. Apollo No. 39. 1/2 They look upon this Passage in the Revelations as their strongest Fort.
1755 T. Amory Mem. Ladies 25 As St. John..expresses it, in the third chapter of the Revelations.
1806 R. Southey in C. C. Southey Life & Corr. R. Southey (1850) III. 34 Reading the Revelations..was my favourite part of the Christian religion.
a1871 A. De Morgan Budget of Paradoxes (1872) 358 For myself,.I am the first Beast in the Revelations.
1934 D. Thomas Let. 2 May (1987) 126 A large abstract, done mainly in furniture varnish, titled from the Revelations: ‘The Star Called Wormwood’.
†3. A source of enlightenment. Obs. rare.
c1400 Prymer (St. John's Cambr.) (1891) 33 Liȝt and reuelacioun of heþen men, & glorie to þi puple israel.
1815 C. Lloyd tr. A. Vittorio Timoleon ii. iii. 141, I then will be A light, a revelation to thy darkness.
4. The disclosure or exposure by a person of something previously unknown or kept secret; an instance of this; a fact which has been disclosed.
c1485 (1456) G. Hay Bk. Knychthede (1914) 162 Traist messageris to bere thair messagis..and secretly report again all ansueris bot any revelacioun bot quhare it effeiris.
?1560 Squyr Lowe Degre sig. Eii, He made reuelation vnto me That he knewe all your pryuyte.
1601 J. Deacon & J. Walker Summarie Answere to Darel 75 Will you leaue the law, and the testimonies, and trot after a blind and a trothlesse lad for the reuelation of these hidden truthes?
a1680 J. Harrington Horae Consecratae (1682) 70 Is the revelation of secrets the greatest expression of friendship?
1707 N. Tate Injur'd Love v. 60 She has promis'd me, The Revelation of some dreadful Secret.
1785 C. Mathews Constance IV. xix. 168 She could suppose only, that as had generally been her misfortune, it was a revelation that would give her pain.
1853 E. C. Gaskell Ruth I. iii. 78 There was some one who listened with tender interest to all her little revelations.
1880 J. McCarthy Hist. our Own Times IV. lx. 326 This astounding revelation excited alarm and anger.
1910 Encycl. Brit I. 960/2 The revelation of the sufferings of the prisoners was one of the factors that shaped public opinion regarding the South in the Northern States.
1962 A. Sampson Anat. Brit. xxx. 480 He and his board have reacted..to revelations about their monopoly, with the old-fashioned sang-froid of unreconstructed businessmen.
1996 Church Times 13 Dec. 10/3 Their Lordships are..too old (mostly) to be threatened with the revelation of their scandalous secrets to their wives.
5.
a. The disclosure to a person of something not previously apparent; an instance of this; (also) the perception of something not previously seen or understood; a sudden realization; a striking discovery.
In earlier use sometimes as an extended use of sense 1.
a1625 J. Fletcher Chances ii. i. 6 in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647), I have got a Revelation will reveale me, An arrant Coxcombe while I live.
1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces v. 297 Although any one doth think to discover the possibility of Art, and Nature; yet few would be content therewith, being very desirous of all manner of revelation.
1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle II. lix. 61 Enthusiasts, who..disdainfully reject the evidence of reason, and trust to the revelation of their own fancy.
1766 R. Lovett Philos. Ess. i. xi. 122 If this had not been wonderfully revealed to us (for I cannot help calling it a Revelation) we had still been ignorant of any great Strength, Power, or Force in electrical Fire.
1846 Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) iii. 22 There had been that in the sad embrace between her and her dying mother, which was at once a revelation and a reproach to him.
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. i. i. §5 20 Be there or be there not any other revelation, we have a veritable revelation in Science.
1920 Glasgow Herald 1 Sept. 6 The demand for a distantly printed issue.was a revelation of the eagerness with which a newspaperless public will snatch at anything conveying a semblance of the news.
1959 J. Kerouac Let. 19 Oct. (1999) 221 Most miraculous of all was the sensational revelation that I've been on the right track with spontaneous never-touch-up poetry of immediate report.
