Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 9:29
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment [was] white [and] glistering.
29. as he prayed ] The enquiry whether this heavenly brightness came from within, or as when the face of Moses shone by reflection from communion with God, seems irreverent and idle; but we may say that the two things are practically one.
the fashion of his countenance was alteread ] “His face did shine as the sun,” Mat 17:2. It is interesting to see how St Luke avoids the word “He was metamorphosed ” which is used by the other Synoptists.
He was writing for Greeks, in whose mythology that verb was vulgarised by foolish associations.
white and glistering ] Literally, “ lightning forth,” as though from some inward radiance. St Matthew compares the whiteness of His robes to the light (Luk 17:2), St Mark to the snow (Luk 9:3), and St Luke in this word to the lightning. See Joh 1:14; Psa 104:2; Hab 3:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
29. as he prayed, the fashion,c.Before He cried He was answered, and while He was yet speakingHe was heard. Blessed interruption to prayer this! Thanks to God,transfiguring manifestations are not quite strangers here. Ofttimesin the deepest depths, out of groanings which cannot be uttered,God’s dear children are suddenly transported to a kind of heaven uponearth, and their soul is made as the chariots of Amminadab. Theirprayers fetch down such light, strength, holy gladness, as make theirface to shine, putting a kind of celestial radiance upon it (2Co 3:18Exo 34:29-35).
raiment white, c.Matthewsays, “His face did shine as the sun” (Mt17:2), and Mark says (Mr 9:3),”His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as nofuller on earth can white them” (Mr9:3). The light, then, it would seem, shone not upon Himfrom without, but out of Him from within He wasall irradiated, was in one blaze of celestial glory. What a contrastto that “visage more marred than men, and His form than the sonsof men!” (Isa 52:14).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered,…. It became exceeding bright and glorious, it shone like the sun,
Mt 17:2 and hereby his prayer was answered; and thus, as Christ was heard and answered, whilst he was yet speaking, so are his people sometimes; and even their countenance is altered, when they are favoured with communion with God, and instead of a sad and dejected countenance, they have a cheerful one.
And his raiment was white and glistering; it was as white as the light, as snow, and whiter than any fuller on earth could whiten, as the other evangelists say, and so glistened exceedingly;
[See comments on Mt 17:2].
[See comments on Mr 9:3].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was altered [] . Lit., became different. Luke avoids Matthew’s word, metamorfwqh, was metamorphosed. He was writing for Greek readers, to whom that word represented the transformations of heathen deities into other forms. See, for instance, the story of the capture of Proteus by Menelaus, in the fourth book of Homer’s “Odyssey.” See on Mt 17:2.
White [] . In classical Greek very indefinite as an expression of color; being used, not only of the whiteness of the snow, but of gray dust. Its original sense is clear. All three evangelists use the word, but combined with different terms. Thus, Matthew, as the light. Mark, stilbonta, glistering (see on Mr 9:3). Luke, ejxastraptwn (only here in New Testament), flashing as with the brilliance of lightning. Rev., dazzling.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And as he prayed,” (kai egeneto en to proseuchesthai auton) “And as he prayed earnestly,” with Peter, James and John upon the high mountain.
2) “The fashion of his countenance was altered,” (to eidos tou prosopou autou heterou) “The appearance of his face became different,” Act 6:15, was changed in appearance, by a means called by Matthew and Mark, “transfigured,” Mat 17:2; Mar 9:2; Php_2:9-10; Heb 2:9; Rev 1:13-16.
3) “And his raiment was white and glistering.” (kai ho himatismos autou leukos eksastrapton) “And his raiment became gleaming white,” or sparkling white, glittering, in a dazzling manner, like the flash of lightning, Mat 17:2; Mar 9:3. The light shone not only upon Jesus but also from within Him, 2Pe 1:16-18. Though His visage was soon to be “more marred than any man,” Isa 52:14. Divine glory shone forth, burst through the flesh, from Him, in the mountain that day, Joh 1:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(29) And as he prayed.We again note, as characteristic of St. Luke, the stress laid upon our Lords prayers here, as before in Luk. 3:21; Luk. 5:16; Luk. 6:12.
The fashion of his countenance was altered.It is, perhaps, noticeable that the Evangelist who had the most classical culture avoids the use of the classical word transfigured or metamorphosed, employed by the others. For him that word might have seemed too suggestive of the metamorphoses which the great work of Ovid had connected with the legends of Greek mythology.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling.’
