And after six days Jesus takes with [him] Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain apart.
This verse opens the account of the transfiguration. It follows straight on from what Jesus had just said about the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Every part of this short line carries weight: the counted days, the three named men, the climb, and the words "by themselves".
This is not a fresh start but a fulfilment. The count of days and the choice of men both point back to words Jesus had spoken six days earlier.
So, "After six days" (a type of the ordinary span of work down here), "Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves" (v. 1). That is, He takes chosen witnesses. It was only a testimony to the kingdom — the sample of what He had referred to when He said, "There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
The glory of that kingdom rests on the Man at its centre, who suffered before He was exalted.
The glory of the kingdom, as we saw, depends on His being the Son of Man. He is the exalted Man who had once suffered, and all glory is committed into His hands. He had at every cost retrieved the honour of God, and He is to make the blessing of man effective.
Luke dates the same event "about eight days after", and readers notice the gap. Writers treat this as a difference of counting, not of fact.
Matthew writes from a Jewish point of view, where the seventh day is the day of glory. So he says "After six days". Luke looks at things from another angle, the resurrection aspect that the eighth day shows. So he says "about eight days". Both are correct. Matthew does not include the two end days, while Luke does. Exactly six days — complete days — came between the prophecy and its fulfilment. There is no discrepancy or mistake in this, or in any other Scripture.
Another writer looks past the count to what the six days picture.
The "after six days" that opens the account, here and in Mark, points, I believe, to the final character of what this scene pictures. It comes after the time of work and of overcoming is finished.
Matthew names three men, and what happened to them later shows how much hung on them.
John, Peter and James were the three witnesses Peter has in mind — they were on the holy mount, the mount of transfiguration. These three disciples were the eyewitnesses whom Satan tried to remove. He wanted to stop any divine and perfect testimony about the prophetic word, for that is the point before us.
The choice also had a purpose for the three men themselves.
What I said about the transfiguration was that those three men were going to be pillars (see Gal. 2), and that this was to clear and strengthen their faith.
The verb behind "led them up" carries a second sense in the New Testament.
The other word is ἀναφέρω, 'to bring up', and so 'to offer up'. In Matt. 17:1, Jesus 'brings up' Peter and the others; and in Luke 24:51 the Lord was 'carried up' into heaven. Hebrews 7:27 uses this word both of the high priest 'offering up' sacrifices and of Jesus who 'offered up' Himself.
Matthew never names the mountain. One writer draws a lesson from both the height and the small company.
The Lord takes only three disciples up with Him to witness it. They show us that if we want such disclosures, we need a closeness to Him that only a few have. The "high mountain" was most probably Hermon, near Caesarea Philippi. But it is not named, and even if we were sure, we could base nothing on it. Earth in fact has no knowledge of the heights where such visions of the future may be enjoyed.
Hard days lay ahead for the Lord and for these three. The glimpse of glory came first, and with a purpose.
The Lord Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John with Him. He brought them up into a high mountain apart, to show them a sample of His future glory. That sight would strengthen their spirits against the trying scenes through which both He and they had yet to pass.
- Promise — the count of days ties the scene to the words Jesus had just spoken about the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
- Days — Matthew's "six days" and Luke's "about eight days" agree. Matthew counts only the days in between; Luke counts both ends as well.
- Witnesses — the Lord chose three men, so the testimony would be complete; Satan later went after them as the ones who had seen it.
- Ascent — the word for leading them up is the word for offering up. Scripture leaves the height unnamed, and only those close to Him climb it.
- Purpose — the Lord gave this sample of glory to men facing suffering, so that the sight would hold them steady.
And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light;
On a mountain, Jesus looked like any other man. Then He blazed with light in front of three of His disciples. Where did that light come from, and what was it meant to show?
Nothing about the Lord's body marked Him out as He climbed the mountain. One writer presses this point before explaining the change:
When He went up the mountain with His disciples, He was, to all outward appearance, only a man among men. To the natural eye there was nothing to distinguish Him from Peter, James, or John... But on the mountain this amazing change (called transfiguration) happened. What was its nature? May we not say this? It was His essential purity or holiness breaking out and flooding the vessel that held it. So He stood before His disciples as a being of light. For "his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light." This vessel — His body — screened these rays of His beauty and glory at other times. But now nothing held them back. They shone through and lit up both His body and His clothes, so that He stood there truly glorified before their eyes.
Moses' face once shone too. One writer marks the difference, and where the scene points:
In the middle of His service of humiliation our Lord was for a little while transfigured. It was not like Moses, whose face shone because he had been near the divine Presence. Our Lord was with His own here below... "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him." It is a small picture of His kingdom. In that kingdom there will be risen and changed saints, along with others in their natural bodies, and the Lord at the centre of it all.
