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Mat_17:5 ff. Ἰδοὺ καὶ … ἰδού ] lively way of introducing the various points of importance.
νεφέλη φωτεινή ] a luminous, clear, bright cloud, represented in Matthew as, without doubt, a marvellous phenomenon, not in itself certainly, but in connection with the incident which it accompanies.
ἐπεσκίασεν ] A luminous cloud overshadows them, casts a kind of light and shade over their forms, so that they are rendered less clear than they were before the cloud intervened. Olshausen unwarrantably fancies that ἐπεσκ . has been employed in consequence of the light having been so strong as to dazzle the eyes and affect the sight.
αὐτούς ] viz. Jesus, Moses, and Elias (Mat_17:4). The disciples hear the voice from out the cloud (Mat_17:5-6), are therefore not to be regarded as being within it, as is likewise manifest a priori from the fact that the cloud, as was so frequently the case in the Old Testament, is here the sacred symbol of the divine presence (Wetstein on this passage, comp. Fea, ad Hor. Od. i. 2. 31), and therefore accompanies those three divine personages as a σημεῖον for the disciples, on whose account likewise the voice sounds from the cloud. This in answer to Olearius, Wolf, Bengel, Baumgarten-Crusius, who refer αὐτούς to the disciples; and to Clericus, who refers it to all who were present.
φωνὴ κ . τ . λ .] no less the voice of God than that in Mat_3:17.
ἀκούετε αὐτοῦ (see critical remarks) is the divine ratification of the words of Moses in Deu_18:15, according to their Messianic import. However, the hearing (i.e. faith and obedience) is the point on which stress is to be laid, as is evident from its being put first. This command is now in order (not so, as yet, in Mat_3:17), coming as it does at a time when Jesus had attained to the full dignity of His prophetic office, but when, at the same time, the prospect of what awaited Him was calculated to put the ἀκούειν of the disciples to the severest test.
Mat_17:6-7 occur only in Matthew. Comp. Dan_10:9 f.; Rev_1:17.
ἥψατο ] “Tactus familiaris et efficax,” Bengel.