Matthew 17:1-27

The Transfiguration

1-8. The Transfiguration (Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28).

St. Leo rightly apprehended the historical situation when he said that in the Transfiguration the principal object aimed at was that in the hearts of the disciples the scandal of the cross might be removed, and that throughout the terrible and humiliating events which were shortly to happen they might be sustained by the remembrance of the revelation which they had been vouchsafed.
The Transfiguration revealed Christ in His divine glory as Son of God. If, as is generally supposed, it took place at night (see Luke 9:37), the spectacle of the face of Christ, shining like the sun in its strength, must have been inexpressibly glorious. His form shone, not like that of Moses with borrowed light, but with a glory which came from within, and was His own. 'We were eye-witnesses of His majesty,' said one of the witnesses (if 2 Peter is authentic). 'And we beheld His glory,' said another, 'the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth': 2 Peter 1:16; John 1:14.

Moses and Elijah appeared, the former as representing the Law, and the latter the prophets, and Christ was seen in the midst of them as greater than both. 'The unity of the Old and New Covenant is wonderfully attested by this apparition of the princes of the Old in solemn yet familiar intercourse with the Lord of the New; and not the unity only, but with this unity the subordination of the Old to the New, that “Christ is the end of the Law” (Romans 10:4), and the object to which all prophecy pointed. (Luke 24:44; Acts 10:13; Acts 28:23; Romans 3:21), that therefore the great purpose of these had now been fulfilled; all which was declared in the fact that, after their testimony thus given, Moses and Elias disappear, while Christ only remains' (Trench).

Whether the Transfiguration was a vision seen in trance, or a waking reality, has often been discussed. In favour of the former view it is urged that their eyes were 'heavy with sleep,' but St. Luke, who alone mentions this fact, is careful to add that 'they remained awake throughout,' or at least (for the expression is somewhat ambiguous) that they were thoroughly awake at the actual time of the vision. That it was a real objective occurrence, and not a mere illusion, is shown, (1) by its appearing simultaneously to the three apostles; (2) by the conversation between Christ and the visitors. The appearance of Christ with two of His saints apparently in glorified bodies is an earnest of the time of the 'redemption of the body,' when the Lord Jesus Christ 'shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.' The narrative in St. Matthew and St. Mark is derived from St. Peter. That in St. Luke is largely independent, and may be in part derived from St. John, the only other surviving witness when St. Luke wrote.