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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
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What Was the Transfiguration All About?
Matther 16-17, Exodus 19 & 24
Introduction
One of the most mysterious statements Jesus ever said was this claim that He made in three of the Gospels:
(Matthew 16:28)
Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
He says this in Matthew 16:28, Luke 9:27 and Mark 9:1. And it’s caused a lot of Christians to wonder: what could Jesus have meant by this when 2,000 years have passed since then and Jesus still hasn’t returned?
Well, it gets a lot less mysterious when you look at what immediately happened after He said those words. In all three accounts, the next thing to take place after that was an event called the Transfiguration. Jesus went up on a mountain with three of His disciples and lit up brighter than the Fourth of July.
So, OK. Jesus was talking about the Transfiguration there, not His Second Coming. It all makes sense now. But I always wondered: what is the Transfiguration all about? I mean, it seems really significant. Only three disciples were even allowed to go. Elijah and Moses also make a cameo. Then Peter starts talking about building a tabernacle or tent for them, and I’m like, where did that idea even come from? And then they all just move on afterwards like it didn’t even happen. There are so many strange things going on in this story.
I mean, no offense to Jesus, but I find the Transfiguration account to be really really weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn with me to Matthew 16, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
(Continued)
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be revisiting Mount Hermon and learning about the purpose of the Transfiguration.
Now, first of all, shout-out to listener Alana from who sent in that opening question literally almost two years ago. Some of my favorite episodes have come from listener submissions, and Alana has given me some great ones. I often don’t know the answer right away when someone writes in, so I just put it on the list. And I don’t always get to answering them right away, but they sit on the list until I do. So let’s get into today’s study, and I hope Alana will find it worth the wait!
Part 1- The Mountain
We will read the whole text of the Transfiguration later today, but I’m going to assume you are familiar with the story. But for a little bit of context, this is right after what takes place at Caesarea Philippi, which was a small town at the base of Mount Hermon.
If you have listened to the podcast this year, you might remember that I did two episodes about this location called Mount Hermon. According to the Book of Enoch, this mountain in Northern Israel was the location where the Watchers descended in the Days of Jared, before the flood. 200 of the Watchers- heavenly beings- descended to the earth and married human women, which created the giants or Nephilim. Enoch tells us that these Watchers made an oath on this mountain to band together in this rebellion against God. And God was greatly grieved by all the wickedness that proceeded forth on the earth from this moment; after all, this led to the flood.
So that’s basically what this location came to symbolize: rebellion and wickedness. It shows up a few times in the Bible, and it’s often associated with paganism or idolatry. In fact, the whole region of of Hermon- which was called Bashan back then and the Golan Heights today- was associated with darkness and the demonic, as well as a stronghold of giants in the Old Testament.
By the time you get to the New Testament, this region is called The Gates of Hell, and it’s the exact place where Jesus told Peter in
Matthew 16:18
…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
At the end of Matthew 16, you read these words:
Verse 28
Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Like I said in the opening, He was not referring to His Second Coming right here. Most of us probably just close our Bibles at that point and say “I wonder what Jesus was talking about?” But if you keep on reading right into the next chapter, you’ll see exactly what He meant.
Matthew 17:1
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
So it says “a high mountain.” But it doesn’t give us the name of the mountain. In church history, the mountain of the Transfiguration has been said to be Mount Tabor, which is 33 miles away from Caesarea Philippi. A lot of theology books or commentaries you pick up that talk about the Transfiguration will simply claim that it took place on Mount Tabor. However, there is nothing in the Bible which would seem to hint that Mount Tabor has anything to do with the Transfiguration. Matthew 17:1 just said they waited 6 days and then went up a high mountain. It didn’t say they walked 33 miles away during that time. It just said it was 6 days later. So frankly, we have no reason to think that they went anywhere at all during those six days.
And that’s probably the safest bet: that they didn’t go anywhere at all. And that’s the first reason I want to put forward for which why Mount Hermon is a much better candidate for the mountain of the Transfiguration than Tabor.
Though six days passed, the proximity of the previous story (at Caesarea Philippi) to Mount Hermon means that Jesus was in this region during this time of His ministry.
Let me give you a few more reasons today- and the last one will essentially prove that this story took place on Mount Hermon. Reason number two: Matthew 17:1 said Jesus “let them up a high mountain.” What is a high mountain in Israel? The average mountain in Israel is between 2-and-3000 feet. Mount Tabor is 1,843 feet tall. So it’s not even that tall by Israel standards. But Mount Hermon? That thing is higher than the night crew at Jimmy Johns. Mount Hermon is over 9,000 feet tall- and it’s the highest mountain in Israel.
