of the verb /^eraff^r^aTi^sff&ai is different, as in Phil. iii. 21 and 2 Cor. xi. 14 ; cf. also the distinction between poppy and ff^jj^aa, in Phil. ii. 6, 7, 8.1 — <pS>g, light) inferior to that of the sun ;2 for His garments diluted the splendour of His body.
3. "fifdr^av, appeared) sc. with their bodies. — Mw<r5js xai 'HX/af, Moses and Elias) The departure of each of them from this world had been singular : each of them was remarkable for revelations vouchsafed to him on Mount Sinai and Horeb. Both of them are mentioned together in Mai. iv. 4, 5. It is probable that Moses was raised to life immediately on his death and burial, so that he was not dead \vhilst Elias was living in heaven : he certainly, after his decease, entered the land of pro mise, in which this holy mountain was situated. And yet Christ, not Moses, is the acrap;/^, the primitias, the first-fruits. The resuscitation of Moses does not confer life upon others ; that of Christ does. This appearance, however, of Moses alive from the dead, is full of mystery. Who will venture to assert that he had already obtained immortality (aSavaaia), and did not receive any advancement in bliss (/SfXr/W/j) after the resurrec tion of Christ ? 3 Oh, how many things there are in the world of
1 Sc. \v ftoptpy ©soD iiTretpxuv — ptoptpqv Soi/Xof hctftuv — x,xt
~Mop$'/i, forma, according to Beng. 1. c., expresses something absolute. 2^'^c*, habitus, refers to the aspect and feeling (ref'ertur ad aspectum et sensum). I think as habitus is from habeo, so ayj/tpee. from I'j^a, a-^u ; and therefore a'/tfpa. is the whole external condition of man, as seen in his form (p.op<pri), gesture, and gait, — the bearing and state of a man. — ED.
2 Whereas His face shone as the sun. His raiment was only white as the light. — ED.
3 On the first day of the month Adar, according to Josephus, B. IV. Ant., at the end, Moses died (conip. Deut. xxxiv. 8 ; Josh. i. 11, iv. 19). Beng. had mentioned this in Harm. Ev., Ed. i. on this passage, and had noticed that Christ's transfiguration had taken place at the same time of year, in the pre sence of Moses ; subjoining a caution, that though this remark might not seem to have much weight, yet it \vas possible it might be of use to some hereafter. Shortly after, some one appealed to the transfiguration of Christ as having occurred in the month of September, as a ground of expecting the coming of Moses and Elias in the month of September A.D. 1737 : an error which this observation of Beng., however minute and overstrained it may seem to some, might have served to refute. See Harm. Ev. Ed. ii., pp. 375, 376. — E. B.