That points to an organic change that will take place in us at His coming. It has to be taken in conjunction with this other, ' Christ in you the hope of glory' (Col P'). The moral transformation is the root and beginning of the organic. Christ not only so acts upon us as to conform us to His holy and exalted pattern now ; Avhen He conies again, it shall be to reflect His glory into the persons of His believing followers. The Church of the redeemed will mirror His surpassing loveli- ness and majesty, ' He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believe' (2 Th 1'").
Literature. — The literature of the Transfigruration is not lar^e, and is found chiefly in sermons, for a bibliography of which see ExpT xviii. [1907] p. 313, adding-, Ruskin, Frondes Agrestes, 178 ; Rendel Harris, Memoranda Sacra, 87. For critical discussion consult Strauss, Leben Jesu, pt. ii. c. 10 ; Keim, Jeans of Nazara, vol. iv. ; JThSt, Jan. 1903, July 1903, Jan. 1904 ; AJTh, 1902. For expository articles see ExpT xvii.
*Dr. Matheson {Studies in the Portrait of Christ, vol. ii.) interprets the Transfiguration as designed solely to inspire and comfort Christ in prospect of His approaching Sufferings by providing an anticipation of the glory of the Resurrection ['decease ' = exodus by resurrection and ascension]. Dr. Mason (Faith of the Gospel, p. 194) thinks the Transfiguration an opening of the door of heaven for a splendid departure, His earthly probation being now ended. An ingenious writer in the Church Quarterly Review (July 1901, ' A Study of our Lord ') draws out these parallels : — transfiguration of body in face of maltreatment of body, appearance of Elijah and Moses in face of rejection by rulers and people, the cloud and voice in face of the hiding of the Father's face. Such exegesis is exaggeration and misses proportion.
+ Miracles are now rare — and enter exceptionally
J Cf. Jn 1& 17.
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transmigratio:n"
TRAVEL
[1906] p. 372 ff., xiv. [1903] p. 442 ff.; Trench, Studies in the Gospels, Essay 8 ; Hastings' OB, art. ' Transfiguration ' ; the Lives of Christ, specially those by Farrar, Edersheini, and Matheson. A. S. MARTIN.
TRANSMIGRATION.— The idea of the pre-exist- ence of the human soul seems to be assumed in the question which the disciples put to Jesus with reference to the man born blind ( Jn 9^). The pre- existence hinted at is presumably and at first glance an incarnated one, for it is possible to sin in it. But if this exegesis of the passage be cor- rect, then, at least in the minds of the disciples who propounded the question, there Avas a doctrine of transmigration. In order to ascertain the cor- rectness of the exegesis, it is necessary to look into the antecedents and broad setting of the thought.
The doctrine of transmigration, i.e. the idea that when the soul leaves the body at death it passes into another body, was held widely among the Egyptians, the Hindus, and the Greeks. Each one of these peojiles, however, developed it in a peculiar form of its own. Through the long his- tory represented by their combined life, it assumed a large variety of aspects. Broadly speaking, these may be reduced to two, the cruder and the more refined metempsychosis.
(a) In the crudest form, belief in transmigration was simply the belief that the moving principle of a living being, either immediately upon the death of that being or after a more or less pro- longed interval, takes upon itself another organ- ism. In this form of it, the doctrine does not distinguish between human bodies and bodies of other living beings ; or, to be more precise, of other material forms reputed to be living. The soul is supposed to pass into another organism of the same class, or of a higher or a lower class. A man might be reborn as a brute, or as a tree or stream, or even as a star. The ethical idea associated with this form of metempsychosis is in the belief that the kind of body taken by the soul dejiends on its realizing or failing to realize ethical ideals. Of this form of the doctrine, it is quite safe to say, there is not the slightest trace either in the NT or in the whole range of Hebrew literature, with its sequel of Jewish Rabbinical teaching of the earlier period. If it appear at all in Jewish thought, it does so as an importation in a much later stage than the Biblical.
(b) The more refined form of the doctrine of transmigration limits the sphere of movement to the human race. The human soul or personality is, according to this conception, capable of re- appearing and taking part in the world. In the strictest sense of the word this is, of course, not transmigration, but reincarnation. But whatever it may be called, there are a number of expres- sions in the Gospels which point to the existence of the belief in the time of Jesus. Chief and fore most among these are the passages which refer to John the Baptist (Mt 11^ 17^^. 13^ jyji^ 91:?) Hgj.g the disciples are puzzled by the apparent incon- sistency between the fact that Jesus is the Mes- siah and the fact that Elijah has not appeared, as, in accordance with an authoritative interpretation of the prophecy of Malachi (4^), he was expected, to precede and prepare the way for the Messiah. The disciples evidently accepted the teaching of the scribes. This belief, however, does not put it beyond doubt that the doctrine of transmigra- tion or even reincarnation was current. Elijah had not died and been divested of his first body. His reappearance could only be conceived of as involving his descent from heaven with the same body which lie took there at the time of his ascen- sion. The difficulty in believing that John the Baptist was Elijah consisted, at least in part, in the