page_title: Mark 9
section_title: The Transfiguration
hierarchical_section_title: Mark 9 / The Transfiguration
context_page_description: Mark 9 is the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins with Jesus' prediction that "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see
  that the kingdom of God has come with power". The chapter then recounts the transfiguration of Jesus, a healing miracle, and Jesus' teaching about the return of Elijah, humility and temptation.
context_section_description: Six days pass and then Jesus takes Peter, James and John up an unnamed high mountain, which many came to believe was Mount Tabor. Suddenly, Jesus' clothes become dazzingly white "... whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them." (3) and Elijah and Moses appear. The disciples are stunned (for the first time Mark uses the term Rabbi Strong's G4461) and ask what they should do and offer to put up shelters or 'tabernacles' for them. A cloud overshadows them and a voice comes from the cloud saying "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" (7) which is what Jesus heard the "voice from heaven" say when he was baptised by John the Baptist in Mark 1 (Mark 1:11) but now Mark has Peter, James, and John as witnesses to this. Elijah and Moses disappear and they head down the mountain. On the way down the mountain, Jesus tells them to keep what had happened to themselves until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They are confused as to what he means but do not ask him to clarify himself. They ask him about Elijah (Elias) and he says:
  ... Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. (Mark 9:12-13) KJV
  It was commonly believed that Elijah would reappear before the coming of the Messiah, as predicted in Malachi 4. Matthew 17:13 states that the three of them believed Jesus was comparing Elijah to John the Baptist. The imprisonment and death of John the Baptist (Mark 6:17-29) may be compared to the persecution of Elijah by Jezebel (1 Kings 19:2-3). Moses can be seen as a representative of the law and Elijah a representative of the prophets.
  This whole passage has echoes of Exodus 24, where clouds covered Mount Sinai for six days before Moses went up to receive the ten commandments.
  The original Greek uses the word metamorphothe which was translated into Latin as Trans Figura, the changing of appearance or of the body itself.
caption: The Transfiguration (1520) by Raphael
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