Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Mark 9:2-13, The transfiguration
On a high mountain Jesus is changed before three disciples, Elijah and Moses appear, and a voice says to listen to him. Coming down, they ask about Elijah.
Mark 9:2-13, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain, and his clothes turn dazzling white. Elijah and Moses talk with him, a cloud covers them, and a voice calls him the beloved Son. On the way down the disciples ask why the teachers say Elijah must come first, and Jesus answers that Elijah has come, and been treated as people wished.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/teachers-of-the-law\/","n":"Teachers of the law","s":"Trained experts in the law of Moses, also called scribes, some local and some from Jerusalem, who taught by citing earlier teachers.","r":""}
Mark does not name the mountain: Wright and the ESV Study Bible think it was probably Mount Hermon, Heiser argues for Hermon at length, and both Wright and Heiser note that Mount Tabor, the traditional site, still has defenders. On the meaning, the ESV Study Bible calls the scene a glimpse into Jesus' divine nature, while Wright says it is not a revelation of his divinity, since that would make Elijah and Moses divine too, but a sign that he is the true prophet and Messiah. Keener and Wright both take the Elijah who has already come to be John. Garland adds two points against Tabor, a Roman camp on its summit and its modest height (about 1,843 feet against Hermon's 9,166), and the Zondervan Atlas rates the Hermon area strongest. A Targum on Exodus 24 has Nadab and Abihu struck down for seeing God's glory, which Garland reads behind Peter's offer of shelters.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 9:2, 9:3, 9:4, 9:7 and 9:11
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 9:2-13
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Mark 9:2-29, 9:2 and 9:4
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 32
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 9:2 and 9:5
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Life of Christ
