The transfiguration of Jesus is one of the key events in His life, along with His baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension (Moule, 2005). We may celebrate each week Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and at Easter remember His rising from the dead, but how often do we reflect on Jesus’ transfiguration, His experience on the mountain (Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36)? While unable to discuss all of its details, this blog article will briefly compare and contrast the different accounts of Jesus’ transfiguration, concluding with Luke’s version, in order to draw lessons for us in Hong Kong today.
Transfiguration means Metamorphosis
The word transfiguration may be veiled in meaning. The Greek root word for it is μεταμορφόω, transliterated as metamorphoó, or in English, to transform (Biblehub, n.d.-a). Among the three gospels with a specific account of Jesus’s transfiguration, Matthew and Mark share this sentence: “There he was transfigured before them” (Matt 17:2, Mark 9:2). Deibert (2023) identified the other New Testament passages where this root word is used. The first is Romans 12:2, where Paul admonished the Christians: “do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed [italics added] by the renewing of your mind.” The second place it is used is the following:
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Cor 3:18
Paul’s use of the Greek root word for metamorphosis emphasizes the depth of change that God expects from us, who, living in light of His glory, are continually transformed as our minds are renewed. Jesus was “transfigured before them,” amazing them and validating His identity before them on the mountain.
Similarities in the Synoptic Gospel Accounts
Although the transfiguration of Jesus is only recorded in the first three gospels, some see His transfiguration described or embedded in the gospel of John. Lee (2004) argued that although a specific narrative of it does not exist in the Fourth Gospel, the motif of transfiguration exists in it. The witnessing of Jesus’ glory (John 1:14) and a voice from heaven (John 12:27-28) upholding the glory in the Father’s name are two such verses carrying this motif (Lee, 2004).
The account of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain is located in a similar place in the Synoptic gospel narratives. Each places this account shortly after Jesus declared that He must suffer and described how costly following Him would be (Matt 16: 21-26, Mark 8:31-38, Luke 9:22-26). Blomberg (2022) supported the consensus that Mark is divided into two main sections, the first recounting His miracles and the second (after Mark 8:30) focusing on His teachings about His suffering, bound for the cross. In this context, Diebert (2023) noted that the apostles undoubtedly needed more encouragement to continue to follow Jesus to the end—Christ had just rebuked Peter for his not understanding Jesus’s need to suffer (Matt16:23, Mark 8:33). The mountaintop experience where they could witness Jesus in His glory came at an opportune time. Peter himself recalled this experience later, marveling as one of “the eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Pet 1:16) and recalling “this voice that came from heaven” (2 Pet 1:18).
Put another way, the apostles needed to witness Jesus’s transfiguration so that His upcoming suffering would be understood in its proper context. He was not to die simply as a martyr, but as the radiant Son of God, willingly walking the road to His crucifixion, reminding the apostles that before His dishonor He was honored. In His glory, He chose to lay down His life for the salvation of the world (Ephrem, fifth century, as cited in Knowles, 2010).
Another commonality across the gospel accounts is that Moses and Elijah were there, talking to Jesus (Matt 17:3, Mark 9:4, Luke 9:30). Numerous scholars hold the view that these Old Testament figures represented the “Law and the Prophets” that Jesus was now superseding (Roth, 2023). Some discussed the order of the names—in Mark, Elijah is named first (Mark 9:4), perhaps to indicate his interest in debunking the notion that Jesus was the Elijah to come (Hooker, 1987, as cited in Roth, 2023). However, Roth (2023) outlined an argument articulated by Tertullian, about a “departure and succession framework” (p. 727) between Moses, Elijah, and Jesus in place. This conclusion synchronizes well with His teaching (Roth, 2023), where Jesus honored “Moses and the Prophets” when He spoke about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:29-31), interacted with the two on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27), and when He appeared to others after His resurrection (Luke 24:44).
Jesus’s departure, in fact, was discussed on the mountain between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, a detail only found in Luke’s account. More will be discussed about it below. Let’s begin, however, by noting other features of the transfiguration unique to the gospel of Luke.