Reason three: The symbolic association of Mount Hermon (as the place of a significant Old Testament rebellion) makes it a logical choice for the Transfiguration. The place where the fallen Sons of God lost their glory is the same place where the true Son of God revealed His glory. As Michael Heiser says in his book Reversing Hermon: “What this means for the theme of reversing Hermon is straightforward. When Jesus chose to go to Mount Hermon to be transfigured, He was claiming it for the Kingdom of God.”
And then reason #4- and this is the strongest reason I’ve found to believe that Mount Hermon was the site of the Transfiguration- because of the account given in the Book of Luke. Again, right after the story at Caesarea Philippi, at the base of Mount Hermon, here is how Luke describes the story:
Luke 9:28
…he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
The mountain. Not “a high mountain.” It says “The Mountain.” Now, what is the mountain? With the previous story taking place at Caesarea Philippi, there is only one candidate for THE Mountain. It would have to be: Mount Hermon.
So as far as I’m concerned: case closed. I don’t know why there’s even a debate; the book of Luke makes it clear.
But here’s a good follow-up question: considering the significance of Mount Hermon, why doesn’t the Bible say which mountain Jesus climbed? And there are two answers I can think of to that question.
1- because it doesn’t matter. And that’s a legitimate conclusion that someone could draw; that the Bible didn’t say the particular mountain where the Transfiguration took place because it doesn’t matter where the Transfiguration took place, it could have been on any mountain.
Or 2- because God wants us to put these pieces together through careful study. And that’s where I land on this question. This is actually a recurring pattern throughout the Gospels where something significant happens at a particular location, but the location isn’t named.
For example, we all know the story of where Jesus walked on water- and many of you know it happened on the sea of Galilee. But the first three Gospels that were written didn’t even mention which sea it was. Only the Gospel of John- which was written decades later- bothered to mention that Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of that chapter. But even there, the story doesn’t point that fact out. We can piece it together. We can prove it. But it’s not a detail that’s emphasized.
Or what about the place where Jesus ascended up into heaven? Ask just about any Christian and they can tell you: oh yeah, it was the Mount of Olives. OK, which of the four gospels tells you that? *crickets.* None of them tell us that Jesus ascended on the Mount of Olives. That detail is slipped into the Book of Acts, but none of the four biographies of Jesus life and death tell us this fact. Does that mean the location of His ascension wasn’t theologically significant? Of course it was; Zechariah 14 tells us that the Mount of Olives is the exact place Jesus will return when He comes back to this planet. It’s definitely important. It’s just not a detail the Gospel writers said plainly. But you can figure it out if you piece things together.
And we can piece it together that the Transfiguration took place on Mount Hermon. So now let’s go into the next section and deal with what Jesus was doing up there.
Part 2: The Old Testament Transfiguration
So I’m going to make the case today that the Transfiguration was the initiation of the New Covenant, which was patterned after the Old Covenant. The original covenant at Sinai. Once you understand the parallels, it’s going to make sense of all the details going on in the Transfiguration story: the bright light, the glowing cloud, Peter talking about building a Tabernacle, etc.
But let’s talk about covenants. You see several covenants in the Bible: it’s where God makes some kind of agreement or oath with the people. There are certain elements which reoccur in lots of the covenant stories, like a promise that is made, terms and stipulations of the covenant which are pronounced, a mediator, a sacrifice and blood ratification, witnesses to the covenant, and many times a sign of the covenant is given.
So as I said, there are several covenants you can look to in Scripture. They don’t always contain all these same elements; these elements aren’t always all in the same order; but there is one particular covenant that Jesus’ actions at Hermon seem to relate back to, and a key detail is something we already read.
Matthew 17:1
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
That detail about six days is kind of strange. Between Jesus’ pronouncement at Caesarea Philippi that He was establishing the church, and then going up on the mountain for the Transfiguration, Jesus waited six days. In other words, six days of nothing, and then Jesus ascended Mount Hermon on the seventh day. It’s almost like a reverse-sabbath. What is the significance of that?
There is only one place in the Bible where there was a six-day wait, and it’s found at Moses’ covenant at Sinai in
Exodus 24:15-18
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain.
Just like at Caesarea Philippi- Jesus waited six days and then climbed the mountain. At Sinai, Moses waited six days and then climbed the mountain. Again, that’s the only six-day wait in Scripture. There’s another six-day period mentioned in Joshua when the Israelites took Jericho, but that wasn’t a waiting period; they were marching around the city once-a-day for that time. And lots of times the Bible will use a phrase about working for six days and then resting on the seventh day. But only Exodus 24 and the Transfiguration story give us a six-day wait followed by action on the seventh day. So clearly, Jesus was trying to pattern this Transfiguration story after that detail from Moses’ life.