His ostensible purpose in taking them up with Him was in order to pray (Luk 9:28), but as He prayed a great transformation took place in Him. His face shone and His clothing became white and dazzling, and His Apostles were there privileged to see something of the glory of God, of the glory of which He had emptied Himself (Joh 17:5), and of the glory in which one day He would come again (Luk 9:26). Here it was confirmed to them that He was indeed more than human. He was on ‘the divine side of reality’. When Moses went into the mountain his face had shone with God’s reflected glory, but here the Greater than Moses shone with His own glory. The fact that His clothes also shone (revealing something of the glory that now lay beneath them?) demonstrates that this was a very different situation than that of Moses. Moses bore a reflected glory, Jesus one that was intrinsic (compare Luk 24:4). Here was a revelation that He was more than just human.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 9:29. The fashion of his countenance was altered, The appearance, &c. was changed. See on Mat 17:2. This was so striking a circumstance, that Eunapius relates a story of Jamblichus, which seems evidently to be borrowed from this; (Vit. Jamb. p. 22.) as many things which Philostratus tells us of Apollonius Tyanaeus seem also to be borrowed from other circumstances recorded of Christ by the evangelists. The words , which we render white and glistering, may be literally rendered white as lightning;splendid and dazzling as the blaze of lightning.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1508
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST
Luk 9:29-32. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter, and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.
THEY, who were the immediate followers of our Lord, beheld him, for the most part, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; but, lest they should be offended in him, and be tempted to forsake him, he sometimes spake to them of that glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and which he should resume as soon as ever the scenes of his present humiliation should be closed. On one occasion he condescended to give to three of them an ocular demonstration of his glory. The particulars are related in the passage before us; in opening which we shall consider,
I.
The time and manner of his transfiguration
Our Lord was at this time engaged in prayer
[God has on many occasions signally manifested his regard to prayer. It was at the beginning of Daniels supplications that an angel was sent to reveal to him the period fixed for the Messiahs advent [Note: Dan 9:20-23.]. The reason that God assigned for sending Ananias to open the eyes of Saul was, Behold, he prayeth [Note: Act 9:11.]. Thus Jesus was at this time engaged in prayer. He had retired to a mountain for that very purpose: and this was the season which God chose for distinguishing him in this most signal manner. It is worthy of remark, that every time that God was pleased to bear testimony to his Son by an audible voice from heaven, it was either in, or immediately after prayer [Note: Luk 3:21-22 and Joh 12:28.]. And if we cultivated more holy intimacy with God, he would more frequently vouchsafe to us also the special tokens of his love.]
While he was praying, his form was visibly and wonderfully changed
[In his transfiguration, as it is called, the Godhead displayed itself through the veil of his human nature, his countenance shone like the meridian sun; and his very garments were so irradiated by the lustre of the indwelling Deity, that they were white and dazzling like the light, yea, so white as no fuller on earth could whiten them [Note: Mar 9:3.]. He had hitherto appeared only in the form of a servant; but now he appeared in his own proper form as God; at least, so far as his divine nature could be rendered visible to mortal eyes. Nor was this transfiguration intended as a mere ostentatious display of his glory: it was necessary perhaps for his support as man; that, when he should come into the scenes of his deepest humiliation, he might not faint. It was also well calculated to prepare his Disciples for that awful view of him, which they were afterwards to have, when they should see him in the garden, prostrate on the ground, bathed in a bloody sweat, and supplicating with strong crying and tears the removal of the cup which his Father had put into his hand.]
The history further informs us respecting,
II.
His conversation with his attendants
Moses and Elijah were sent from heaven to attend upon him
[The body of Moses probably had been preserved, as that of Elijah had been translated to heaven, without suffering the total change which is usually effected by death. They were on this occasion arrayed in glory, somewhat like to their divine Master, though, of course, they were but as twinkling stars in comparison of the meridian sun. And there was a peculiar propriety that these should be selected to wait upon him, not only because they had been faithful and highly honoured servants of God, the one being the giver, and the other the restorer, of the law, but because they fitly represented the law and the prophets; and, in bearing testimony to him, resigned, as it were, their authority into his hands.]
These conversed with him respecting his own approaching death
[One might have expected that they should have talked of heaven: but they had a subject in which all were yet more deeply interested; a subject, in which the inexhaustible treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge are contained; a subject, which fills all heaven with wonder, and which eternity itself will not be sufficient to unfold. Yes, that subject, universally exploded from the societies of men, was the one which occupied their attention during this delightful interview; they spake of his decease which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. O what do we lose by lending ourselves so entirely to other topics, and so totally discarding this! And how infatuated are men, that, even in the society of their dearest friends, they do not improve their hours by conversing on a subject of such universal importance!]