Writers read the two details as two glories — one of position, one of character:
"His face shone like the sun" would suggest a place of supreme power and authority. "And his clothes became white as light" would refer to His intrinsic purity. He had always moved in the light, and there was no darkness in Him at all.
Another writer ties the sun to a promise, and the white clothing to His coming rule:
The Saviour's face shone like the sun. As the Sun of righteousness He will yet rise upon this poor earth (Mal. 4:2). The sun is the emblem of supreme authority, which God will before long put into the hands of the Crucified. His clothing, too, became white as the light. It suggested the absolute purity of His coming rule.
One writer follows the same word into the letters, where it describes believers:
If that is so, Christ, as He was in His transfiguration, is the presentation of what believers will be when they are glorified with Him... Christ on the mountain shows us what His people will be when He comes to receive them to Himself; but this mighty change is morally begun in them while here. So in Rom. 12:2 the apostle says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (transfigured) by the renewal of your mind"... This Scripture shows that our transfiguration must begin from within... But how is this to be done? Passing now to 2 Cor. 3:18, we find the answer... "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord"... it is by beholding that we "are being transformed (transfigured) into the same image from one degree of glory to another."
The scene was not only about Christ. Moses and Elijah were part of the message:
The whole purpose of the vision was to show the church her portion in the glory. The God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, and that is what this scene showed. So the transfiguration passed on the Lord, on Moses and Elijah — they all appeared in the same glory. Moses and Elijah were no longer what they had once been on earth, and neither was the Lord Himself. Their lowly bodies had been made like His glorious body. He appeared for a little while in glory, and they appeared in glory with Him.
Commentators differ in emphasis. Some read the scene as a preview of Christ's kingdom on earth. Others read it as a sight of the heavenly portion of His people.
- Veiled. The light did not fall on Jesus; it came out of Him. His body had been screening those rays all along.
- Unborrowed. Moses shone because he had been near God. Christ shone with His own glory, giving a small picture of His kingdom.
- Twofold. The face like the sun speaks of supreme authority; the clothing white as light speaks of purity with no darkness in it.
- Shared. The same word describes what happens to believers: begun now by a renewed mind, completed when we are glorified with Him.
- Beheld. The route from His glory to ours is looking — beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image.
and lo, Moses and Elias appeared to them talking with him.
Three disciples climb a mountain with Jesus. His face begins to shine. Two men from Israel's past are standing there, talking with Him. The verse raises the obvious questions: why these two, why are they talking, and why does the scene not last?
Each of the two stands at the head of an era. Each left the world in a way no one else did.
Moses was the man through whom God gave the law. Elijah was the great example of the prophets, who called the people back to the law of Jehovah. They were the pillars of the Jewish system. Every true Israelite looked back to them with the deepest reverence. One of them was the only Jew taken to heaven without passing through death. The other had a singular honour: Jehovah Himself buried him, so that he should not become an object of worship after his death.
Their appearing together also marks an ending.
The law and the prophets are the two great witnesses. They come in here for this reason: everything was about to disappear, and Jesus would be left alone. At the end everything goes. Moses is gone, Elijah is gone, and Christ alone is left, and remains for evermore.
The scene is small, but it holds the shape of something much bigger.
It is a miniature of His kingdom. In it will be the risen and changed saints, along with others in their natural bodies, and the Lord the centre of all.
Writers see the two men as pictures of two groups of believers. They are careful, though, about how far the picture goes.
Elijah represents the saints who have been caught up to heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11). Moses represents those who have died and been raised again — though Moses himself had not been raised. In what body he appeared we do not know. Peter, James and John illustrate the earthly side of the coming kingdom.
Matthew tells us that they were talking. What did they talk about?
They "spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." Just before the scene on the Mount, and again just after it, the Lord speaks of His death, but we read "they understood not." On the plain the disciples are dull of hearing. On the Mount there is divine intelligence in the mind of heaven and the heart of Jesus. There Moses and Elijah share with Christ what fills His heart. They lose sight of the enmity of men; they no longer think of the death of Christ as something wicked hands brought about, but of "His decease which He should accomplish."
(Older translations read "decease"; the ESV says "departure.")
The subject does not stay on the mountain.
Surely this will be our joy for ever, when we are in glory with Christ — to dwell on this theme: His decease accomplished at Jerusalem.
The disciples had never met either man, yet they knew them at once.
And of course Moses and Elijah were known. Their individuality was not swallowed up by death, or by removal from the earth without death. This should settle the question people often ask: shall we know each other in resurrection glory? Of course we will. The disciples easily recognised Moses and Elijah; in the same way every saint will be known.
