Vers. 1—13, Parallel passages: Matt. xvii. 1—13; Luke ix. 28—36.—A glimpse of glory. I. Tae TRansFIGuRBATION. 1, Allusions to the Transfiguration. The scene described in the above parallel passages is as singular as solemn. There are, however, two allusions to it in other books of the New Testament. One is in St. John’s Gospel (i. 14), “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Huther,) full of grace and truth.” The other occurs in 2 Pet, i. 16—18, “ For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.” There is, moreover, an intimation of the same in the three preceding verses, where the apostle, speaking of his “decease,” uses the same word (#od0s) which is found in this passage and nowhere else in the same sense in the New Testament, and where he speaks once and again of his oxfveua, “tabernacle,” saying, “ Ag long as I am in this tabernacle,” and “Shortly I must put off this tabernacle.” As undesigned coincidences are acknowledged to be strongly corroborative of the truth of a narrative, so such allusive references as those just quoted are in the highest degree confirmatory of the reality of the awful event referred to, 2. Persons present. The persons permitted to witness this event were truly privileged individuals—of the chosen the more select, and of the loved the more beloved. This inner circle of the disciples consisted of Peter and James and John. They alone were present with the Saviour in the death-chamber of the daughter of Jairus, they alone were eye-witnesses of the Transfiguration, and they alone accompanied him in his agony. 8. Place of the occurrence. The place where the Transfiguration occurred was long believed to be Tabor, that solitary hill rising abruptly from the great plain of Esdraelon, the ancient Jezreel. This tradition, prevalent since the sixth century, has been set aside in more recent times. ‘The locality last named as visited by our Lord was Cwsarea Philippi, too far distant from Tabor and necessitating too great a change of place. It is certain that the summit of Tabor was occupied at the time in question by a Roman fortress, and did not afford the solitude which the event referred to presupposes. Besides, that town of Ossarea Philippi lay under the range of Hermon, so that one of the heights of that snow-capped mountain was the most likely place. Hermon is the most conspicuous mountain in Palestine; hence its present name of Jebel esh Sheikh, the chief mountain. There is, moreover, an expression of comparison in one of the narratives, which points in this same direction, for the graphic touch of St. Mark, “ white as snow,” might well be suggested by the snowy cone of Hermon. It must, however, be admitted that the words of comparison (#s x:av) are omitted in x, B, C, L, A, 1, in several versions, and by most of the critical editors, though found in A, D, B, F, G, and eight other uncials; in the Syriac, Coptic, Gothic, and most of the Latin versions, 4. The time of the event, The time is specified by each of the three evangelists. Two of them, reckoning exclusively, specify a period of six days, and one of them, adopting the inclusive method, speaks of it as “about an eight days.” This note of time, thus given in all the three narratives, has in it something surely special and significant. Nor is it to be passed over slightly, for the element of time in this instance is helpful, oot only in tracing the sequence of events in the life of our Lord, but also in indicating in some measure the significance of the particular event here recorded. Peter had made his famous confession of the Christ, and had been commended for the words of truth he spoke. Our Lord had followed this up by foretelling his own death and passion, But now, instead of words of praise, he had tc use the language of sharp rebuke, when Peter deprecated our Lord’s sufferings, and, tempter-like, sought to divert his thoughts to an earthly kingdom, like those very kingdoms of the world and their glory which Satan had proffered in one of his great assaults. After these and other conversations about Messiah’s work and the nature of his kingdom, a week or thereabouts had elapsed when the Transfiguration
# THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (cn. m. 1—60,
scene took place—a scene having an important bearing on the disciples at that crisis, on the Master in the near prospect of his passion, and en the Church at all periods and fn all places.
Il. CoxcoMITANTS OF THE TRANSFIGURATION. 1. Mountain scenery. In the ecenery of Scripture, as in the natural landscape, mountains form a conspicuous object. They are the spots so often selected for Divine manifestations, and so frequently signalized by solemn service or severe sacrifice. Why they have been chosen for such p we may be unable to explain. Whether it is that their sublime grandeur tends to elevate the thoughts from earth to heaven; or that their separation from the plains and valleys around promotes meditative seclusion, helping to shut out the world and leave the soul alone with God; or whether the fresh free air that surrounds their summits has a bracing effect upon the human spirit ;—whatever be the cause, the fact of their selection remains the same. When Abraham, the father of the faithful, was summoned to surrender his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, the sacrifice was to take place on Mount Moriah. When God was pleased to ap to Moses in the bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed, it was on Mount Horeb. When he came down in awful majesty at the giving of the Law, it was on the top of Sinai he descended. It was on bleak and barren Ebal the curses were pronounced ; it was on fair and fertile Gerizim that the blessings were uttered; while at each curse and blessing the living voice of the mighty multitude rolled up the hillsides, pronouncing the long “ Amen.” On Carmel Elijah denounced the prophets of Baal, and destroyed the worship of that idol. It was on Mount Zion that the ark and tabernacle found a resting-place in David’s day, and there in consequence was the centre of Jewish religious service; though it was on Mount Moriah that the temple was subsequently built. From Pisgah Moses looked across the flood and gazed on the land of promise. On Nebo God took his servant home to heaven. So also our blessed Lord himself chose mountains as the scenes of his discourses, doings, and devotions. On the Moun- tain of the Beatitudes he delivered those blessed utterances contained in that wondrous