Nor were his earthly followers wholly excluded. We read of,
III.
The peculiar privilege granted to some of his disciples
Some more distinguished favourites were admitted to this heavenly vision
[Christ has sanctified human friendships by manifesting the same attachments as are common among men. He not only chose twelve out of the body of his Disciples to be his stated followers, but admitted three of them to more peculiar intimacy than the rest: and even of these three there was one, who lay, as it were, in his bosom, and was called, by way of eminence, The Disciple whom he loved. But the three, who had been taken up to the mountain to spend their time in prayer, had fallen asleep, and lost thereby much of the vision, which they might have seen, and of the conversation, which they might have heard. Alas! What an irreparable loss did they sustain! Well might Jesus have said to them, Sleep on now and take your rest. But the effulgence of his glory roused them at last, and they both beheld this bright assemblage of persons, and heard the sublime discourse which passed between them. Happy were their eyes which saw, and their ears which heard, such things! Can we wonder that Peter should exclaim, It is good for us to be here! and that he should propose to erect tents for the accommodation of Christ and his heavenly guests, regardless of his own ease, if he might but protract his present enjoyments? But though well meant, it was an ignorant proposal; for it was needful both for themselves and for the world, that they should speedily resume their wonted labours, and fulfil the work assigned them. Peter however may well be excused, for he knew not what he said.]
They also heard the testimony, which the Father on that occasion bore to Christ
[While the Apostles were wishing to rest in their present comforts, they were overshadowed with a cloud, and their joys were turned into fear and dread. The cloud perhaps was like that which guided the Israelites through the wilderness as a symbol of the Divine presence: and what can we expect, but that, as sinners, they should tremble at the near approach of the divine Majesty? But the testimony which they heard, amply compensated their transient fears: their divine Master was proclaimed as the only beloved Son of God; and they were bidden to hear him him chiefly, him constantly, him exclusively. Such was the singular honour conferred on him: and though they were forbidden to mention it for a season, lest it should provoke their enemies to wrath, and their fellow-disciples to jealousy, yet doubtless it tended much to support them in their subsequent conflicts.]
Infer
1.
How indisputable is the truth of our holy religion
[This was a most remarkable testimony to the character of Jesus; and it was given by God himself: and would God interpose in this manner in order to deceive? or could those Disciples be mistaken in what they so plainly saw with their eyes, and heard with their ears? Surely, strange as the tidings of the Gospel may be thought, here is evidence enough that it is not a cunningly devised fable. It is remarkable that St. Peter selects this very event out of the many thousands to which he was a witness, in order to establish beyond a doubt the truth of that doctrine which he preached [Note: 2Pe 1:16-18.]. Let us then receive that Gospel which is so well authenticated, so firmly established. Let us hear Jesus, our divinely appointed Teacher, and make him our beloved Saviour, in whom our souls are well pleased.]
2.
How diversified are the states of Gods people upon earth!
[These highly favoured Disciples were now upon the mount; but they were soon to descend into the valley again, and to go through much tribulation in their way to the kingdom. Thus it is with all the Lords people: the present is at best a chequered scene: nor is trouble ever nearer to us than when we are saying, My mountain standeth strong; I shall never be moved [Note: Psa 30:6-7.]. Let us then be thankful for any seasons of joy; but never be so elated by them as to wish to set up tabernacles here, or to forget that we may soon experience a sad reverse: yea, let us rather improve our joys as means of strengthening us for future conflicts.]
3.
What a glorious place must heaven be!
[It must have been inexpressibly delightful to have beheld, though for so short a time, this heavenly vision: but what must it be to see Jesus as he is, in all the full blaze of divine majesty; to see him, not attended with two only, but with ten thousands of his saints; and to hear, not a conversation about future sufferings, hut songs of everlasting joy and triumph? What must it be to see and hear such things; ourselves resembling the Lord Jesus; our bodies fashioned like unto his glorious body, and our souls shining above the sun in the firmament; our body no longer to become torpid through sloth, nor our soul to be agitated by surprise or terror; but in the perfect exercise of all our faculties to participate that glory, with a full assurance that it shall never end? Well may we then say, It is good for us to be here. Then we shall need no tabernacles, for we shall dwell in the temple of our God, and shall go no more out [Note: Rev 3:12.]. May we all be counted worthy of that honour! may we be admitted to the enjoyment of that beatific vision; that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also may appear with him in glory!]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
