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But the words "full of grace and truth" lead us more naturally to understand this "glory" of intrinsic moral traits, rather than of exterior credentials of Christ's office. I can more easily think here of Paul's eye glancing from earth to heaven, of his catching from some reminiscence or report of the scene on the mount his image of "the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of Christ's glory" (Phil. iii. 9), and that the apostle might, in that delineation, "copy after the heavenly patterns shown in the mount." But we may not be certain of this. Paul had his own visions; and whether he saw them "in the body, or out of the body," he could speak with confidence of "the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither the heart of man conceived," prepared of God for them that love him.

Verse 4. "And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus."

Appeared to them (avrois), viz., the three disciples; for the pronoun in the previous verse requires that limitation, and Jesus himself is not so much a spectator as a part of the spectacle itself. It is Luke who states that Moses and Elijah were transfigured as well as Christ (ol óydévtes ¿y dó). Luke mentions (ix. 32) that Christ was transfigured while he was praying. It was a token that his prayer was heard, and perhaps was the symbol of a great law of God's spiritual kingdom. In that nearest contact with the "Father of lights' granted to mortals, the strongest rays of his glory fall on them, and assimilate them to himself. The face of Moses shone with a preternatural lustre when he came down from Sinai, after his communion there with God. (Exodus xxxiv. 29 ff., and 2 Cor. iii. 7).1 It has been asked how the apostles knew at once that the messengers were Moses and Elijah. The recognition, it may be answered, could have been immediate, intuitive, as a part of the miracle; or, Jesus being the Messiah, they must have been the great prophet and the lawgiver, because the Jews expected them to appear when the Messiah (See Matt. xvii. 10; Mark ix. 1.)2 Some think that they appeared under a peculiar form and aspect, such as the Hebrew traditions had made familiar to the Jews. The next verb contradicts the supposition that the apostles did not identify them at the time, but were informed afterward by Christ himself who they were. Peter speaks of them by name at the time, and proposes to erect a shelter for them. All the Synoptists agree in this statement.

came.

1 Olshausen advances the singular idea that Christ was being glorified during all his life, and the change on the mount was only a marked step in that process. That makes all our Lord's sufferings more or less illusory, and really docetic.

2 For the Jewish opinions with regard to this ante-Messianic coming of Moses and Elijah, see Wetstein on Matt. v. 3, and Schöttgen, Hora Hebraicæ, I, p. 648 sq.

Further, Matthew and Mark mention only the fact of the conversation between Christ and Moses and Elijah; but Luke (ix. 31) mentions the subject of the conversation. This subject was that of his "decease" (odos) or departure out of this life (see 2 Peter i. 15), which Christ was about to "fulfil" at Jerusalem as something (po) appointed for him, and perhaps foreshadowed in the Old Testament. We seem to have here our clearest intimation with regard to the object of this vision on the mount. Neither Matthew nor Mark afford us any assistance here. It is evident, according to Luke, that the errand related especially to Christ, and incidentally only to the disciples, and related to Christ in that act of his life which filled up the measure of his sufferings and gave its full significance to all his other acts and teachings. The heavenly messengers "talked together" with Jesus and about his death, and that death as one that was soon to occur at Jerusalem. (Matt. xvi. 21) Yet it was not the fact itself or certainty of his being put to death that they made known to him; for our Lord himself only "six days" before this announced that to his disciples in the most explicit terms. (Matt. xvi. 21 ff.; Mark viii. 31 ff., and Luke ix. 22.) A special object of the errand may have been to set before the Saviour the results of his death in man's redemption, and thus, as by the visit of the angels in Gethsemane, prepare him for the conflict to which he was hastening at Jerusalem.'

