Literature. ~W. Morgan, art. 'Trance' in UDB\ E. D. Starbuck. The Psychohtji/ of Religion-, 1901 ; F. W. H. Myers, Human Personality, 1903, vol. ii. ch. ix. ; F. von Hiigel, The Mystical Element of Religion, 2 vols., 1908-09, ii. 46, 40. J. G. Jame.s.
TRANSFIGURATION Outside the Gospels the
Transfiguration is only once directly referred to in the NT, in 2 P l"""-, where it is mentioned as showing the credibility of those who preached Christ's Parousia, seeing that they had been eye- witnesses (f7r6jrrai) of His majesty (fi.e-ya\ei6Tris) and had heard the voice ; cf. Jn 1", which ahso would seem to refer, inter alia, to the Transfiguration. Whatever view we take of the authorship of 2 Peter, the passage shows the importance of that event in the eyes of the early Christians. But why does not the writer appeal rather to the Ascension, of which the apostles were equally witnesses? The difficulty is the same, whether St. Peter or some later teacher wrote the Epistle. C. Bigg suggests, with much )irobability {ICC, 'St. Peter and St. Jude,' Edinburgh, I'JOl, pp. 231, 266), that those oppiments who denied tlie Parousia perhaps denied the Resurrection as well, and that thereixire it would have been useless for the writer to meet them by blankly allirmiiig the fact of the Ascension ; whereas they would acknowledge the truth of the events of our Lord's ministry. At any rate, the F^pistle appeals to an event witnessed by St. Peter. This neither proves nor disproves the Petrine authorship. If the author was St. Peter (whether or not he gave a free hand to the scribe), the reference is natural enough ; if he was a later writer wishing to pose as the Apostle, he might equally well introduce a Petrine remini- scence. It seems likely that the author, whoever he was, did not use the Gospel records, or at least
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TRANSLATION
TREE OF LIFE
not those wliiith we now have. We notice (a) tliat he says that .le.siis received from the Father honour and f,'liiry, which is not mentioned in the <;os|)els ; (i) that he uses ' the excellent glory' for the ' bright cloud ' of Mt IT'' ; ('■) that he sjieaks of the holy mountain (the adjective has been thought to betray a later date, when sacred sites might have been held in reverence — hut why not in the Apostolic Age?) ; (d) that he quotes the words of tlie voice dillerently from the JSynoptists, tliough he is nearest to St. Matthew ; he has eh Sv 4yiii evS6KTi<ra (an unusual construction) forfV <J (vSdK-ria-a of Mt 17° ; he omits ' hear ye him,' and in Codex B the order of the words is different. He also omits all reference to Moses and Elijah, but this does not affect the question of his source. The probable conclusion from these facts is that the writer, if he was not St. Peter, depended on oral tradition, and this would argue a comparatively early date. It has been noticed that in the context (2 P 1") we read of St. Peter's putting off his tabernacle [cr K-nfufia) and of his departure (f|o6os), which may have been suggested by the cKrjval of Mk 9^ and || Mt. hk., and the ^|o3os of our Lord in Lk y^', but this is very doubtful. It is possible that there is an indirect reference to the Trans- figuration in 2 Co 3"* (note fieTa/jiop(f)oi'i/j.effa ; cf. Mk 9^ Mt 17"), but the reference is to the glory of the Ascended Lord. A. J. Maclean.
TRANSLATION (/ierdeeo-i!).— The word 'transla- tion ' is used of Enoch (q.v.)in He IP. The reference is to GnS-'', where we read: 'hewasnot; forGodtook (np^) him,' the LXX translation being oix (vplffKero, bn iicrie-qKiv avrbv 6 Sf 6s. The ' translation ' of Enoch is mentioned in Sir 44" (cf. also 49", ' he was taken up from the earth '), and is probably alluded to in Wis 4'- '": ' a righteous man, though he die befoi'e his time, shall he at rest . . . and while living among sinners he was translated.' The NT passage adds an interpretation of the ' translation,' namely, ' that he should not see death,' whereas the passages in Gen. and Sir. need not necessarily mean anything but a holy death ; but it was un- doubtedly the common belief that Enoch did not die. The similar word ^idiaTTj^i is used of king Saul's death in Ac 13--, and metaphorically in Co! 1'^ of our translation into the Kingdom of the Son. A. .J Maclean.
TRAVEL.— See Roads and Travel.
TREASURE,TREASURER, TREASURY— 'Three
times in the literature of the apostolic period (2 Co 4', Col 2', He U-") we find e-qaavpb^ in the sense of ' treasure.' The word is from rldrifu with the paragogic termination -aupos and means primarily 'the receptacle for valuables' (cf. Mt 2"). But in the sense of ' treasury ' we do not find it in the NT outside of Mt 12^ \3'- and Lk Q-'K Elsewhere it is used of the things in the receptacle, the valu- ables, the treasure. In He 11-'' the word is applied to ' the treasures of Egypt' which Moses gave up for the reproach of Christ, which he considered greater riches. Here the term wavers between the literal and the metaphorical. But in the other two examjiles the metaphorical alone appears. In 2 Co 4' it is the ministry of tlie gospel of Christ, and in Col 2' it is the riches of wisdom in Christ, far in excess of human wisdom or the wisdom ottered in the so-called 'mystery-religions' of the time. In Ac 8" 7iifa is a Persian word current in the kolv/i (see 2 Es 5" 7-'<' ; Polyb., Diod., Plut., etc.). The Persians used it for both 'treasury' and 'treasure,' as the Greeks did Srjaavpis (see above) ; cf. Curt. in. xiii. 5.