Some Unique Details in Luke 9:28-36
Regarding the apparent discrepancy between Matthew and Mark found in Luke 9:28, where the third Gospel writer described the duration of the mountaintop experience as “about eight days” after Jesus’ prior teaching, commentators generally noted Luke’s precision: he counted the day when Jesus taught before and the day of the transfiguration, while the other two only counted the full days in between (Biblehub, n.d.-b).
In verse 29, Luke added another unique detail of this mountain experience: Jesus went up the mountain to pray. The others only mentioned that Jesus led the three apostles up the mountain to be “by themselves” (Matt 17:1, Mark 9: 2). Jesus was going up a mountain to pray and met Moses and Elijah there, calling to mind Moses’s own mountaintop communion with God (Exod 19, 20, 34; Miller, 2010) and Elijah’s life-changing encounter with God as well (1 Kings 19: 11-13).
Mohammed Moussa, Mount Moses, CC BY-SA 3.0 “Moses’ Mountain” or “Mount Moses”; Hebrew: הר סיני Har Sinai ), also known as Mount Horeb, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is the traditional and most accepted identification of the biblical Mount Sinai.
In verse 30, not only did Jesus appear in transfigured glory, but Moses and Elijah “appeared in glorious splendor” as well (Roth, 2023). Neither Matthew nor Mark described the prophets in this way. This detail supports the contention that Jesus’ assumption as the pre-eminent prophet did not in any way diminish Moses and Elijah (Roth, 2023), who represented the Law and the Prophets, for they appeared gloriously, too. We recall as well Moses’ glorious face at a prior mountaintop experience: “when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord” (Exod 34:29). That passage resonated with another, where Paul referenced Moses’ glory and its setting aside (2 Cor 3:7-13; Hays, 1989) by the surpassing glory that we all may now participate in, derived from “the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). Again, Jesus surpassed the Law and the Prophets. In Jesus’s transfiguration we can all be transfigured as well.
Moreover, in verse 31, we learn what Moses, Elijah, and Jesus were all talking about–Jesus’s departure. This detail, mentioned only by Luke, enables us to understand even more clearly Tertullian’s “departure and succession” framework (Roth, 2023) mentioned before. Another way to visualize the relationship of succession between Moses, Elijah, and Jesus is to consider how they each departed from this world. Moses died in Moab, “as the Lord had said…but to this day no one knows where his grave is” (Deut 34:5-6). A few translations even attribute the Lord as the one who buried him, though all agree that no one knows where. Elijah’s departure was even more dramatic: “… suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them [Elijah and Elisha], and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11). Of course, Jesus’ death on the cross was not the final chapter of His story: three days later He rose from the dead, appeared to a succession of witnesses (I Cor 15:3-8), and later ascended into heaven (Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51). If Moses’ departure was not awesome enough, Elijah’s surpassed it, and Jesus’s ascension transcended them both.
Giuseppe Angeli creator QS:P170,Q378182 , Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire E11219, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons
Verse 32 recorded that “Peter and his companions were very sleepy,” another detail unique to Luke’s account. Their drowsiness, combined with Jesus’ going there to pray, foreshadowed Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46). We can easily imagine here that the glorious presence of Moses and Elijah provided Jesus the encouragement that his disciples could not.
By now, the disciples’ confusion manifested itself in Peter offering to build shelters, as if Moses and Elijah were going to linger (Luke 9:33). A voice from the cloud atop the mountain was heard, echoing again Moses’ experiences in Exodus. Then, explaining yet another Lucan distinctive, Miller (2010) commented that “Luke 9:35 reverses the order of Mark’s άκούετε αύτοϋ to αυτού άκούετε, which aligns the phrase more closely with Deut 18:15” (p. 502), aligning as well with Acts 3:22. Jesus was indeed the prophet to be raised up from among them–all “must listen to him” (Deut 18:15).
The Meaning of Transfigured Glory
But Luke’s account leaves us unresolved, since it ended without Jesus uttering a word. What was there to listen to if He said nothing on the mountain? What would demonstrate His glory for all to see?
The contrast between the glory that Peter sought to hold onto and what Jesus intended for us to understand is stark. One scholar wrote:
The glory of Jesus…is not a continuation of what Peter thinks he sees attended by Moses and Elijah. It is different altogether. Humility is the glory of God’s Son. It is revealed not on the mount, but in the ministry of Jesus exemplified in 9.37-62. Here we see a humiliated glory that is not triumphantly glorious.
