TEXT [Commentary]

4. Jesus’ transfiguration (9:2-13; cf. Matt 17:1-13; Luke 9:28-36)

2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.

5 Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials[*]—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified.

7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.

9 As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man[*] had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”

11 Then they asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?[*]”

12 Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”

NOTES

9:2 Six days. Outside of the Passion week, no other statement of timing is this exact. There may be an allusion to Exod 24:16-17 (Lane 1974:317).

Peter, James, and John. At a few points, Jesus gives this inner circle of disciples a unique experience (5:37; 14:33; cf. 13:3 with Andrew).

mountain. The mountain where this took place is unknown, but among the suggestions are Mount Tabor, Mount Hermon, or a site to the southeast of Caesarea Philippi such as Mount Meron (France 2002:350).

Jesus’ appearance was transformed. Jesus was “metamorphosed”; his appearance blazed in bright light with the glory of his heavenly origin (Dan 12:3; 2 Baruch 51:3, 5, 10, 12; 1 Enoch 38:4; 104:2; another conceptual parallel could be the transfiguration of Moses’s face at Sinai).

9:3 his clothes became dazzling white. This glorious brightness indicated Jesus’ cosmic character. Dazzling white clothes are a sign of supernatural existence, as seen with angels or other images of God (Dan 7:9; Matt 28:3; Mark 16:5; John 20:12; 1 Enoch 14:10; 2 Enoch 22:8-9; France 2002:351 notes that this term for “shining” is often used of shining stars). No effort to bleach the garments could have made them whiter.

9:4 Elijah and Moses. These major OT saints add importance to the moment.

9:5 make three shelters as memorials. Peter wanted to celebrate something like the Festival of Shelters (Lev 23:39-43) to honor Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. This feast recalled the Exodus and God’s provision during their travel in the wilderness. There was an idea that in the end, Israel might return to life in tents as at the beginning of their national journey (Hooker 1991:217). That expectation may be at play here. Israel’s history was represented, so in Peter’s view the moment should be celebrated with the three great men as guests of honor. It appears that Peter expected the three disciples to serve and honor the three guests.

9:6 didn’t really know what else to say. Peter really did not understand the scene; he spoke without knowledge and out of fear (for fearing, see 1:22). A voice from heaven would set the scene right and make Jesus’ uniqueness clear.

9:7 a cloud overshadowed them. This is the imagery of the Shekinah presence of God, like the cloud at Mount Sinai when Moses received the law (Exod 19:9, 16; 24:15-16; 40:35). It means that God was present and about to speak, and it was his voice that came from the cloud.

This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him. The divine utterance at Jesus’ baptism (1:11) is repeated, with three differences: (1) God says “this” is my beloved Son, not “you are” my beloved son; (2) there is no mention of “in whom I am well pleased”; and (3) the phrase “listen to him” from Deut 18:15 is added. The first difference identifies Jesus as the royal Son in the language of Ps 2 for the sake of the disciples, unlike the more private experience of the voice at the baptism. The connection with the baptism reminds Mark’s reader that this Son is also a Servant. The switch from “well pleased” to “listen to him” is a call to follow this prophet, who like Moses reveals God’s will and way. The point is that Jesus is greater than Moses or Elijah.

9:8 Moses and Elijah were gone. The Gr. reads, “they no longer saw anyone,” which the NLT renders in an explanatory way. With Jesus revealed and his uniqueness declared, there was no other need to have Moses or Elijah present. As the verse ends, “only Jesus” was necessary.

9:9 not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. The disciples were not yet ready to preach Jesus because they didn’t yet appreciate precisely how he fit into God’s plan. Jesus told them to remain silent until the Son of Man (that is, Jesus) had risen, a remark that echoes 8:31. The “silence” motif reaches from 1:25 to as recently as 8:29. This strong injunction uses the verb diesteilato [TG1291, ZG1403] that appears elsewhere in similar contexts (5:43; 7:36; 8:15).

