Transfiguration of Jesus

In the gospel accounts, Jesus and three of his apostles, Peter, James, and John, go to a mountain (later referred to as the Mount of Transfiguration) to pray.

[2][4][5] Thomas Aquinas considers the transfiguration "the greatest miracle", in that it complemented baptism and showed the perfection of life in Heaven.

[6] The transfiguration is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

Gardner (2015, p. 218) states: The very last of the writing prophets, Malachi, promised a return of Elijah to hold out hope for repentance before judgment (Mal.

... And it was the goal about which Elijah spoke to Jesus in the Transfiguration.In the Synoptic Gospels, (Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–13, Luke 9:28–36), the account of the transfiguration happens towards the middle of the narrative.

[10] It is a key episode and almost immediately follows another important element, the Confession of Peter: "you are the Christ" (Matthew 16:16, Mark 8:29, Luke 9:20).

Once on the mountain, Matthew 17:2 states that Jesus "was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light."

Elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul the Apostle's reference in 2 Corinthians 3:18 to the "transformation of believers" via "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord" became the theological basis for considering the transfiguration as the catalyst for processes which lead the faithful to the knowledge of God.

[17] This is not the only incident not present in the fourth gospel, and the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is another key example, indicating that the author either was not aware of these narrative traditions, did not accept their veracity, or decided to omit them.

[16] The general explanation is thus the Gospel of John was written thematically, to suit the author's theological purposes and has a less narrative style than the synoptics.

[15][16] Christian theology assigns a great deal of significance to the transfiguration, based on multiple elements of the narrative.

Although Moses had died and Elijah had been taken up to heaven centuries before (as in 2 Kings 2:11), they now live in the presence of the Son of God, implying that the same return to life applies to all who face death and have faith.

[22] The iconography of the transfiguration continued to develop in this time period, and there is a 6th-century symbolic representation in the apse of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe and a well known depiction at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.

[25] In the 7th century, Maximus the Confessor said that the senses of the apostles were transfigured to enable them to perceive the true glory of Christ.

[33] On one hand it cautions the disciples, and therefore the reader, that the glory of the transfiguration and the message of Jesus can only be understood in the context of his death and resurrection and not simply on its own.

Origen was the first to comment that the presence of Moses and Elijah represented the "Law and the prophets", referring to the Torah (also called the Pentateuch) and the rest of the Hebrew Bible.

[35] More recently, biblical scholar Caleb Friedeman has argued that the appearance of Moses and Elijah together at the transfiguration was because both of them had witnessed similar theophanies at Mount Sinai.

[36] The real presence of Moses and Elijah on the mount is rejected by those churches and individuals who believe in "soul sleep" (Christian mortalism) until resurrection.

[43] The usual candidate, in this case, is Mount Panium, Paneas, or Banias, a small hill situated at the source of the Jordan, near the foot of which Caesarea Philippi was built.

Edward Greswell, however, writing in 1830, saw "no good reason for questioning the ancient ecclesiastical tradition, which supposes it to have been mount Tabor.

In the 15th century Pope Callixtus III made it a universal feast celebrated on August 6 to commemorate the lifting of the siege of Belgrade[47] in July 1456.

In the Roman rite, the gospel pericope of the transfiguration is read on the second Sunday of Lent – the liturgy emphasizes the role the transfiguration had in comforting the Twelve Apostles, giving them both a powerful proof of Christ's divinity and a prelude to the glory of the resurrection on Easter and the eventual salvation of his followers in view of the seeming contradiction of his crucifixion and death.