Mark 9:2-13

The Transfiguration and the Coming of Elijah. After an interval, defined with curious exactness as six days, which may reflect the influence of Exodus 24:16, the three most intimate disciples of Jesus receive a Divine endorsement of His Messianic claim in a vision on a mountain-top (probably a slope of Hermon, not Tabor, see pp. 29, 32). Jesus was transfigured before them. Mk. dwells on the changed appearance of His clothes, which is described in a vigorous phrase. He does not say much of the more personal change in Jesus, nor does he mention the spiritual occasion of the transformation. As He prayed, Lk. tells us. Both Moses and Elijah are seen talking with Jesus. Law and Prophecy meet and bear witness to Jesus as the Messiah. To the presence of Moses and Elijah is added the direct testimony of the Divine voice from the cloud. The voice which addressed Jesus as God's Son at His baptism now reveals Him as God's Son to the three disciples. The cloud itself confirms the Messianic claim. And the glory of the Lord shall be seen, even the Cloud, as in the days of Moses it was visible and as when Solomon prayed (2Ma_2:8). Peter's unfortunate interruption (Mark 9:5) is held by Loisy to break the unity of the story. He would regard it as an insertion by the Paulinist Mk., who insists that even in this vision Peter failed to appreciate the Messianic dignity of His Master. Similarly, Dr. Carpenter thinks the transfiguration is Pauline. Peter would like to find room for Moses and Elijah along with Christ. This is not Paul's view (Montefiore, i. 217; cf. also Jerome quoted by Swete, You are wrong, Peter. Do not ask for three tabernacles, since there is one tabernacle of the gospel, in which the law and the prophets are fulfilled). Carpenter's view is better than Loisy's, in so far as it takes Peter's remark as an integral part of the story. But both fail to explain the excuse added for Peter (which one does not expect from a Paulinist), and it is almost incredible that such a remark should have been put into the mouth of Peter in order to condemn his Judaistic tendencies. It might convey such a suggestion to a learned commentator like Jerome. It would hardly have made any such impression on the earliest readers of the gospel. It is more intelligible as a genuine reminiscence from Peter himself. Wellhausen and Loisy suggest. without sufficient reason, that the whole story may be a Resurrection-appearance in Galilee transferred to this point in the narrative to bring out the significance of the Great Confession (see summary of Wellhausen in Montefiore, i. 217). The Transfiguration is really best understood as a mystic experience of self-dedication and Divine assurance, which Jesus actually went through soon after the decisive disclosure to the disciples of what lay in store for Him. Though the story is told from the point of view of the disciples, who emphasize its influence on them, its true character, as Lk. hints, lies in its being a record of the inner life of Jesus (cf. E. Underhill, The Mystic Way, p. 117f.). Perhaps for that reason even the other apostles were not to hear of it, till after the Resurrection. The question of Elijah is not necessarily raised either by Mark 9:1 (HNT, pp. 73f.) or by the vision of Elijah, as Origen suggests. It arises out of the whole programme sketched in Mark 8:31 and reaffirmed by allusion in Mark 9:9. The Son of Man is to suffer and rise again. But what, then, of the part traditionally attributed to Elijah (e.g. Malachi 4:5) in Messiah's coming? Jesus affirms that Elijah is to play his part and yet Messiah must suffer. Indeed Elijah has come in the person of John the Baptist, and the fate of John foreshadows the fate of Jesus. That Jesus regarded John as fulfilling the ministry of Elijah is of great importance for understanding how He came to anticipate His own death. The Scriptures pointed the same way. The reference in Mark 9:12 must surely be to Isaiah 53. The Scripture suggesting the fate of Elijah will be either 1 Kings 19:2; 1 Kings 19:10 or some apocalyptic writing such as underlies Revelation 11:6 f.