Verse 5. "And Peter answering says to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here; and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

We must insert just here what Luke states in ix. 32. At the moment when Moses and Elijah appeared the apostles were "weighed down with sleep" (ẞaßapnμévoι v). We have the same identical expression or very nearly the same in Matt. xxvi. 43; Mark xiv. 40; Acts xx. 9, and in those instances the expression denotes sleep itself, or a drowsiness inseparable from sleep. Whether the disciples in this instance yielded to their drowsiness or resisted it, the expression does not decide. It was evidently late at night, and after a day of labor and fatigue, and they would be disposed to sleep on this occasion.

1 In Raphael's celebrated picture of the Transfiguration, Christ, and also Moses and Elijah, are seen lifted above the earth, floating in the air; while the three disciples, overcome with terror, are prostrate on the ground, gazing upward to the vision above them; at the same time the other disciples are seen at the foot of the mount, declaring their inability to heal the demoniac boy brought to them (Mark ix. 9 ff.), and pointing upward to the glorified Saviour as the only helper for the sufferings of humanity. It will be seen that the sacred writers say nothing of this colloquy in the air (see Luke ix. 32), and the healing of the demoniac took place the next day on Christ's descent from the mountain. Some persons are more familiar with the picture than with the Scripture history.

Instead of "when they were awake" (A. V.), which implies that they had slept, the Greek (otarpyrophoavtes) means having watched or kept awake throughout, i. e., the night or scene of the Transfiguration, and dá describes, therefore, the watching as co-extensive with the duration of the vision. Commentators quote here Herodian's náons ... τῆς νυκτὸς διαγρηγορήσαντες as a parallel expression. Bleek and some others less probably understand the participle of their having come again at length through (otá) a state of sleep to one of watching or waking. In either case the object is to show that they saw the vision under circumstances that placed its reality beyond all doubt.

And answering (zaì àñoxpiosis). This expression occurs in Hebrew usage not only when one speaks in answer to a question, but speaks as prompted by any occasion or motive. It does not appear from Mark what it is to which Peter replies here, but we learn it from Luke (ix. 33). Just at that moment Moses and Elijah indicate that they are about to depart (v T diazwpileodai), and Peter, observing the movement, proposes to build the tents to detain them. It is good that we are here. Some restrict the pronoun here (as) to the disciples apart from Christ, as if otherwise let us make, which follows, would include Christ himself among those who should make the tents; but even in that case Peter may have thought of Christ's consent only, and have recognized that as a species of co-operation. But it may be better to suppose that Peter means only himself and fellowdisciples, and so much the more since, in Matt. xvii. 4, Peter separates himself from James and John, and says in his own person, I will make here (notow wds). They have all the same thought and impulse, but Peter speaks for himself and them. This forwardness of Peter is characteristically exact, as is seen in other passages. The tabernacles (onvás) or booths of which Peter thinks, are no doubt the shelters which could be so readily made of the branches of the trees growing around them in such a place.

Verse 6. "For he knew not what he should answer or say; for they were sore afraid."

Some copies have αποκριθῇ here, and others λαλησῇ, οι λαλήσει. The first may be the best reading. Peter was too confused to know what his speech really meant (où yàp ôt). This is Mark's apology for Peter's strange proposal, though he confesses that they were all alike terrified (expoßot), and knew not how to act. The incongruous answer of Peter (so soon recognized by him as such) was that of ascribing the wants of human weakness to disembodied spirits, and thinking to protect them against night-vapors or the chill air! This fear (expoßot) which Mark mentions was that of the sudden appear

ance of Moses and Elijah, and of the Transfiguration itself; but that which Matthew (xvii. 6) and Luke (ix. 34) mention was that which fell on them when the cloud came and withdrew Moses and Elijah from sight. Ewald needlessly makes an inconsistency out of this difference. Verse 7. "And there came a cloud overshadowing them: and there came a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son; hear him.”