29 And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.
Ver. 29. And as he prayed ] Dum ipsius mens tota Deo se immergeret, saith one (Luc. Burgens.). Christians, while they are praying, are often times carried out and beyond themselves. SeeMat 17:2-3Mat 17:2-3 . See Trapp on “ Mat 17:2 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 17:3 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
29. ] “St. Luke seems to have declined the use of (employed by the other two Evangelists here), that he might not awaken in his Greek readers any ideas or feelings connected with the fabulous metamorphoses of their heathen deities.” Wordsw.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 9:29 . , while praying, and as the result of the exercise. , different; a real objective change, not merely to the view of the three disciples. Lk. omits . may be viewed as an adverb in function , qualifying (De Wette), but there is no reason why it should not be co-ordinate with ., being omitted = white, glistering. : in N. T. here only, flashing like lightning.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke
PRAYER AND TRANSFIGURATION
Luk 9:29
This Evangelist is especially careful to record the instances of our Lord’s prayers. That is in accordance with the emphasis which he places on Christ’s manhood. In this narrative of the Transfiguration it is to Luke that we owe our knowledge of the connection between our Lord’s prayer and the radiance of His face. It may be a question how far such transfiguration was the constant accompaniment of our Lord’s devotion. It is to be remembered that this is the only time at which others were present while He prayed, and perhaps it may be that whensoever, on the mountain top or in the solitude of the wilderness, He entered into closer communion with His heavenly Father, that radiance shone from His face, though no eye beheld and no tongue has recorded the glory.
But that is a mere supposition. However that may be, it would seem that the light on Christ’s face was not merely a reflection caught from above, but it was also a rising up from within of what always abode there, though it did not always shine through the veil of flesh. And in so far it presents no parallel with anything in our experience, nor any lesson for us. But to regard our Lord’s Transfiguration as only the result of the indwelling divinity manifested is to construe only one half of the fact that we have to deal with, and the other half does afford for us a precious lesson. ‘As He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered’; and as we pray, and in the measure in which we truly and habitually do hold communion, shall we, too, partake of His Transfiguration.
The old story of the light that flashed upon the face of the Lawgiver, caught by reflection from the light of God in which He walked, is a partial parallel to Christ’s Transfiguration, and both the one and the other incident, amongst their other lessons, do also point to some mysterious and occult relation between the indwelling soul and the envious veil of flesh which, under certain circumstances, might become radiant with the manifestation of that indwelling power.
I. The one great lesson which I seek now to enforce from this incident is, that communion with God transfigures.
Of course, such communion is not to be attained or maintained without effort. Sense wars against it. Tasks which are duties interrupt the enjoyment of it in its more conscious forms. The hard-working man may well say, ‘How can I, with my business cares calling-for my undivided attention all day long, keep up such communion?’ The toiling mother may well say, ‘How can I, in my little house, with my children round me, and never a quiet minute to myself, get such?’ True, it is hard, and the highest and sweetest forms of communion cannot be reached by us while so engaged, and therefore we all need seasons of solitude and repose, in which, being left alone, we may see the Great Vision, and, the clank of the engines being silenced, we may hear the Great Voice saying, ‘Come up hither.’ Such seasons the busiest have on one day in every week, and such seasons we shall contrive to secure for ourselves daily, if we really want to be intimate with our heavenly Friend.
And for the rest it is not impossible to have real communion with God in the midst of anxious cares and absorbing duties; it is possible to be like the nightingales, that sing loudest in the trees by the dusty roadsides, possible to be in the very midst of anxiety and worldly work, and yet to keep our hearts in heaven and in touch with God. We do not need many words for communion, but we do need to make efforts to keep ourselves near Him in desire and aspiration, and we need jealous and constant watchfulness over our motives for work, and our temper and aim in it, that neither the work nor our way of doing it may draw us away. There will be breaches in the continuity of our conscious communion, but there need not be any in the reality of our touch with God. For He can be with us, ‘like some sweet, beguiling melody, so sweet we know not we are listening to it.’ There may be a real contact of the spirit with Him, though it would be hard at the moment to put it into words.
‘As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.’ Such communion changes and glorifies a man. The very secret of the Gospel way of making men better is-transfiguration by the vision of God. Yes! to be much with God is the true way to mend our characters, and to make them like His. I do not under-value the need of effort in order to correct faults and acquire virtues. We do not receive sanctification as we receive justification, by simple faith. For the latter the condition is ‘Only believe,’ for the former it is ‘Work out your own salvation.’ No man is cured of his evil tendencies without a great deal of hard work conscientiously directed to curbing them.
