please explain "the transfiguration" in layman's terms.

quellycatface

Had a sermon on the above today. Can I have some background and meaning to this, please??I'm convinced I never learnt anything at the Kh!!

Thanks.

designs

It is taught to be the moment when Jesus is revealed as Divine, and also to be proof of life beyond the grave (Moses is alive in the afterlife).

Phizzy

Where is Leolaia when you need her ? I am sure she would give us wonderful references to extra-Biblical sources foe this story and its ideas.

designs

You can read Origen and Augustine's writings on the subject.

Laika

Wiki's often helpful: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus

I like this take on it too (by a woman priest, no less!): http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/03/sermon-on-the-transfiguration-and-how-seminary-is-like-hogwarts/

transhuman68

OK LOL, it doesn't get any more 'layman's terms' than Reader's Digest Mysteries of The Bible, so this is OCR of pages 314-315:

The aura of the divine
The transfiguration of Jesus
At the midpoint of his career, Jesus took his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, and went to a mountain. High on this unnamed mountain, a stunning event occurred- the transfiguration. According to all three of the Synoptic Gospel writers, Jesus suddenly took on a transcendent glory. His clothes became a brilliant, supernatural white and "his face shone like the sun" (Matthew 17:2). Alongside the radiant Jesus, two others appeared: "And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him."

Next, a cloud descended over them, and from out of the cloud a voice said, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." The disciples fell to the ground in terror. When they looked up again, only Jesus was there.
The description of Jesus' transfigured appearance harks back to that of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai: "the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God" (Exodus 34:29). Also, the joint appearance of Moses and Elijah is not without scriptural resonance. Together they represent the substance of scriptural revelation. Both were great prophets; both performed miracles. The transfiguration was therefore deeply rooted in sacred tradition.

The events of the transfiguration not only mirrored the past but also anticipated the future. There was a legend, current at the time of Jesus, that the two prophets were rejected and even martyred (Revelation 11:4-13). Elijah, moreover, was taken directly to heaven in the chariot of fire. Luke describes Moses as a rejected prophet (Acts 7:27, 35, 39), and Paul portrays Elijah as a prophet whose life was threatened by his own people (Romans 11:2-3). Still, Moses and Elijah are not portrayed in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) as martyrs. Malachi promised that Elijah would return, and Moses declared that God would raise up a prophet like Moses himself. Both traditions converge in Jesus: thus Jesus is the prophet like Moses; furthermore, Jesus is identified by the returning Elijah- in the person of John the Baptist.

God's sudden tangible presence on the mountain also had complex biblical antecedents. Like the cloud in the Book of Exodus that indicated God's presence and protection of the pilgrim Israelites, the cloud that attended the transfiguration was a sure sign of God's special favor. "Listen to him," said the voice from the cloud. What did the command mean? As Jesus had not spoken a word at this time, the command must refer to something he had said earlier, most likely the prediction of his own coming death.

Scholars have long noted that theophanies (appearances of God) function as "commissionings" in the scriptural record. Moss at the burning bush was commissioned to lead Israel out of Egypt. Elijah on the mountain was commissioned to go to Damascus and to anoint Hazael. Now Jesus was being commissioned to pursue his work in Jerusalem. Moreover, this appearance balanced the earlier theophany at Jesus' baptises "Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).

Just as the latter theophany commissioned Jesus to preach and heal in the first half of the Gospel, so in the theophany at the transfiguration God was to authorize Jesus' mission- to die and to be raised from the dead. Mark's Gospel ends with a third proclamation of Jesus as "Son of God," when Jesus' centurion- executioner proclaims him a holy person at his death (Mark 15:39). In fact Mark patterned his book- beginning, middle, and end- around this key identification of Jesus as the Son of God.

That the transfiguration had to do with Jesus' future death and vindication in Jerusalem is borne out by the episode immediately preceding it: "And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again" (Mark 8:31).
By his subsequent command that the disciples not speak of the transfiguration "until the Son of man is raised from the dead" (Matthew 17:9) Jesus revealed the connection between the transfiguration and the resurrection. However, the apostles did not grasp what Jesus meant by "resurrection." "So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant" (Mark 9:10).

Of course, everything we know about Jesus was written long after he had died, and it was considered important to 'discover' links to Jesus from the Hebrew Scriptures, and this is definitely one of the most imaginative.

Although this does seem to contradict Mark 9:10:

So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

... I suspect it's a complete BS story... but whatever.

please explain "the transfiguration" in layman's terms.

quellycatface

designs

Phizzy

designs

Laika

transhuman68

Band on the Run

sarahsmile

jgnat

transhuman68

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