Martin, 2006, p.24
Jesus’ glory would surpass that of Moses and Elijah. The words He would later speak embodied the glorious suffering and humility that would surpass that of the Law and the Prophets. Martin (2006) captured it well:
Such glory is to continue to minister in the midst of miscomprehension (v. 41). It is to assume the very un-glorious burden of working with mental disease (v. 42). It is to embrace humiliation (v. 44). Greatness is to never have authority. Glory is to be the least glorious slave of all (v. 48c). It allows the other to act independently (v. 50). A truly powerful majesty never seeks revenge or coercion (v. 55). A humiliated glory is homeless (v. 58b) and without the security of human bonding (v. 60a). Glory is, in the end (now and apocalyptically), nothing that we have been led to believe it is. It eschews triumphalism and, instead, embraces humility, not as a tool to achieve triumph, but as glory’s very essence (p. 24).
Like Peter, in our human nature we want to hold onto the magnificent glory of a mountaintop experience. It amazes us. But as Jesus showed us, not in words on the mountain, but in his life and teaching onward, transfigured glory lives in each humble, suffering step to the cross, taken with a quiet, expectant faith that God will make right everything in the end.
Conclusion
The Gospel writers intertwined themes of exodus, succession, glory, and humility in powerful narratives about Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain. His transcendence superseded the Law and the Prophets, encouraged all on the mountain, and looked forward to his humiliation and exaltation. Luke’s account in particular utilized unique details to give us a glimpse into a transformation process that today we can also undergo. That transfiguration, however, demands that we too must imitate the humbling suffering that Jesus endured, that we too may live up to what He has already attained for us (Phil 3:1-14).
Questions to Consider
- Read Luke 9 again. Review each teaching that Jesus gave on the glorious humility found in Luke 9:37-62. Is there a particular teaching that you identify with more? Is there one that you feel deeply in your own life that Jesus did not mention? Discuss with a friend.
- Jesus and his disciples experienced a transformative time of prayer. Can you recall a prayer time when your view or understanding of Jesus changed during it? Were you alone or with others? Share your experience with others in your small group.
- Do you need to plan any departure—from a job, or a situation, for example—in your life? Can lessons from Luke 9:28-36 inform how you leave?
- This blog post discusses a narrative common to two or more gospels. Identify another such story (e.g., Jesus feeds the 5000, Jesus at the temple) and compare and contrast the accounts. What do you learn about the interests and foci of the different gospel writers?
References
Biblehub. (n.d.-a). 3339. metamorphoó. Strong’s Greek: 3339. μεταμορφόω (metamorphoó) — to transform. https://biblehub.com/greek/3339.htm
Biblehub. (n.d.-b). Luke 9:28. Luke 9:28 commentaries: Expository and exegetical. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/9-28.htm
Craig L. Blomberg. (2022). Jesus and the Gospels: An introduction and survey (3rd. Ed).. B&H Academic.
Deibert, B. (2023, October 9). The transfiguration of Jesus Christ: Bible story and meaning. Christianity.com. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/jesus-christ/what-was-the transfiguration-of-jesus.html
Hays, R. B. (1989). Echoes of Scripture in the letters of Paul. Yale University Press.
Knowles, M. P. (2010). 14 February: Transfiguration: Exodus 34:29—35; 2 Corinthians 3:12—4:2; Luke 9:28—36. The Expository Times 121(4), 189-191. https://doi-org.elibrary.johnsonu.edu/10.1177/00145246101210040602
Lee, D. (2004). Transfiguration. Continuum.
Martin, T. W. (2006). What makes glory glorious? Reading Luke’s account of the Transfiguration over against triumphalism. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 29(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X06068385
Miller, D. M. (2010). Seeing the glory, hearing the Son: The function of the wilderness theophany narratives in Luke 9:28-36. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 72(3), 498–517.
Moule, C. F. D. (1982). Essays in New Testament Interpretation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23783-3.
New International Version Bible. (2011). NIV online. https://www.biblestudytools.com/niv/
Roth, D. T. (2023). Transfiguring the Transfiguration: Reading Luke 9:35 adversus Marcionem. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 85(4), 722–736.