1. Narratives of the event. — (1) The evidence for the Transfiguration is remarkably strong. It is recorded by all three Synoptics in its incidents, and by the Fourth Gospel in its inner mood (Mt lV-«, Mk 9--10, Lk 92«-36, Jn 1223-«). In the first three Gospels both the precision of detail and the agreement are striking, including the following- facts : the occasion — six days after the preceding- incidents just narrated ; the place — a high mountain apart ; the chosen three — Peter, James, John ; the supernatural light 5 the heavenly visitants and tlieir speech ; the suggestion of Peter ; the over- sliadowing cloud and the Divine voice from its midst ; the awe, yet joy, of the disciples ; the return of Christ to ordinary conditions of human life ; the charge of silence. Additional features of importance are given by Lk. (9^^^-) : the motive of the ascent, viz. prayer, during which the unearthly lustre appeared ; the subject of discourse, viz. the decease whicli He should accomplish at Jeru- salem (v.31) ; the physical state of the disciples, viz. ' lieavy with sleep, and, having kept themselves awake, they saAv his glory' (v.^^) ; together with two points of time, viz. 'about eight days' (v.^?), and the descent from the hill 'the next day' (v.^'). Touches, less important, peculiar to the others, are Clirist's allaying the fear of the disciples (Mt 17^), and Peter's embarrassment and agitation (Mk 9"). The silence of Jn. has been specially commented on as weakening the authority of the Synoptic witness (cf. Strauss, Leben Jesu, pt. ii.
c. 10). But when we recognize the totally difi'erent animus narrandi in his case from that whicli we discover in the Synoptics, we may be reassured. The Fourth Gospel separates itself from the others in making- prominent the fact that the motif and explanation of Christ's words and acts are to be found, not in the circumstances and persons around Him, but in a higher necessity incumbent on Him in virtue of His nature or His office or His work or the will of God, i.e. a higher law at work. Accordingly we .may expect in the Fourth Gospel, less the outward incidents * and more the interior mood corresponding to them, to be emphasized. There can be little doubt that the Johannine counterpart of the Synoptic narration is to be found in Jn 12-^"*i, the passage which stands between the record of Christ's public ministry and the en- suing scenes of His glorifying through death, resur- rection, and ascension — a position identical with that occupied by the Transfiguration event in the Synoptics.
The details of the Transfiguration are seldom referred to throughout the rest of the NT. Explicit allusion is made only once, viz. in 2 P ps-i^j a writ- ing whose authenticity is seriously doubted, t The eftbrt (Jannaris, ExpT xiv. [1903] 462) to find in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel a direct refer- ence bo the Transfiguration is of interest, but unconvincing. Better material may be found in such passages as I Jn l^-*. Rev 1^^'", He P- * 3^- ^- '', 2 Co 4®, in which we have statements obviously coloured from immediate conviction of Christ's visible glorification ; even here, however, we have only indirect testimony. The extra-Synoptic reti- cence is not to be denied. It is quite explicable. It is a reticence only as to details : the idea of the Transfiguration story is so manifestly accepted that he who runs may read. In the Epistles the aim of the writers is not historical statement, but doctrinal elucidation and practical edification — an aim which calls for but slight advertence to the outward facts of Christ's earthly life. There is, too, the clear belief in the minds of the writers that all those facts pale in impressiveness and meaning before that of the Resurrection, the event which is not simply analogous to them, but that in M-hicli they find their rationale and explanation. By that fact more than by any other the glory of Christ's Person was revealed, and the Divine purpose and message in Him realized. In the light of it, the Transfiguration appeared but its pledge and fore- cast (cf. Mt 17^ Mk 9^). It is probably true to affirm that the central idea of the event lay in its significance for Christ Himself rather than for His disciples, who are brought in more as si:)ectators of its marvel than as participants in its meaning.
(2) The jilace of the Transfiguration is not defi- nitely located in the Gospels. The phrases*' are in Mt. and Mk. 'unto an high mountain apart,' and in Lk. ' into a mountain. ' Earlier tradition almost % unanimously fixed on Mt. Tabor — a tradition which lias enshrined itself in the calendar of the Eastern Church, where the Festival of tlie Transfiguration is celebrated on 6th Aug. as rh Qa^wpiov. Modern opinion almost as unanimously regards as more likely Mt. Hermon, either one of its spurs or even its summit (Conder, Tent-Work in Palestine). Tlie argument relies mainly on the fact of the distance of Mt. Tabor, lying near Nazareth, far to the south from Ciiesarea Philippi in the N.W., in whose neighbourhood the immediately preceding incidents took place. The departure of Christ and His com- pany from Csesarea is not mentioned till later (Mt