Matthew 17:1-13. The Transfiguration Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36 1. _after six days_ Within a week of Peter's confession. St Luke has "about an eight days after," according to the common Jewish reckoning, by which each part of a day is counted as a day. _Peter, James, and John_ The _three_who _were... [ Continue Reading ]
_was transfigured before them_ St Luke mentions that this was "as He prayed." The glorified change may be illustrated by Mark 16:12, "He appeared in _another form_unto two of them." The word implies more than a change of mere outward semblance. _as the light_ A hint that the Transfiguration took pl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moses and Elias_ (Elijah). The representatives of the Law and the Prophets. The whole history of the Jewish Church is brought in one glance, as it were, before the Apostles" eyes in its due relation to Christ. St Luke names the subject of converse: they "spake of his decease which he should accompl... [ Continue Reading ]
_let us make_ Read, with the best MSS., "_let me make_." The transition to the singular is in keeping with Peter's temperament; _he_would like to make the tabernacles. Meyer. By "tabernacles" are meant little huts made out of boughs of trees or shrubs. _This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well ple... [ Continue Reading ]
_they saw no man, save Jesus only_ Christ, who came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, is left alone. To His voice alone the Church will listen.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the vision_ = "what things they had seen" (Mark); "those things which they had seen" (Luke).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?_ The truth of the resurrection was new to the disciples, see Mark 9:10. "If thou art the Messiah," they say, "and shalt rise from the dead, surely the scribes are wrong in teaching that Elijah must precede the Messiah." Jesus shews that the prop... [ Continue Reading ]
_restore all things_ To restore is strictly to bring back to a lost perfection, then to develope, raise, to introduce a purer, nobler epoch; here specially to proclaim the kingdom of God. Cp. Acts 1:6, and ch. Matthew 19:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
_knew him not_ did not recognise him as the Elijah prophesied by Malachi.... [ Continue Reading ]
_understood_ See note ch. Matthew 16:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_when they were come to the multitude_ Some will recall Raphael's great picture of the Transfiguration, in which the contrast is powerfully portrayed between the scene on the mount, calm, bright, and heavenly, and the scene below of suffering, human passions, and failure.... [ Continue Reading ]
A Lunatic Child is cured Mark 9:14-29, where the scene and the symptoms of the disease are described with great particularity. Luke 9:37-42.... [ Continue Reading ]
_for he is lunatick_ This is the only special instance of cure in the case of a lunatic. They are mentioned as a class, ch. Matthew 4:24. The word literally means "affected by changes of the moon." There appears to be some truth in the notion that there is an access of mania at the time of lunar cha... [ Continue Reading ]
_O faithless and perverse generation_ addressed to the scribes and the multitude thronging round, as representing the whole nation. The disciples, if not specially addressed, are by no means excluded from the rebuke.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence_ Such expressions are characteristic of the vivid imagery of Eastern speech generally. To "remove mountains" is to make difficulties vanish. The Jews used to say of an eminent teacher, he is "a rooter up of mountains." See Lightfoot _ad loc_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting_ Those only whose own spiritual life and faith are made strong by self-denial and by communion with God in prayer are able to cast forth this kind of evil spirit.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Second Announcement of the Passion Mark 9:31; Luke 9:44 Both St Mark and St Luke add that the disciples "understood not this saying." It was difficult for them to abandon cherished hopes of an earthly kingdom, and "might not Jesus be speaking in parables of a figurative death and resurrection?... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus pays the half shekel of the Sanctuary Peculiar to St Matthew 24. _they that received_ i. e. "the collectors of." After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple the Jews were obliged to pay the two drachmæ into the Roman treasury. Joseph. _B. J_. vii. 6. 6. _tribute money_ Lit... [ Continue Reading ]
_prevented_ anticipated him by answering his thoughts. To prevent is (1) to "go before," "to anticipate" then, "to precede" either (2) to aid, or (3) to hinder. _custom or tribute_ taxes (1) indirect and (2) direct; on (1) things and on (2) persons. _of their own children, or of strangers?_ i. e.... [ Continue Reading ]
_then are the children free_ "the sons are exempt from tribute." The deduction is, "Shall He whom thou hast rightly named the Son of God pay tribute to the Temple of his Father?" The Romans called their sons free (_liberi_), as opposed to slaves.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a piece of money_ Literally, A STATER; a Greek silver coin equivalent to the Hebrew shekel, or to four drachmæ in Greek money.... [ Continue Reading ]