1970 A. Toffler Future Shock xv. 300 This is the ‘a-hah!’ reaction we experience at a moment of revelation, when we finally understand something that has been puzzling us.
1992 H. Mitchell One Man's Garden iv. 84 Still another revelation of the beauty of bulbs came to me..when I saw a woodland garden..covered with thousands of old white-trumpet daffodils.
b. A person who or thing which inspires awe or admiration in a revelatory manner; an unexpectedly excellent person or thing.
1843 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters I. ii. i. vii. 90 A man accustomed to the grace and infinity of nature's foliage, with every vista a cathedral, and every bough a revelation.
1858 B. St. John Montaigne Essayist iii. 19 Even now Italy is a revelation to poets and moralists who come down the southern slope of the Alps for the first time.
1895 Life 12 Dec. 386/2 Eleanor Duse was a revelation. She showed us a suffering woman who did not shriek out her emotions.
1920 P. F. Warner Cricket Reminisc. 156 His keeping to Mr. Spofforth with the 1878 Australian XI. was a revelation.
1996 Guardian 27 Apr. (Weekend Suppl.) 47/5 An omelette made with a handful of mousserons is a revelation.
2005 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 6 Mar. (inside entertainment section) 11/2 Smith is affably charming. He's born for this kind of stuff. James is a revelation.
6. With capital initial. More fully Revelation suitcase. A make of expanding leather suitcase.
A proprietary name in the United Kingdom.
1923 Trade Marks Jrnl. 2 May 876 Revelation... Bags, trunks, suitcases,..and similar containers, all being goods made of leather or principally of leather.
1935 G. Greene Basement Room 115 Grains of rice..fell on to his Revelation suitcase.
1964 J. Gardner Liquidator i. 15 The battered multi-labelled tan Revelation stood packed.
2007 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 5 Aug. 24, I believe you were the first Revelation suitcase to travel halfway up the Amazon.
Compounds
C1.
†revelation-discovery n. Obs.
1674 R. Boyle Excellency Theol. i. i. 19 Meer natural reason..not excited by Revelation-discovery.
C2.
†revelation-day n. (also with capital initial(s)) Obs. Judgement Day.
1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομια 270 As I beleive on Revelation Day will appeare in civill History.
1677 J. Mitchel Disc. of Glory iv. 96 All the Gracious dealings of God with them,..laid open then, in that Revelation-day, the day of Judgement.
1758 C. Fleming Surv. Search after Souls vi. 163 At the finishing scene, the great revelation-day,..the whole mediatorial scheme and process must be declared before angels and men.
†revelation gate n. Obs. (perh.) a gate ornamented with an illustration of the Apocalypse.
?c1450 in G. J. Aungier Hist. & Antiq. Syon Monastery (1840) 292 Amonge the sustres thes officers are to be hadde..the keper of the grates, the keper of the revelacion gate, [etc.].
Derivatives
reveˈlational adj. of, relating to, or of the nature of revelation.
1693 C. Mather Wonders Invisible World 40 A Worthy Divine in the Church of England, then studying the Revelation, saw cause upon Revelational Grounds, to Declare himself [etc.].
1701 T. Beverley Grand Apoc. Question 25, I will now give the Schematic History of the Beast, in the Revelational Prophecy.
1874 H. Sidgwick Methods of Ethics iv. vi. 467 It seems..unnecessary to discuss the precise relation of different Revelational Codes to Utilitarianism.
1911 Pop. Sci. Monthly Oct. 360 How different does pooh-poohed disappointment seem; how revelational, too, in that now we can see how others did actually suffer.
2006 H. A. Harris in J. W. Rogerson & J. Lieu Oxf. Handbk. Biblical Stud. xliv. 820 Fuller distinguished revelational from non-revelational matters in Scripture, and reserved inerrancy for those that are revelational.
reveˈlationer n. rare a maker of revelations; a revelationist.
1714 N. N. Will-with-a-wisp 55, I may presume to tell him his fortune without Palmestry or any Gift of Prophecy; that our new Revelationer of Futurities will..make him the fifth monarch of the World.
1898 Blackwood's Edinb Mag. Jan. 134/2 Some of the revelationers insinuate distinctly enough that the great Chancellor was no more mistaken in that matter.
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