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NASB | Matthew 17:3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 17:3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. |
Subject: Moses appeared from where? |
Bible Note: Greetings Drbloor, As far as the Transfiguration itself being only a vision of sorts of Moses and Elijah, perhaps Mark 9:9 is a bit more direct with "eido" (to see / be sure of / to know). When the English rendering of "to see" is applied to "horao" in Luke 9:36, then we can understand Matthew 17:19 in that the Transfiguration had a double signficance. First, Jesus received a 'double approval': from God the Father, and from the fact that what the supreme law-giver (Moses) and the greatest of the prophets (Elijah) saw in Jesus was the total consummation of all that they had dreamed of. Second, the Transfiguration gave the disciples something to hold on to, even when they could not understand it, until a later time. The disciples had been shattered by Jesus' statement that He was going to die - still struggling with what "Messiahship" was all about. Jesus told them not tell anyone because He saw in Messiahship a way of service, love and sacrifice with a cross at the end of it. Galileans were ever ready to follow any nationalist leader - a conquering King who would blast the Romans and lead the Jews to domination. Therefore, before there could be any proclamation of His Messiahship, Jesus had to educate the disciples into what the true idea of Messiahship was - and only disaster could have come at this stage from any proclamation that the Messiah had arrived. Therefore, "eido" in Mark 9:9 leads us to believe that this was more of an encounter rather than just a vision "horama" in Matthew 17:19. For Jesus, this was a true encounter, but for the disciples, they could only understand it and take it as nothing more than a vision, much like the burning bush, Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10, etc., and they would later understand (John 14:26) what it was all about. Blessings to you, Makarios |