Peter put the three on one level. The voice from the cloud did not.
The moment anyone puts Moses and Elijah on a level with Jesus, they both disappear. A voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son; listen to Him." It does not say, "Listen to them," but "Listen to Him." Christ in His wondrous grace shows Moses and Elijah as His companions in the glory. But the moment Peter speaks the thought that would place them on an equality with Christ, they must both vanish from the scene.
Moses lost the promised land through one failure. The mountain answers that story.
Moses loses Canaan through speaking rashly with his lips. But does that change God's intention to bless him for ever?... We afterwards see Moses on the mount of glory, with the Lord, at the transfiguration. There he could surely look back and see the path along which the goodness of the Lord had led him, and the links of the chain that we cannot see.
- Witnesses. Moses gave the law and Elijah called Israel back to it — the two pillars of the old order, standing beside the One who outlasts them both.
- Companions. God buried one of them; the other never died at all. Together they picture the raised and the changed sharing His glory.
- Conversation. In the brightest scene on earth, the theme is His death at Jerusalem — heaven's chosen subject, and ours for ever.
- Recognition. They were known at sight, so individuality survives death and glory; we will know each other there.
- Subordination. When Peter levels them with Christ they vanish, and the voice says "listen to Him" — the two witnesses point away from themselves to Jesus alone.
And Peter answering said to Jesus, Lord, it is good we should be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles for thee one, and for Moses one, and one for Elias.
Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Son of the living God. Now he sees his Master shine with Moses and Elijah, and he speaks words that God Himself corrects.
Two other Gospel writers add that Peter did not know what he was saying. (The commentators quote an older translation: "tabernacles" where the ESV has "tents.")
As the scene of glory burst on him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if you will, let us make here three tabernacles; one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Luke adds, "not knowing what he said"; while Mark reads that "he did not know what to say, for they were terrified." This shows how dangerous it is for a believer to speak. He must first be sure he has the Lord's mind in what he says.
Peter offers the Lord and the two visitors the same thing.
Peter counted it a great thing to see His Master with saints so renowned and glorious. ... He made the natural but fatal mistake of equalising all three. Yet only a short time before, he had confessed His Master to be not only the Messiah, but the Son of the living God. He ought not to have gone so wrong.
The three accounts record Peter addressing Jesus differently, and Matthew preserves the highest of the three titles.
In the account of the Transfiguration, Mark 9:5 has "Rabbi," Matt. 17:4 "Lord," Luke 9:33 "Master." It is easy to see that for these a mere difference of translation may arise.
Peter meant his plan as an honour to Jesus.
It was sheer forgetfulness of the personal dignity of Jesus. "Let us make three tabernacles," one for his Master and the other two for His servants, Moses and Elijah. Would he, then, put his Master, the Lord of all, on the same level with the head of the law and the chief of the prophets? Peter thought this would be great honour for Him! He was altogether astray. The root of all wrong is depreciation of Jesus. The power for all that is good is faith in His glory. Thus Peter, in a human way, seeking to honour Jesus, in reality lowers Him.
In the chapter before, Peter had objected to the Lord's death. His suggestion here reaches for the same result by a different route.
Behind Peter's words lurked another thought. It was the very same attempt to keep the Lord from obeying to the point of death on the cross. That attempt appeared in the temptations in the wilderness. It hid in Peter's "God be favourable to You." Here it comes once more. Peter would have a Christ in glory and the state of the kingdom there without the cross, and he is even willing with his two companions to work for it, for he says, "Let us make here three tabernacles."
A tent is for staying. The Lord's own announcement pointed the other way.
Instead of deeply admiring the Lord Himself, he says, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Then he adds his own proposal: "if you will, let us make three tabernacles." Are we not also too quick to propose what we should do for the Lord? In such a case, man's natural desires will come to the fore, for a present kingdom with man exalted. The Lord had before spoken of His death, not of dwelling in tabernacles.
Three tents would mean three centres.
So God rebuked the thought of Peter to make three tabernacles — "One for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." There was only One whom they should honour in this way. He alone is the centre of His people: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him." Do you think no man could ever be made a rival centre where God intends unity? Then read the first chapter of 1 Corinthians: "Each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ," which the apostle rebukes with: "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
Peter's delight was real, but the vision had a purpose beyond it.
Peter was full of joy in the presence of this glory, and he wanted to stay there. Such was the delight his soul was taking in the scene. This may give us some idea of the blessedness of Israel and the nations in the kingdom of the Son of Man, when this glory of His appears. But all this was merely incidental. The single purpose of the vision was to show the church her portion in the glory.
- Good — Peter was right that the scene was good. He was wrong to speak without the Lord's mind.