But all the hard work, and all the honest purpose in the world, will not do it without this other thing, the close communion with God, and incomparably the surest way to change what in us is wrong, and to raise what in us is low, and to illumine what in us is dark, is to live in habitual beholding of Him who is righteousness without flaw, and holiness supreme, and light without any darkness at all. That will cure faults. That will pull the poison fangs out of passions. That will do for the evil in us what the snake-charmers do by subtle touches, turn the serpent into a rigid rod that does not move nor sting. That will lift us up high above the trifles of life, and dwarf all here that imposes upon us with the lie that it is great, and precious, and permanent; and that will bring us into loving contact with the living ‘Beauty of holiness,’ which will change us into its own fair likeness.
We see illustrations of this transforming power of loving communion in daily life. People that love each other, and live beside each other, and are often thinking about one another, get to drop into each other’s ways of looking at things; and even sometimes you will catch strange imitations and echoes of the face and voice, in two persons thus knit together. And if you and I are bound to God by a love which lasts, even when it does not speak, and which is with us even when our hands are busy with other things, then be sure of this, we shall get like Him whom we love. We shall be like Him even here, for even here we shall see Him. Partial assimilation is the condition of vision; and the vision is the condition of growing assimilation. The eye would not see the sun unless there were a little sun imaged on the retina. And a man that sees God gets like the God he sees; ‘for we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass or, rather, mirroring as a glass does the glory of God, are changed into the same image.’ The image on the mirror is only on the surface; but if my heart is mirroring God He sinks in, and abides there, and changes me from glory to glory. So it is when we keep near Christ, who is manifest in the flesh, that we get liker Him day by day, and the fashion of our countenances will be altered.
Now there is a test for our Christianity. Does my religion alter me? If it does not, what right or reason have I to believe that it is genuine at all? Is there a process of purifying going on in my inward nature? Am I getting any more like Jesus Christ than I was ten years ago? I say I live with Him and by Him. If I do I shall become like Him. Do not work at the hopeless task of purifying yourselves without His help, but go and stay in the sun if you want to get warm. Lo as the bleachers do, spread the foul cloth on the green grass, below the blazing sunshine, and that will take all the dirt out. Believing and loving, and holding fast by Jesus Christ in true communion, we, too, become like Him we love.
II. Another thought is suggested by these words-namely, that this transfiguring will become very visible in the life if it be really in our inmost selves.
But that may be said to be mere fancy. Perhaps it is, or perhaps there is truth in it deeper and more far-reaching than we know. Perhaps the life fashions the body, and the ‘body of our glory’ may be moulded in immortal loveliness by the perfect Christ-derived life within it. But be that as it may, the main point to be observed here is rather this. If we have the real, transforming influence of communion with Jesus Christ in our hearts, it will certainly rise to the surface, and show itself in our lives. As oil poured into water will come to the top, so that inward transforming will not continue hidden within, ‘The king’s daughter is all-glorious within , but also ‘her clothing is of wrought gold.’ The inward life, beautiful because knit to Him, will have corresponding with it and flowing from it an outward life of manifest holy beauty.
‘His name shall be in their foreheads,’ stamped there, where everybody can see it. Is that where you and I carry Christ’s name? It is well that it should be in our hearts, it is hypocrisy that it should be in our foreheads unless it is in our hearts first. But if it be in the latter it will surely be in the former.
Now, dear friends, there is a simple and sure touchstone for us all. Do not talk about communion with Christ being the life of your religion, unless the people that have to do with you, your brothers and sisters, or fathers and mothers, your wives and children, your servants or your masters, would endorse it and say ‘Yes! I take knowledge of him, he has been with Jesus.’ Do you think that it is easier for anybody to believe in, and to love God, ‘whom he hath not seen’ because of you, ‘his brother whom he hath seen’? The Christ in the heart will be the Christ in the face and in the life.
Alas! why is it that so little of this radiance caught from heaven shines from us? There is but one answer. It is because our communion with God in Christ is so infrequent, hurried, and superficial. We should be like those luminous boxes which we sometimes see, shining in the dark with light absorbed from the day; but, like them, we need to be exposed to the light and to lie in it if we are to be light. ‘Now are ye light in the Lord,’ and only as we abide in Him by continuous communion shall we resemble Him or reflect Him.
