Lange Commentary - Mark 9:2 - 9:13

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Lange Commentary - Mark 9:2 - 9:13


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

4. The Transfiguration. Mar_9:2-13

(Parallels: Mat_17:1-13; Luk_9:28-36)

      2And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them. 3And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. 4And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. 5And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles [tents]; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 6For he wist not what to say: for they were sore afraid. 7And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. 8And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. 9And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. 10And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. 11And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? 12And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things [in the baptism of the people for the Messiah, and of the Messiah for the people]; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. 13But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

See on the parallel passages of Matthew and Luke.—This narrative stands in a definite historical connection with what precedes (Mar_9:1); as it does also in the accounts of Matthew and Luke. In regard to the locality, we may refer to our notes upon the scene in Matthew. The Tabor tradition is sufficiently accounted for by the manifestation of Christ upon the mountain in Galilee, Matthew 28. In describing the effect of the transfiguration, Mark uses the strongest illustrations (“white as snow,” etc., “as no fuller,” etc.). He, in common with Luke, records that Peter knew not what he was saying, or what he wanted to say. But he alone has the sudden vanishing of the heavenly visitors, and the inquiring look around on the part of the disciples. He joins Matthew in communicating the Lord’s dealing with the disciples on coming down from the mountain. But he alone observes that the disciples questioned among themselves what the rising from the dead should mean. On the other hand, he omits, what Luke mentions, that Moses and Elias ( ὀöèÝíôåò ἐí äüîῃ ) conversed with Jesus concerning His decease in Jerusalem. So only Luke has the delicate notices of the slumbrous and yet wakeful condition of the beholding disciples; while Matthew, on his part, alone applies the Lord’s word concerning the Elias who had already appeared, to John the Baptist. Mark narrates the history of the transfiguration in his own characteristic manner, exhibiting its main traits in vivid and living touches.

Mar_9:2. After six days.—See on Matthew.

Mar_9:3. No fuller on earth.—The white glitter was supernatural. Gerlach: “In ancient times they wore but few colored garments. The fuller’s business was to wash what was soiled, and to make it clean and glistening.” Starke: “They used in the East to make linen garments so beautiful that they glittered with whiteness; but such as these the Lord’s garments now outshone. The white color was that which the Romans called candorem, and which was so clear and so deep as to glisten splendidly. Materials prepared of such linen or other materials were, among the Jews, appropriated to priests and kings. Such garments also were in high estimation among other people, especially among the Romans. They were worn only by the highest personages, who were by such garments distinguished from those below them; hence, when they were seeking high offices of state, they distinguished themselves by such clothing, and were called candidati. And since among the Romans the glittering white upon their garments was refined to the highest lustre by art, and the Jews had been long in the habit of endeavoring to imitate it, we can understand the phrase, That no fuller on earth could so whiten them. That Solomon’s magnificence was white, has been gathered from the fact that his array was likened to the lilies of the field (Mat_6:28-29). What kind of glory was that of Herod’s royal apparel, spoken of in Act_12:21, is shown in Josephus, Antiq. xix. 7.

Mar_9:6. For he wist not what to say (or, he would say).—His words were an utterance of immediate feeling, expressing a state of perfect complacency, after the manner of dreams, ecstasies, and visions, in figure,—in figurative language which came to him he knew not whence.—They were sore afraid.—Matthew observes that after the sound was heard, they fell on their faces and were sore afraid. But there is no real difference. For their trepidation began naturally at the beginning, and continued increasing throughout. Matthew describes its climax; whilst Mark mentions the disciples’ fear only for the sake of explaining the words of Peter.

Mar_9:10. And they kept that saying with themselves.—Luk_9:36. They concealed the fact which they had witnessed, after that command. Fritzsche: They obeyed the prohibition of Jesus. Meyer, on the contrary: They kept the words concerning the resurrection, and pondered them. The second, indeed, followed from the first. While they religiously kept their silence down to the day of His resurrection, they must have often asked when and how the bond of secrecy would be relaxed. Starke: “It requires much effort to overcome the tendency in beginners to prate. The word êñáôåῖí shows it was not without trouble, and putting much restraint upon themselves, that the disciples kept this secret so long. The other disciples probably put questions,” &c.—The rising from the dead.—That is, this express and particular resurrection from the dead which the Lord had predicted for Himself.

Mar_9:12. And restoreth all things.—The way and manner in which Elias should do this (the idea is still indefinite, in the Present) is explained by what follows: And how is it written of the Son of Man?—What holds good of Him, that He must suffer many things, holds good also of His forerunner. This introduces the subsequent thought: Elias is come already. The punctuation given above, according to which the note of interrogation stands after “Son of Man” (Lachmann, Meyer), gives a clearer and more emphatic idea than the customary position of the note of interrogation after “be rejected.” Instead of êáß , one would in the latter case expect a particle of opposition; and the construction of Mar_9:13 should then have been different. Another construction is this: Elias cometh and restoreth all things. And how? It is written, &c.—How it is written of the Son of Man.—That is, his restoring all things proceeds, like the work of the Son of Man, through sufferings and death.—That He must suffer many things.—The ἴíá is here especially striking. Meyer says, that it sets before us the design of the ãÝãñáðôáé . We take the sentence as a breviloquence, referring to what precedes—“Elias cometh first.” And how is it written of the Son of Man, sc. that He cometh? In order that ( ἵíá ) He may suffer, &c.