So let’s review the covenant at Sinai, and then I’ll get into how Jesus paralleled it at Hermon.
Moses and the Israelites first approach Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, and the first step in the covenant is that the parties are identified.
Exodus 19:1-4
On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, 3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
So that’s the first part: the parties of the covenant are identified: God and Israel. You could call this the Mosaic Covenant, or the Sinai Covenant. Next, God gives a promise of the covenant:
Exodus 19:5-6
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
So the promise of the Sinai covenant is that the people will be a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
Next, God gives the terms and stipulations of the covenant, starting with the 10 Commandments. The terms and stipulations go on for four chapters, from chapters 20 through 23, so I won’t read it all. We’re gonna treat it like the Terms and Conditions when you update your iPhone; we’re just gonna skip over all that click agree, OK? I mean, the 10 Commandments are pretty cool, but after chapter 20 of Exodus is where a lot of people start dropping off in their Bible reading plans. It gets kinda dry. So we’re gonna skip to chapter 24 and get back into the steps of the covenant.
Exodus 24:1-3
Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”
This is the part where Moses’ role as the mediator comes into play. Moses is known as the mediator of the covenant. He is the earthly representative who is helping to establish this covenant on earth.
Note that there are witnesses to the covenant: Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders. And then there will also be heavenly witnesses to the covenant: Deuteronomy 33:2, Galatians 3:19 and Hebrews 2:2 will say that angels were present and that the law was delivered by angels. So that’s a key thing to keep in mind as well: there were both earthly and heavenly witnesses at the Sinai covenant.
And the next element of the covenant is that he builds an altar.
Verse 4
4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
After the altar is prepared, the next part of covenant is that a sacrifice is made:
Verse 5
5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
After the sacrifice was made, the covenant was ratified by blood:
Exodus 24:6-8
6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Now here’s an interesting element of the covenant: a meal takes place between the parties of the covenant.
Verses 9-11
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
This is the part where I really wish the Bible went into more detail. They see God, and ate and drink? I’m like, who prepared the food? What was it? I’m gonna guess it was bread and wine. Or maybe they ate meat from the sacrifices from earlier. But this is a part of the covenant ritual: a meal.
Alright, next, there’s the six-day wait. Then they see the glory cloud, which we read about earlier. There’s brightness. God speaks to Moses out of the cloud.
And there’s one more element that comes later: a sign of the covenant. Lots of biblical covenants have signs attached to them. Noah got the rainbow. Abraham got circumcision. The sign of the Mosaic covenant is identified in Exodus 31:13-17 as the Sabbath.
Part 3- The Covenant at Hermon
So let me recap all of those elements for you real quick, and then I want to show how Jesus replicated all of these elements with the New Covenant, starting at Mount Hermon. The elements of a covenant include
The parties identified
A covenant promise
Terms and stipulations
A mediator
An altar
A sacrifice
Blood ratification
Witnesses
A covenant meal
And a covenant sign
So now let’s revisit the story of the Transfiguration, starting with Caesarea Philippi the chapter before in
Matthew 16:13-17
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
What just happened? The parties of the covenant were identified: Jesus and his followers. Jesus was identified as God. There is no confusion between Jesus and His followers now as to who He is.
And next is the covenant promise:
Matthew 16:18-19
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
We are the church. And remember how in the Old Testament, God told they people they would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation? Now we are. Peter, one of the witnesses of the new covenant, says in his letter,
I Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And Peter has seen the light; He’s not just speaking metaphorically. So back to the covenant process. Next will be a reading of the stipulations, the duties associated with the covenant. Terms and conditions. But in the New Covenant, it’s a covenant of grace, not works; so there’s not a bunch of things we have to do to be part of this covenant. We simply have to make Jesus our Lord and truly mean it in our hearts.
Matthew 16:24-28
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
As it has been said: salvation is a free gift, but it will cost you everything. There’s no checklist of duties you have to do in order to be saved. But you do lay down your life and pledge your loyalty to Jesus if you want to accept His new covenant.
And then it gets into the Transfiguration story in the next chapter- but it’s the same process of getting the New Covenant started.
Matthew 17:1-2
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
There was a glory cloud and a bright light, just as there was in Exodus 24. At Sinai, the glory of God shone forth. At Hermon, it was the glory of Jesus.
Now let’s talk about the mediator of the covenant. At Sinai, it was Moses. At Hermon, the New Covenant is mediated by Jesus.
