Both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology accept that the Son is the eternal Word (Logos) through whom the Father is revealed, that “no one has ever seen God” in His essence (John 1:18), and that the Old Testament theophanies prepare for and point toward the Incarnation. They differ, however, in how directly and exclusively they identify those appearances -especially “the Word of the Lord” – with the pre-incarnate Christ Himself.
The pre-Nicene and many fourth-century Fathers (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Theophilus of Antioch, Tertullian, and others) read the Old Testament Christologically in a strong sense. The “Word of the Lord” that “came to” the prophets, the Angel of the Lord, the figure who spoke from the burning bush, the visitors at Mamre, and similar manifestations were understood as appearances of the Logos, the one who later became incarnate. The Father remains unseen; the Son is the visible revealer. This “christophanic exegesis” was the dominant early Christian way of claiming the Hebrew Scriptures as a Christian book.
Orthodox: The “Word of the Lord” in the Old Testament is characteristically a Christophany- the pre-incarnate Son appearing and speaking. Later theology describes these as uncreated energies.
Catholic (especially post-Augustinian): Theophanies are created signs or angelic mediations through which the one God (any or all of the Persons) speaks. The Word is the ultimate revealer, but the visible events themselves are not normally identified as the uncreated Logos in person.
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