response to what is revealed. "Revelation is not under our control," reminds Taiwanese
theologian C.S. Song. "If it is under our control, it is not revelation; it is just our private
thought."
31
Here it is the 21st century and Jesus is still an enigma to many. That is good, and is
as it should be as who He is is not under our control nor in our powers of exegesis. It was not
from exegetical study or historical reconstruction which led Habsa, an early Christian Himyarite
Arab woman, recorded in The Book of the Himyarites (p. LXX and p. CV), and later preserved
in A. Minganas The Martyrs of Najran, to confess
32
Thou Shalt know that not only will I not say
that Christ was a man, but I worship Him
and praise Him because of all the benefits
He has shown me. And I believe that He
is God, Maker of all Creatures, And I
take refuge in His Cross.
In the last analysis knowing who Jesus is is not going to be arrived at through historical
reconstruction and going through past records but through the continuing revelation-- in the
"perfect tense." He is the "Son of God." and "we take refuge in His Cross." As for Habsa, so
Jesus is for a Charles Colson, a Joni Eareckson Tada, a C.S. Lewis, and countless others of the
20th and 21st centuries.
31
C.S. Song, Tell Us Our Names: Story Theology from an Asian Perspective (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 1984), p.97.
32
Minganas work can be located in the library of Texas A & M University, College Station,
Texas.