28 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ"
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
In Mark 9:
3 and his garments became glistering, exceeding white, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.
4 And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.
5 And Peter answereth and saith to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
6 For he knew not what to answer; for they became sore afraid.
7 And there came a cloud overshadowing them: and there came a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son: hear ye him.
After Jesus, Peter, James, and John rejoined the disciples in a place below, Matt. 17:
15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and suffereth grievously; for oft-times he falleth into the fire, and off-times into the water.
16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17 And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him hither to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked him; and the demon went out of him: and the boy was cured from that hour.
19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out?
20 And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith¹ as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain (Mt. of Transfiguration), Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
21 But this kind goeth not out save by prayer and fasting.
¹ Compare
Jesus' statement about faith to that of Cicero who lived
in the first century B.C.:
"And therefore we may follow the Stoics, who diligently
investigate the etymology of words; and we may accept
their statement that "good faith" is so called because
what is promised is "made good," from Cicero,
De Officiis, Book I.
In Mark 9:
30 They left that place
and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they
were,
31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The
Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill
him, and after three days he will rise."
32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to
ask him about it.
Both Matthew and Mark agreed that Jesus was in the villages of the region of Phillip's capitol city Caesarea Phillipi (at the base of Mt. Hermon) before the transfiguration and after the transfiguration they went back to Galilee. Luke described that Jesus went with his disciples to the mount of transfiguration after the feeding of the five thousand. In John 6:4 the feeding of the five thousand happened close to the time of the Passover and in John 6:10 there was plenty of grass in that place. It was before the wheat harvest when food supplies might have been low. and omitted the part about traveling through Galilee, but placed Jesus on the road towards Jerusalem after the transfiguration. In Matthew and Mark Jesus returned to Galilee, then someone warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus indicated he would be traveling towards Jerusalem for a prophet could not die outside of Jerusalem.
Many have indicated their best guess would be Mt. Hermon was the Mount of Transfiguration. In January the cloud cover was so low sometimes most of the mountain was covered by clouds.
From the summit of Mt. Hermon one might see the Mediterranean Sea.
This photo is a view from the summit, early 20th century; with the
Mediterranean Sea near Tyre in view. Supposedly The Old Testament
prophet Elijah stayed with a widow of Zerapheth during a famine.
Zarapheth was the next major town south of Tyre. Jesus went to Tyre and
was begged by a Syro-Phoenician woman to heal her daughter. People from
Tyre and Sidon were going to Jesus in Galilee as they heard reports of
him. Sidon was 25 miles north of Tyre. Young men were able to walk 30
miles a day on a level road with packs of up to 25 pounds.
There was a Christian tradition that the Mount of Transfiguration was
Mt. Tabor. This was passed on to us from Jerome.
Mt.Tabor near Nazareth -- January 2006