And there came a cloud (zaì èyéveto vegéλn) which, Matthew says, was bright or luminous. Luke and Mark omit that epithet. Overshadowing them (šxioxiáĽovoa avrots); viz., Moses and Elijah, but not Christ with them, and still less the three disciples, because the former supplies the nearer antecedent of the pronoun (aurois), and because Luke speaks more naturally of those who had entered into the cloud and disappeared. This reference of the pronoun is still more evident if we read in Luke (after some of the best copies) exɛívovs, those, instead of avrois. Hear him (àzovete abτoù), reveals to us, no doubt, the great lesson of this greatest miracle in the New Testament. This voice accredits Jesus as the authoritative teacher whom God has sent as fulfiller of the law and prophets, and from whom to turn away the ear is to reject God's teachings, brought to their fullest measure of light and certainty in Jesus, "the express image of his person." It is no doubt to this precise moment and aspect of the heavenly vision that Peter alludes, "when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory," and he and James and John were "eye witnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter i. 17.) They were then initiated (as zóna, in its proper Greek usage, intimates) into divine mysteries that lie beyond the reach of any mere human intelligence. At that moment, apparently, as the voice is heard from heaven, HEAR HIM, the bright cloud envelopes Moses and Elijah, and bears them away again from the sight of mortals.

This voice, "hear him," would recall to them the great prophetic words of Moses: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken." (Deut. xviii. 15.) The old economy was now passing away. The new economy, which fulfilled the types and predictions of the old, had now come. What insight into the relation of the gospel to Judaism must the disciples have gained from that one voice, enforced by such a miracle! We are not to overlook this trait of the narrative. The three Evangelists call attention to it. Jesus himself said to the Jews: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me." (John v. 46.)

Verse 8. "And suddenly, when they looked round about, they saw no one any more, save Jesus only with themselves."

Suddenly (¿ánia), qualifies they saw, and not when they looked around (repißheyάpevo). It states how suddenly, and to their surprise as they cast a searching glance around them, they found that Moses and Elijah were gone, and Jesus alone remained with them. Mark's account is briefer here than that of Matthew, but presupposes the fuller one of Matthew. We supply, here in Mark, what Matthew states in xvii. 6, 7. On hearing the voice, they were overcome with terror, and fell on their faces upon the earth. Jesus came and touched them to arouse them to greater consciousness, and told them to dismiss their fears. Luke also (ix. 34) mentions their terror at this moment, but not their falling to the ground, or Christ's bidding them not to be afraid. Saw no one (oùôéva), of the heavenly messengers. But (àììá) though the disciples saw not them, they saw Jesus. The A. V., confounds allá here with el ; but in Matt. xvii. 8, the expression is different. There the pronoun (avr) includes Christ, Moses, and Elijah, and the conjunction (el μ) has its proper excep

tive force.

Teachings of the Transfiguration.

First, We are led to see how irrational are the old rationalistic methods of explanation here. It is impossible to hold that Peter and James and John were on the mount, and yet could be honestly deceived. We have all the Christian argument requires, if it be allowed that these eye-witnesses were present, and that we have their testimony in our gospels. Yet, (to give an example of this reasoning), Gabler, one of this school of critics, maintained that the disciples fell asleep on the mount, while Christ was conversing on Messianic themes. Among other things, they had been talking with him about Moses and Elijah, and at length they fell asleep. A storm suddenly awoke them. As they looked around them they saw Jesus and two unknown persons in the distance, and, being but half awake, they confounded dream and reality. They thought they saw Moses and Elijah, and thought they heard God's voice in the thunder. The rest of the picture they filled out with such fancies as their Messianic hopes suggested. According to Paulus, the scene took place just as the sun was rising above the horizon. The disciples had been sleeping during the night, at a distance from Jesus. They caught a glimpse of him amid the splendor of the great luminary, as if enlarged beyond human proportions, and habited in celestial attire. Just at that moment, also, two men happened to be passing, and the disciples, neither asleep nor awake, overheard them say, as they talked together, "My beloved son." From these fragmentary words, snatched from the conversation, Peter, James and John supposed that

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