- Level — his three tents put Moses and Elijah alongside the Son of God. Lowering Jesus is the root of all wrong.
- Shortcut — tents on the mountain meant the kingdom now: glory without the cross.
- Centre — three tents make three centres. God's people have only One, and rival centres split the church.
- Purpose — the vision was not a place to settle. It was a preview of the church's portion in the glory.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying, *This* is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight hear him.
Peter had just offered to build three shelters — one each for Jesus, Moses and Elijah — when the Father cut him off mid-sentence. What follows is one of the few times God spoke aloud on earth, and every word is about His Son.
Peter's suggestion put the Son on the same level as two servants. The answer came from above, not from Jesus:
This was not the crushing rebuke of the Lord, who knew that in a ruined world all blessing for man and all glory for God hung on His being rejected. It was the Father's voice out of the excellent glory. The Father then displayed His jealousy for the honour of His Son. He would not allow the law-giver or the law-restorer to stand on such a level. They were servants, to be honoured in the place He gave them. But His beloved Son! — there were His delights.
These men knew that cloud at once:
"There came a bright cloud and overshadowed them" — the well-known sign of God's presence, which had led Israel through the desert long ago and lived in the sanctuary — "and behold a Voice out of the cloud which said: This is My beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased; hear Him." No wonder that "when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified." In fact, the Most Holy Place stood open before them. They were standing where only the high priest could stand, and only once a year, with incense to cover him and the blood of atonement. And they were ordinary men, with no sacrifice in their hand and no incense to cover them.
Yet the cloud did not shut them out. It covered them, and the voice came from inside it:
Now Peter and the others had entered into the cloud; and so we get the wonderful fact that saints may stand in the glory the voice comes from, and there, in that glory, share the Father's delight in His beloved Son. God calls us not only into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, but into fellowship with the Father. The Father lets us share His own satisfaction in His beloved Son.
The Father does not announce Him by the title Israel was waiting for:
It is not, This is your Messiah — He was that, of course, but He brings out the grand New Testament revelation of Jesus. He reveals Him as His own beloved Son, and His unqualified delight in Him.
Notice how the Father words it:
As one has said, "the Father does not say, This is the Son whom you ought to adore and admire, but He tells us His own thoughts about Him." We are not simply reminded that Christ is our Beloved, as the bride in the Song of Songs can say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." We hear the Father saying, "This is My Beloved."
Older translations render the ESV's "with whom I am well pleased; listen to him" as "in whom I am well pleased; hear him." The Father had said the same words once before, at the Jordan. Hearing them twice shows a pleasure that never shifted with the Son's circumstances:
And that same voice, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," sounds a second time. It was heard on the holy mountain as it was on the bank of the Jordan — on the day of the transfiguration as at the baptism. The transfiguration was a pledge and picture of the Kingdom, as the baptism was His entry on His ministry and witness. But the same delight stirs in the heart of the Father, where the Son lay. It stirs whether God's eye follows Him along the lonely path of Jesus the Servant in a defiled world, or sees Him on the heights as King of glory in the coming kingdom.
The Father added two words this time that He had not spoken at the Jordan. He added them the moment Peter tried to level the Son with the servants:
He did not say "hear him" at the baptism of Jesus by John. He took it for granted, so to speak, that once He had proclaimed Him Son of God, everybody would listen to Him. But when Peter would put the Saviour on the same level with the Lawgiver and the Reformer, the Father steps in at once and sweeps Moses and Elijah off the scene. Do not forget this. Moses is gone, for the law could not save you: Elijah's day is gone by, for reformation could not meet your case.
This is not contempt for the older witnesses. It is a matter of proportion:
The dignity of the others is not denied, nor their due position slighted. To assert the glory of the sun in the heavens is in no way to despise the stars. God set Moses in his place, and Elias in another, as He saw fit; but what were they compared with His Son?
The voice flattened them. The hand that lifted them belonged to the very One the voice had named:
They were far from knowing yet His love; but He, who brought it in His own person, was at hand to strengthen their hearts. "And Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise, and be not afraid."... Can you say that you have heard the voice of Jesus by faith, and that you are "not afraid"? This is His will, not only for the three who then heard, but for all that believe the gospel of God.
- Hear — the Son is not one voice among three; He is the one voice to be heard.
- Hear whom — not "your Messiah," but "My beloved Son": the Father is telling us His own thoughts about Him, not calling us to admire.
- Hear always — the same words at the Jordan and on the mountain show one unchanging delight.
- Hear from inside — the cloud once kept Israel outside. Now it covers the disciples, and they hear the Father's delight from within the glory.
- Hear Him alone — the law could not save you and reform could not meet your case, so Moses and Elijah are swept from the scene.