Hebrews 9:15 tells us
Therefore he [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant
Just like at Sinai, there is a voice from a cloud. In Exodus 24:16, God spoke to Moses from the cloud.
In Matthew 17:5, it says
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
And there was fear associated with both events.
At Sinai, Exodus 19:16 says (quote)
“…there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
On Hermon, Matthew 17:6 says
When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
Now, the light and cloud and voice and the fear are not necessarily elements of a covenant, but Jesus is doing these things to replicate the Sinai experience.
But something that is part of a covenant process are the witnesses: and once again, there are earthly and heavenly witnesses.
Matthew 17:3
3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
And I want to include a parallel here from Luke’s Gospel, because He includes a detail that Matthew doesn’t: when Moses and Elijah show up, Luke tells us what they were talking about.
Luke 9:30-31
And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
So what were they talking about? It said His “departure” at Jerusalem. On a macro level, they’re talking about the New Covenant. They’re planning out everything that is to take place after this. We know that this is His death and resurrection. But they call it His departure. Why?
The word “departure” there in the Greek is the word Exodos. Exodos. The Greek word for the book of Exodus. The same book we’ve been looking at today. The book that speaks of how God delivered Israel from their slavery in Egypt. And it’s a story that also works symbolically as how God delivered us from our slavery to sin. The Exodus.
And the book of Exodus gives us the elements of a covenant at Mount Sinai. The Transfiguration gave us a new covenant at Mount Hermon.
Next Time
Now, the covenant was not finalized at Hermon. That’s where it started. But it did not come to completion until Jesus died and rose again.
So there are some other elements of the covenant at Sinai that we didn’t get to today; the covenant meal, the altar, the sacrifice, the blood ratification, and the covenant sign. What about all those? These are accomplished in Jesus’ Exodus at Jerusalem- the last supper, the cross, Jesus’ death, Jesus’ blood, and we have two signs of our covenant: baptism and communion.
But there was a LOT of detail to cover today, so if you’d like a handy infographic that lays it all out there for you, that’s what I’m going to share in my newsletter this weekend. All the information I shared with you verbally today, I’ll give it to you visually in the newsletter. And probably host it on my website after that as well.
So if you want to sign up for the newsletter, click the link in the show notes and sign yourself up. Or you can sign up through my website: WeirdStuffInTheBible.com
Now, perhaps you’re thinking: cool, now I understand the Transfiguration. That’s why Jesus transfigured: He was recreating the experience of Sinai. That’s why Peter wanted to set up tents. I understand everything now.
Trust me, you don’t. Because there’s one more major element we have to get to: the Mount Hermon of it all. Jesus could have Transfigured on any mountain in Israel. He could have started His new covenant and established His church wherever He wanted. But He picked the spot where the Watchers descended to this earth, and I want to explore this question: what did the demonic world think about that?
So next week will be Part 2 on the Transfiguration. Once again, I’ll try not to get hit by a car before Part 2 can come out.
Closing thought
But I want to share this one last thought before we go. At the Transfiguration, Peter said this really weird thing about setting up tents whenever he saw the appearance of Moses and Elijah.
Matthew 17:4
And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Mark’s account includes the detail that Peter only said this because he didn’t know what else to say. Now what in the world is Peter talking about? Did he expect this to turn into a camping trip? Like, everybody reading this knows this is another one of those “foot in mouth” statements from Peter. But what motivated him to suggest it in the first place?
Because as much as we kinda roll our eyes at Peter sometimes, he knew something in this moment that we don’t. Peter recognized that this was a recreation of the events at Sinai. And he suggested what was simply the next part of the story. You see, earlier I read you the end of chapter 24. But Exodus 25 begins a major section of that book where God gives Moses the details of how to build the the tabernacle.
Exodus 25:8 says
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
The sanctuary there is the tabernacle that the Israelites used to meet with and worship God through the rest of the Old Testament. And that’s what Peter meant by setting up “tents” there in Matthew 17. It’s the word for tabernacle. Peter was just assuming that if there’s a new mountain, a new covenant, new priesthood, a new mediator, there must be a new tabernacle.
But of course, in our new covenant, Jesus is the glory of God who tabernacled among us, according to John 1.
So maybe Peter hadn’t picked up on that detail yet, but honestly, he was picking up on things better than I did, because he recognized up what was happening there on Hermon had happened before on Sinai.
So the Transfiguration is not weird. And actually, neither is Peter. WE are weird, because we didn’t know that the crucifixion was a new exodus, and the Transfiguration was beginning a new covenant. But now we do. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.
(Kings Cross)