9:10 they kept it to themselves. The disciples kept their experience private, as the verb krateō [TG2902, ZG3195] means “to guard, keep, or hold onto something” (Cranfield 1959:297). Other scholars (Hooker 1991:219) take the phrase to mean, “they seized on this saying,” but this does not readily follow the thought of 9:9.

asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.” The Gr. here could be rendered, “questioning what the rising of the dead meant.” The disciples still did not understand how to fit Jesus’ declaration about rising from the dead into a messianic portrait. They were hearing Jesus’ words but did not grasp them because Judaism only recognized a general resurrection at the end of time, not an individual resurrection separate from the end.

9:11 Elijah must return. The disciples could not figure out the resurrection, but from Jewish teaching about the end times, they did know that Elijah must return before the Messiah would come. The roots of this promise are in Mal 3:1 and 4:5-6; Sir 48:10 also says that the Messiah will participate in the restoration of the nation. Elijah’s presence with Jesus seems to have sparked the question.

9:12 Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Jesus affirmed the promise of Elijah’s coming but did not immediately give details. The Gr. text speaks of the “restoration of all things.” This promise throughout the prophets that God would bring the nation of Israel into a golden era came to include messianic expectations (Jer 15:19; 16:15; 24:6-7; 31:31-34; 50:19-20 [27:19-20 LXX]; Ezek 34–37; Hos 11:8-11; Amos 9:11-15). The question implies an era of power and glory.

why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer . . . and be treated with utter contempt? Jesus returned to the theme of the Son of Man’s suffering, for the disciples had to grasp this as well as the images of glory.

9:13 Elijah has already come. This describes John the Baptist, who had “found his Jezebel in Herodias” (Taylor 1966:395, citing Swete).

they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted. John the Baptist is a type of Elijah. Both suffered rejection during bleak times of spiritual defection in Israel’s history (1 Kgs 19:2, 10). Implied is that the Son of Man will also experience what John experienced. The disciples should be prepared.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The transfiguration was a crucial event in Jesus’ career in that his unique status was again confirmed. This confirmation did not come from just anyone. God spoke from heaven on behalf of Jesus, his Son, who was completely transfigured in the presence of three disciples. These disciples were told not to speak of the event until after the Son of Man was raised, because affirmation of Jesus as God’s beloved Son also came with the call to listen to him. John alludes to this experience of seeing Jesus’ glory in John 1:14 and 1 John 1:1-3. Peter speaks of it explicitly in 2 Peter 1:16-18.

Two significant figures, Moses and Elijah, appeared alongside Jesus. Moses, who received the law, looked back to the formation of Israel. Here he is important as one who predicted that a prophet like himself would come (Deut 18:15-19), while Elijah was regarded as the prophet who pointed to the new era (Mal 3:1; 4:5-6). There is also a tradition linking Moses to Elijah as one who did not experience death (2 Kgs 2:1-12, for Elijah; for Jewish tradition on Moses, see Josephus Antiquities 4.48; cf. Deut 32:50-51).

The wording from Deuteronomy 18:15 (“listen to him”) presents Jesus as a second prophet like Moses, one who issued a new instruction from God as Moses did. Since the disciples’ understanding of God’s program was flawed, thinking only of glory and not of suffering, they needed instruction on what Jesus would do. That class began almost immediately, as they were reluctant to speak of Jesus’ resurrection and asked about Elijah instead. In 9:13, Jesus makes it clear that Elijah had come, was abused, and suffered—a reference to the ministry of John the Baptist. In Matthew 17:11, there is a hint that Elijah was still to come, despite John’s coming, which seems to mean that he will reappear at the end. Thus, Jesus turned Elijah into a type. He is John the Baptist, who suffered as Elijah did and as the Son of Man would.

The great era the disciples expected would not come without pain; the Son of Man must suffer. It appears that Jesus combined references to the Son of Man with imagery of the servant (Isa 52:13–53:12) and of the righteous sufferer of the Psalter (Pss 22; 69, among others) to make this point. Jesus wanted the disciples to see that the mission of the Messiah was not glory and triumph alone. There was a painful mission that he must first carry out. Hurtado (1989:147) says that “intelligent talk of the glory of Jesus cannot be done apart from emphasis upon his death and resurrection, and that any Christian preaching and devotion that is not centered on the meaning of these events is shallow and confused.”