His glory, etc. Threefold glory. His own, as the exalted Messiah ; the glory of God, who owns him as his dearly beloved son, and commits to him the judgment; and the glory of the angels who attend him,
Cu. IX.] LUKE. 343
27. Taste of death. The word taste, in the sense of empe- rience, is often used in classical Greek; as, to taste of tod/s, of sorrow, of freedom, but never of death. The phrase, taste of death, is common in Rabbinical writings. In the New Testa- ment only here and Heb. ii. 9, used of Christ. Chrysostom (cited by Alford) compares Christ to a physician who first tastes his medicines to encourage the sick to take them.
The kingdom of God. See on ch. vi. 20. 28-36. Compare Matt. xvii. 1-13; Mark ix. 2-13.
28. A mountain. Reyv., the mountain. The tradition that this mountain was Tabor is generally abandoned, and Mount Hermon is commonly supposed to have been the scene of the transfiguration. “Hermon, which is indeed the centre of all the Promised Land, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt; the mount of fruitfulness, from which the springs of Jordan descended to the valleys of Israel. Along its mighty forest-avenues, until the grass grew fair with the moun- tain lilies, his feet dashed in the dew of Hermon, he must have gone to pray his first recorded prayer about death, and from the steep of it, before he knelt, could see to the south all the dwell- ing-place of the people that had sat in darkness, and seen the great light—the land of Zabulon and of Naphtali, Galilee of the nations; could see, even with his human sight, the gleam of that lake by Capernaum and Chorazin, and many a place loved by him and vainly ministered to, whose house was now left unto them desolate; and, chief of all, far in the utmost blue, the hills above Nazareth, sloping down to his old home: hills on which the stones yet lay loose that had been taken up to cast at him, when he left them forever ” (Ruskin, “ Modern Paint- ers,” iv., 374).
To pray. Peculiar to Luke.
29. Was altered (éyévero Erepov). Lit., became different. Luke avoids Matthew’s word, perapoppodn, was metamorphosed.
344 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. IX.
He was writing for Greek readers, to whom that word repre- sented the transformations of heathen deities into other forms. See, for instance, the story of the capture of Proteus by Mene- laus, in the fourth book of Homer’s “ Odyssey.” See on Matt. XVii. 2.
White (Aevxos). In classical Greek very indefinite as an ex- pression of color; being used, not only of the whiteness of the snow, but of gray dust. Its original sense is clear. All three evangelists use the word, but combined with different terms. Thus, Matthew, as the light. Mark, cridSovra, glistering (see on Mark ix. 3). Luke, é£actpdamrwv (only here in New Tes- tament), flashing as with the brilliance of lightning. Rev., dazzling.
30. There talked (cvverdrovv). The imperfect is graphic ; as the vision revealed itself, the two were in the act of talking.
31. This verse is peculiar to Luke. Spake (édeyov). Im- perfect, were speaking.
Decease (éfodov). The Rev. retains the word of the A. V., though it has, to modern ears, a somewhat formal sound. No word, however, could more accurately represent the original, which is compounded of é&, owt of, and 080s, a journeying ; and thus corresponds to the Latin decessus, a going away, whence the word decease. The Greek word is familiar to us as exodus, applied principally to the migration of the Hebrews from Egypt, and thus used at Heb. xi. 22, departing. In the mouth of Christ it covers the ideas both of death and ascension. Peter uses it of his own death (2 Pet. i. 15, where see note).