Mar_9:13. As it is written of Him.—That is, in regard to the persecution of the real Elias. See 1Ki_1:19. (Grotius, Meyer.) That the unworthy treatment of the prophets accords (Kuinoel), is proved by the previous verse, where from the impending sufferings of the Messiah the conclusion is drawn that Elias-John must also suffer.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on Matthew.

2. The transitory transformation of Christ a prelude of His abiding transformation. The transfiguration, as a transition into the second higher condition of human nature, was like the glorification. The transfiguration has the glorification for its result: the glorification is conditioned by the transfiguration. Into this condition the glorified Christ will raise His people also, 1 Corinthians 15. But the glorification is the consummated, internal, spiritual power and glory, exalted above the changed, creaturely life, and manifested as the perfected light of life.

3. According to the privately communicated opinion of a respected Romanist theologian—personally unknown to me—the transfiguration upon the mountain was a night-scene. This was Schleiermacher’s opinion also (see his Sermons on the Gospel of Mark). In favor of this supposition we may observe, 1. that the transfiguration of Jesus followed a solemn season of prayer; and we know that He commonly held: these solemn seasons of prayer in the night; 2. that Luke mentioned their having gone down from the mountain on the day after that event. The transfiguration, by being considered as a night-scene, evidently has a peculiarly mysterious light thrown upon it.

4. As on the baptism of Christ His personal divine-human consciousness came to full maturity, so was here consummated the consciousness of His perfected prophetic work of word and deed. The goal of His prophetic work, in the narrower sense, was already reached. As Jesus, regarded in Himself, apart from His connection with sinful humanity, as the personally perfected God-man, might at His baptism have ascended into heaven, if He had willed to sever His destiny from that of mankind, so He might, as Prophet of the New Testament word of revelation, with the consummated consciousness of having done His prophetic work, have made the Mount of Transfiguration the Mount of Ascension. [But if Christ had ascended to heaven from the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have falsified the very prophecies alluded to; for these included His Passion and Crucifixion.—Ed.] The authority already referred to brings this out very excellently; and we also have alluded to it, in the Leben Jesu, ii. 908. “In fact, this was the moment (when the cloud received Jesus, and separated Him from the disciples) to teach them that He had power to retain His life, and that it was only free love that made Him leave the fellowship of the heavenly beings, and go down with His disciples into the valley of death.”

5. Moses and Elias conversed with the Lord, according to Luke, concerning His departure in Jerusalem. The unknown Romanist expositor just alluded to thinks that these men appeared to the Lord as representatives from the kingdom of the dead, that they might add their argument to ensure His voluntary determination to encounter the sufferings of death, and thus redeem those who were held in the realm of death, or generally complete His work of redemption. The gratuitous and unwarranted idea of the intercession of the saints for the dead will not prevent our doing justice to the penetration of this view. But there are two things to be noticed: 1. According to Luke, Moses and Elias appear to the Lord in glory (Mar_9:31), not as supplicating intercessors; 2. Christ had already much earlier preannounced His passion: His baptism itself was, in this relation, decisive in its force as a preintimation. But that the kingdom of the dead had some interest in the voluntary determination of Christ to go on His way of suffering, Ebrard has well shown, and remarks: “In the transfiguration, Jesus had given the fathers of the ancient covenant the blessed intelligence of His perfect readiness to redeem them by His own death.” Comp. my Leben Jesu, ii. 909.

6. Let us make three tabernacles.—A significant Future is added: for he knew not what he would say ( ëáëÞóåé ). The man in ecstasy (as in a dream) brings the feeling or the thought; but the figure or form of the thought is imparted to him according to the secret laws that rule the figurative perception and language of the visionary condition. Thus came the figure to Peter: “build three tabernacles, one for Thee,” etc., as an expression for his blessed feelings which he would utter.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See on Matthew. So also Luke.—Between the confession and the transfiguration lies the week of temporal trials.—The mountain of prayer is the mountain of transfiguration.—The revelation of the life of Christ in His glorification here, a promise and sign for His people, 2 Corinthians 5.—The Lord’s heavenly beauty.—Christ at the turning-point of His deeds and sufferings; by festal remembrance and sacrificial consecration glorified.—Consecration to the Lord changes man: 1. Internally: he is elevated into the spiritual world, and surrounded by blessed spirits. 2. Externally: he is renewed, adorned, transfigured.—The only true adornment of men: divine life of the Spirit.—Man upon the mountain: the first Sunday festival of the youthful Church of the Confession.—The transfiguration a sign and symbol 1. of the Sunday, 2. of the Ascension, 3. of the new Paradise.—The wish of Peter; or, the ideals of young Christians and the Lord’s training: 1. Ideals of young Christians: that of retaining their early experiences, that of entire separation from the world, life of contemplation. 2. The Lord’s guidance; further onward, deeper, higher.—All else comes and goes: Jesus alone abides.—Moses and Elias vanish from the disciples before His glory, and in the end they see Him alone.—The law and the prophets are merged in the glory of the Gospel.—The transfiguration of Christ upon the mountain: for Him, as for the three blest disciples, a preparation for Gethsemane.—The transfiguration of Jesus: 1. As a single central point in His life; 2. in its earlier types and symbols (Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, earlier crises in the life of Jesus Himself); 3. in its significance for the future, pointing to the resurrection, the ascension, the great manifestation of Christ, the glorification of believers.—The transfiguration of Christ the sure pledge of the renewing of the world, Rev. 20:21, and of that new state of glory wherein the word is fulfilled, Behold, I make all things new!—The prophetic history of Christ’s life and suffering, the history of the life and suffering of His people.—The Lord gives unasked to His disciples that sign from heaven which He had denied to the asking world.

