Mark 9:2

Mark 9:2-13. The Transfiguration

2. after six days St Luke's words "about an eight days after" (Mark 9:28) may be considered an inclusive reckoning.

Peter, and James, and John the flower and crown of the Apostolic band, the privileged Three, who had already witnessed His power over death in the chamber of Jairus: St Peter who loved Him so much (John 21:17), St John whom He loved so much (John 21:20), and St James "who should first attest that death could as little as life separate from His love (Acts 12:2)." Trench's Studies in the Gospels, p. 191.

leadeth them up It is the same expression in the original, which is used in reference to His own Ascension (Luke 24:51).

into an high mountain One of the numerous mountain-ranges in the neighbourhood, probably one of the spurs of the magnificent snow clad Hermon, the most beautiful and conspicuous mountain in Palestine or Syria. The Sidonians called it Sirion = "breastplate," a name suggested by its rounded glittering top, when the sun's rays are reflected by the snow that covers it (Deuteronomy 3:9; Song of Solomon 4:8). It was also called Sion = "the elevated," and is now known as Jebel-esh Sheikh, "the chief mountain." "In whatever part of Palestine the Israelite turned his eye northward, Hermon was there terminating the view. From the plain along the coast, from the mountains of Samaria, from the Jordan valley, from the heights of Moab and Gilead, from the plateau of Bashan, that pale-blue, snow-capped cone forms the one feature on the northern horizon."

apart by themselves St Luke (Luke 9:28) tells us that one object of His own withdrawal was that He might engage in solitary prayer. We may infer, therefore (comparing Luke 9:37), that eveningwas the time of this solitary retirement. The fact that it was night must have infinitely enhanced the grandeur of the scene.

was transfigured St Luke, writing primarily for Greek readers, avoids the word, "transfigured," or "transformed," "metamorphosed" would be a still closer rendering, which St Matthew and St Mark do not shrink from employing. He avoids it, probably, because of the associations of the heathen mythology which would so easily, and almost inevitably, attach themselves to it in the imagination of a Greek. In naming this great event, the German theology, calling it "die Verklärung," or "the Glorification," has seized this point, not exactly the same as our "Transfiguration." From the records of the three Evangelists we infer that while He was engaged in prayer (Luke 9:29), a marvellous change came over the Person of our Lord. The Divinity within Him shone through the veiling flesh, till His raiment became exceeding white as the light(Matthew 17:2), or as the glittering snow(Mark 9:3) on the peaks above Him, so as no fuller on earth could white them;moreover the fashion of His countenance was altered(Luke 9:29), and His face glowed with a sunlike majesty (Matthew 17:2, comp. Revelation 1:16). "St Mark borrows one image from the world of nature, another from that of man's art and device; by these he struggles to set forth and reproduce for his readers the transcendant brightness of that light which now arrayed, and from head to foot, the Person of the Lord, breaking forth from within, and overflowing the very garments which He wore; until in their eyes who beheld, He seemed to clothe Himself with light as with a garment, light being indeed the proper and peculiar garment of Deity (Psalms 104:2; Habakkuk 3:4)." Trench's Studies, pp. 194, 195.