III. The perfection of communion will be the perfection of visible transformation.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
And = And it came to pass.
as He prayed = in(Greek. en App-104.) His praying.
fashion = appearance.
countenance = face.
was altered = [became] different. Greek. heteros. App-124.
glistering = effulgent, or lightening forth (as though from internal light). The Eng. “glister” is from the Anglo-Saxon glisian = to shine, or glitter.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
29.] St. Luke seems to have declined the use of (employed by the other two Evangelists here), that he might not awaken in his Greek readers any ideas or feelings connected with the fabulous metamorphoses of their heathen deities. Wordsw.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 9:29. ) the aspect, the expression and look of His countenance.-, altered) The language of the earth does not suffice to express things strictly celestial. So it is said of the godly, , we shall be changed, 1Co 15:51.-. glistering [flashing brightly forth]) the glory of His body shining out transparently from within, and passing through the pores of the garment.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Exo 34:29-35, Isa 33:17, Isa 53:2, Mat 17:2, Mar 9:2, Mar 9:3, Joh 1:14, Act 6:15, Phi 3:7, Phi 3:8, 2Pe 1:16-18, Rev 1:13-16, Rev 20:11
Reciprocal: Jdg 13:6 – countenance was Dan 10:6 – his face Luk 3:21 – and praying 2Co 3:7 – that Phi 2:8 – in
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE VISION ON THE MOUNT
As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.
Luk 9:29
The vision of the Transfiguration was the joint experience of three men.
I. A loftier mount.The Mount of the Transfiguration is a loftier mount than the Mount of the Beatitudes. The lowlier leads to the higher. If you hear Christ, and if you ask Him for those things which make man blessed, that will lead you up to a higher mount by and by. But for the most part the children of the Mount of Teaching never expect on this side of death to ascend to the Mount of Open Vision; they do not look for it. But Christ says that some shall.
II. Prayer and transfiguration.If our Lord Jesus Christ went up into a mountain to pray, and as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, are we not most forcibly taught the service and value of prayer in relation to our own transfiguration? Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God in a yearning and receptive condition. Prayer is actual communion with the Father of glory. And actual communion of the soul with the Father of glory changes the substance and the form of the soul.
III. Spiritual vision opened.We are not to suppose that the glory in which Christ appeared was shed on Him at the time. The glory was inherent in Christ. He is the Lord of glory. And the spiritual vision of the disciples, for the time being, being opened, they saw the glory, that they might bear witness.
IV. The effect of the vision on the condition that the men were in caused them to fall on their faces. They became sore afraid, for the poor outer man is quite incapable of the glory of the inner world until he is changed into the same image. Divine powers are slumbering in our inner man; but the body of our flesh and the fleshly life bring a heavy stupor on the finer powers of our spiritual body, and for the most part the inner man in most men and women is often asleep, as good as dead, just as good as dead. But this can be in a moment reversed.
Illustrations
(1) As the glory of the sun makes a new earth, so the glory of Christ makes a new man. And nothing is more freely given than Christs glory to every repenting and deserving soul. From the operating of His glory on the souls nature comes that mysterious wedding garment.
(2) To pray! Lukes is the Gospel of the Manhood. Behold the Man is its keynote. Hence it is full of prayer. It was as He prayed that the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering. And there is a transfiguration for you and me. It has not to be sought on mountain-tops of rapturous experience, or in fervid assemblies under the spell of the masters of human speech. It is effected for us as it was for Him. A life of prayer, a life in which prayer is no mere morning and evening incident, but a life that is ever turned heavenwardsuch a life will carry a transfigured face, whether its lot be cast among the elegant surroundings of culture and wealth, or amid the trials and stress of busy labour and humble commonplace.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
9
Fashion is from EIDOS which Thayer defines, “Properly that which strikes the eye, which is exposed to view; the external appearance, form, figure, shape.” Matthew (chapter 17:2) says Jesus was “trans. figured,” and the definition is given at that place. The words used by each of the evangelists were true of Jesus then.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The fact that Jesus experienced a change while praying also implies the subjective effect prayer can have on people. It transforms them as it did Him. Luke avoided the term "transfigured" that Matthew and Mark used probably to avoid giving his Greek readers, who were familiar with stories about gods appearing to men, this idea. Jesus was much more than a Greek god. Instead Luke simply described the change in Jesus that suggests a metamorphosis into a holy condition (cf. Exo 34:29-35; 2Co 3:7; 2Co 3:13). The vision is of a righteous One who has come through suffering (Dan 3:12-25; cf. Rev 3:5). [Note: Danker, p. 116.] The three disciples evidently saw Jesus as He will appear in His glorified state at His second coming.