Starke:—Osiander:—God strengthens the faith of His people before trials come, that they may be able to endure them.—Bibl. Wirt.:—He who would be conversant with heavenly things must tear away his soul from earth, and soar towards God.—The heavenly glory is incomparable; greater and more excellent than all beauty and grace upon earth.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Moses and Elias still live: witnesses of eternity.—Bibl. Wirt.:—In Christ the law and the prophets attained their goal and fulfilment. Jesus is Lord of the dead and living; He has the keys of hell and of death, Rev_3:7; Psa_84:2-3; Psa_84:5.—Lange:—God lets His people have, even in this world, extraordinary glances and views; but they are only of short duration, because their longer enjoyment would not be tolerable and profitable.—Osiander:—Human nature cannot bear the glory of eternal life; therefore our bodies will be glorified.—We must depend only and absolutely upon Jesus Christ.—Quesnel:—Jesus Christ had His Elias who announced Him in the world; He will have more of them yet in times to come and before His last appearance.—One place of Scripture must not be opposed to another, but Scripture must be compared with Scripture.—The ungodly accomplish, against their own will, the holy will of God: they by their persecution not only create happiness for the saints, but make their own misery.—Marvel hot that faithful ministers of Christ are cast out as evil, for it was clearly enough predicted in the Scripture.—Rieger: Probably the disciples would desire, on going down, that they might communicate this vision to others; but the prohibition of Jesus forbade. The same holds good of us in many instances now.—Schleiermacher:—And that also was a spiritual glorification of the Lord when the disciples were taught that they had nothing more to do either with the one or the other (Moses and Elias), neither with the letter of the law nor with revolutionizing zeal. (Yet Moses and Elias were not set aside by Christ; but they were lifted up and lost in Him as their fulfilment.)—This spirit, which can only from within outwards renew our holy relation to God, and will spread abroad only through the energies of love the living knowledge of God among the children of men, will be to the end of time His glorification.

Brieger:—To glorify and transfigure, means to make perfectly clear and transparent (but of men, and especially of Christ, it means to exhibit the creaturely life in its spiritual glory). The eternal destiny of man was glorification.—Christ went on now to meet His sufferings. In order to obtain strength for the endurance of the extremest sorrows, He must hare a foretaste of the glory which awaited Him.—But on account of His disciples too, it was needful that Christ should be glorified.—Bauer:—Peter would build tabernacles: for the heavenly beings who dwell above, skins and huts.

Footnotes:

Mar_9:3.—The ὡò ÷éþí is omitted by B., C., L., Ä ., Tischendorf, probably on account of the strange comparison. [Meyer retains it, remarking that if it were an interpolation, it w ould be ὡò ôὸ öῶò , in conformity with Mat_17:2.]

Mar_9:6.—Most Codd. (A., D., E., F., G., H., K., Euthymius, Theophylact, Meyer) ëáëÞóåé ; other readings, ëáëÞóῃ (Elzevir, Fritzsche, Scholz, Lachmann), ἀðïêñéèῇ (B., C.*, L., Ä ., Tischendorf).—B., C., D., L., Ä . have ἐãÝíïíôï instead of ἦóáí .—B., C., L., Ä ., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer read ἐãÝíåôï , with Luk_9:35.

Mar_9:8.—B., D., Lachmann read åἰ ìÞ , instead of ἀëëÜ with Mat_17:8.

Mar_9:12.—Tischendorf and Meyer: ὁ äὲ ἔöç instead of ἀðïêñéèåὶò åἶðåí , after B., C., L., Ä ., and Syriac, Coptic, Persian versions.

[There are different modes of punctuation. According to Lachmann and Meyer the version would be: “And how is it written of the Son of man? that he must suffer,” &c. According to another punctuation, followed by Hahn, the rendering would be: “And how is it written concerning the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought.”—Ed.]