What Happened on the Mount of Transfiguration?

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; Until men attain a higher status of spiritual understanding than they now enjoy, they can learn only in part what took place upon the Mount of Transfiguration. From the New Testament accounts and from the added light revealed through Joseph Smith it appears evident that:

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (1) Jesus singled out Peter, James, and John from the rest of the Twelve; took them upon an unnamed mountain; there he was transfigured before them, and they beheld his glory. Testifying later, John said, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only be—gotten of the Father" (John 1:14); and Peter, speaking of the same event, said they "were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16.)

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (2) Peter, James, and John, were themselves "transfigured before him" (Teachings, p. 158), even as Moses, the Three Nephites, Joseph Smith, and many prophets of all ages have been transfigured, thus enabling them to entertain angels, see visions and comprehend the things of God. (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 725-726.)

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (3) Moses and Elijah—two ancient prophets who were translated and taken to heaven without tasting death, so they could return with tangible bodies on this very occasion, an occasion preceding the day of resurrection—appeared on the mountain; and they and Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter, James, and John. (Teachings, p. 158.)

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (4) John the Baptist, previously beheaded by Herod, apparently was also present. It may well be that other unnamed prophets, either coming as translated beings or as spirits from paradise, were also present.

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (5) Peter, James, and John saw in vision the transfiguration of the earth, that is, they saw it renewed and returned to its paradisiacal state—an event that is to take place at the Second Coming when the millennial era is ushered in. (D&C 63:20-21; Mormon Doctrine, pp. 718-719.)

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (6) It appears that Peter, James, and John received their own endowments while on the mountain. (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, p. 165.) Peter says that while there, they "received from God the Father honour and glory," seemingly bearing out this conclusion. It also appears that it was while on the mount that they received the more sure word of prophecy, it then being revealed to them that they were sealed up unto eternal life. (2 Peter 1:16-19; D&C 131:5.)

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (7) Apparently Jesus himself was strengthened and encouraged by Moses and Elijah so as to be prepared for the infinite sufferings and agony ahead of him in connection with working out the infinite and eternal atonement. (Jesus the Christ, p. 373.) Similar comfort had been given him by angelic visitants following his forty-day fast and its attendant temptations (Matthew 4:11), and an angel from heaven was yet to strengthen him when he would sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22:42-44.)

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (8) Certainly the three chosen apostles were taught in plainness "of his death and also his resurrection" (I. V. Luke 9:31), teachings which would be of inestimable value to them in the trying days ahead.

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (9) It should also have been apparent to them that the old dispensations of the past had faded away, that the law (of which Moses was the symbol) and the prophets (of whom Elijah was the typifying representative) were subject to Him whom they were now commanded to hear.

Luke 9:28-36; Mark 9:2-10; Matthew 17:1-9; (10) Apparently God the Father, overshadowed and hidden by a cloud, was present on the mountain, although our Lord's three associates, as far as the record stipulates, heard only his voice and did not see his form.

Matthew 17:1. After six days] Mark agrees that it was six days; Luke says it was eight. In other words, one week elapsed between Jesus' promise to Peter, to give him the keys of the kingdom, and that glorious day of transfiguration when the keys were actually conferred upon Peter and his two associates. Two of the synoptists are excluding the two terminal days from their count, the other is including them.

Matthew 17:1; Peter, James, and John] Why were these three repeatedly singled out and given special blessings and privileges? They alone witnessed the raising of Jairus' daughter from the dead. (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43.) They alone beheld the glory and majesty of the transfigured Jesus; they alone received from him, and from Moses and Elijah the keys of the kingdom, being prohibited from so much as telling the others of the Twelve of these transcendent events until after our Lord's resurrection. They alone were taken to a spot in Gethsemane where they could behold his agony as he took upon himself the sins of the world. (Mark 14:32-42.) They were the ones who came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in this dispensation to confer priesthood and keys. (D&C 27:12-13; 125:20.)

Matthew 17:1; Why always these three and not various ones or even all of the Twelve? The plain fact is that Peter, James, and John were the First Presidency of the Church in their day. From the fragmentary New Testament accounts we have no way of knowing whether they served as a quorum distinct from the Twelve or whether they continued to serve both in the Presidency and in the Twelve. But by latter-day revelation we know that they held and restored "the keys of the kingdom, which belong always unto the Presidency of the High Priesthood" (D&C 81:2), or in other words, they were the First Presidency in their day.

Matthew 17:1; An high mountain] Long held by tradition to have been Mt. Tabor, a less then eighteen hundred foot plateau in southern Galilee, which in that day was capped by a fortress and upon which, in the sixth century, three churches were erected, presumably to commemorate Peter's desire to erect three tabernacles. Later a monastery was built on Mt. Tabor. But more probably the site of the transfiguration was Mt. Hermon, a nine thousand foot emminence north of Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus had been the week before. Mt. Hermon is north of Galilee, and the record shows that after Jesus departed from the mount he then went through Galilee. (Mark 9: 30.)

