220
a Mk. ix. 4.
XVII. 1. ΚΑΙ μεθ) ἡμέρας ἓξ παραλομβάνει 6 ᾿Ιησοῦς τὸν Πέτρον
κ ον... ‘ gh oe : 51 (TR). καὶ Ιάκωβον καὶ Ιωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ * ἀναφέρει αὐτοὺς
b Mk. ix.
. 1x. 4. a Rom. χῇ εἰς ὄρος ὑψηλὸν Kat ἰδίαν. 2. Kai” μετεμορφώθη ἔμπροσθεν αὐτῶν,
2.
to fix the import of the title—those which refer to apocalyptic glory in terms drawn from Daniel vii. 13.--τότε ἀποδώσει: the Son of Man comes to make final awards. The reference to judgment comes in to brace up disciples to a heroic part. It is an aid to spirits not equal to this part in virtue of its intrinsic nobleness; yet not much of an aid to those to whom the heroic life is not in itself an attraction. The absolute worth ofthe true life is Christ’s first and chiefline of argument; this is merely subsidiary.— Ver. 28. A crux interpretum, supposed by some to refer to the Transfiguration (Hilary, Chrys., Euthy., Theophy., etc.) ; by others to the destruction of Jerusalem (Wetstein, etc.) ; by others again to the origins of the Church (Calvin, Grotius, etc.). The general meaning can be inferred with certainty from the purpose to furnish an additional incentive to fidelity. It is: Be of good courage, there will be ample compensation for trial soon ; for some of you even before you die. This sense excludes the Trans- figuration, which came too soon to be compensatory. The uncertainty comes in in connection with the form in which the general truth is stated. As to that, Christ’s speech was controlled not merely by His own thoughts but by the hopes of the future entertained by His disciples. He had to promise the advent of the Son of Man in His Kingdom or of the Kingdom of God in power (Mk.) within a generation, whatever His own forecast as to the future might be. That might postulate a wider range of time than some of His words indicate, just as some of His utterances and His general spirit postulate a wide range in space for the Gospel (universalism) though He con- ceived of His own mission as limited to Israel. If the logion concerning the Church (ver. 18) be genuine, Jesus must have conceived a Christian era to be at least a possibility, for why trouble about founding a Church if the wind-up was to come in a few years? The words of Jesus about the future provide for two possible alternatives: for a near advent and for an indefinitely postponed advent. His promises naturally contemplate the former; much of His teaching about the kingdom easily fits into the latter.-—
Cor. a ς a ii, 18. καὶ ἔλαμψε τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ὡς 6 ἥλιος, τὰ δὲ ipdria αὐτοῦ
γεύσωνται θ.: a Hebrew idiom, but not exclusively so. For examples of the figure of tasting applied to experiences, vide Elsner in Mk. For Rabbinical use, vide Schéttgen and Wetstein.—éws ἂν ἴδωσι, subjunctive after ἑ. ἄν as usual in classics and N. T. in a clause referring to a future contingency depending on a verb referring to future time.
CHAPTER XVII. THE TRANSPIGURA- TION; THE EPILEPTIC Boy; THE TEMPLE TRIBUTE. Three impressive tableaux connected by proximity in time, a common preternatural aspect, and deep moral pathos.
Vv. 1-13. The Transfiguration (Mk. ix. 2-13, Lk. ix. 28-36).—Ver. 1. μεθ) ἡμέρας ἐξ. This precise note of time looks like exact recollection of a strictly historical incident. Yet Holtzmann (H. C.) finds even in this a mythical element, based on Exodus xxiv. 16: the six days of Mt. and Mk. and the eight days of Lk., various expressions of the thought that between the confession of the one disciple and the experience of the three a sacred week intervened. Of these days we have no particulars, but on the principle that in preternatural experiences the subjective and the objective corre- spond, we may learn the psychological antecedents of the Transfiguration from the Transfiguration itself. The thoughts and talk of the company of Jesus were the prélude of the vision. A thing in itself intrinsically likely, for after such solemn communications as those at Caesarea Philippi it was not to be ex- pected that matters would go on in the Jesus-circle as if nothing had happened. In those days Jesus sought to explain from the Ο.Τ. the δεῖ of xvi. 21, showing from Moses, Prophets, and Psalms (Lk. xxiv. 44) the large place occupied by suffering in the experience of the righteous. This would be quite as help- ful to disciples summoned to bear the cross as any of the thoughts in xvi. 25- 28.—Neér., lax., lwdv.: Jesus takes with Him the three disciples found most capable to understand and sympathise. So in Gethsemane. Such differences exist in all disciple-circles, and they cannot be ignored by the teacher.— ἀναφέρει, leadeth up; in this sense not usual; of sacrifice in Jas. ii. 21 and in