Matthew 17:2; 2. Transfigured] As a host of scriptures attest, many prophets in all ages have been transfigured, but none more majestic—ally and dramatically than the Chief of all prophets on this occasion on the mount. "Transfiguration is a special change in appearance and nature which is wrought upon a person or thing by the power of God. This divine transformation is from a lower to a higher state; it results in a more exalted, impressive, and glorious condition." (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 725-726.)

Matthew 17:3; 3. Moses and Elias] Moses, the great prophet-statesman whose name symbolized the law, and Elijah the Tishbite, a prophet of so great fame that his name had come to typify and symbolize the collective wisdom and insight of all the prophets. Moses held the keys of the gathering of Israel and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north; Elijah, the keys of the sealing—power. These are the keys which they conferred upon Peter, James, and John upon the mount, and which they also conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple nearly two thousand years later. (D&C 110:11-16.) Both of them were translated beings and had bodies of flesh and bones, a status they apparently enjoyed so that they could confer keys upon mortal men. We have a detailed scriptural account of Elijah's translation (2 Kings 2) and a number of scriptural references concerning Moses which can only be interpreted to mean that he too was taken to heaven without tasting death. (Alma 45:18-19; Mormon Doctrine, pp. 726-730; Doctrines of Salvation, vol 2, pp. 107-111.) When these two holy men appeared in this dispensation to restore again their keys and powers, they came as resurrected personages. (D&C 133:55.)

Matthew 17:4; 4. Let us make here three tabernacles] These words appear to have been spoken in response to some unrecorded statements of Moses and Elijah. Since the record is so fragmentary it is not possible to tell their exact meaning. In this connection, it should be noted that at the annual feast of Tabernacles, it was customary for worshipers to erect small booths in which they retired for private devotions.

Matthew 17:5; 5. A bright cloud overshadowed them] Not a watery cloud, but what the Jews called the Shekinah or Dwelling cloud, the cloud which manifested the presence and glory of God. This cloud had rested upon the tabernacle in the wilderness (Numbers 9:15-22), had covered Jehovah when he visited his people (Exodus 33:9-11; Numbers 11:25), and is the one which enveloped Jesus, after his resurrection, when he ascended to his Father. (Acts 1:9.)

Matthew 17:5; Hear ye him] Not Moses, whose very name symbolized the law to which Israel had been subject for fifteen hundred years; not Elijah, the one prophet whose name stood for all the prophets of all ages; not holy men who had come, as it were, from heaven above; not the prophecies and laws of the past; not all that the Jews held as holy and sacred! but "my beloved Son"—Hear ye him! Salvation centers in Christ; turn to him; believe him; follow him; obey him!

Matthew 17:9; 9. Vision] Moses and Elijah were personally present on the mount, even as they were actual visitants in the Kirtland Temple in April, 1836. (D&C 110.) Their appearance in each instance constituted a vision, meaning that, by the power of the Holy Ghost, those who beheld them saw within the veil. (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 745-747.) Visions are vouchsafed to men, not by the natural, but by the spiritual eyes. (Moses 1:11.)

Matthew 17:9; No man] Not even their fellow apostles were to know as yet of the vision; even they were not yet prepared to receive the glorious truths revealed on the holy mount.

Mark 9:10. Although Jesus had spoken frequently of his coming death and resurrection, and although Peter, James, and John had heard Moses and Elijah discuss the same thing—giving as it were a heavenly approval of those portentous events ahead—yet even the chief ministers of Christ's kingdom had not yet caught the full vision of what was ahead for their Lord.

I. V. Mark 9:1. Many questions] How profitable it would be to know the questions asked, the answers given, the truths revealed.

3. John the Baptist] It is not to be understood that John the Baptist was the Elias who appeared with Moses to confer keys and authority upon those who then held the Melchizedek Priesthood, which higher priesthood already embraced and included all of the authority and power John had held and exercised during his ministry. Rather, for some reason that remains unknown—because of the partial record of the proceedings—John played some other part in the glorious manifestations then vouchsafed to mortals. Perhaps he was there, as the last legal administrator under the Old Covenant, to symbolize that the law was fulfilled and all old things were done away, thus contrasting his position with that of Peter, James, and John who were then becoming the "first" legal administrators of the New Kingdom.

Luke 9:28. To pray] How often it is that visions and revelations and the opening of the heavens grow out of fervent and devout prayer.

Luke 9:32; 32. Heavy with sleep] Apparently Jesus and his three associates spent the night in the mountain, and the glorious theophanies there manifest were shown during the hours of darkness. The next day they returned to the other disciples and the multitude. (Luke 9: 37.)