Last week in looking at the Transfiguration in Matthew 17 we considered the allusions to Moses' experiences on Mount Sinai. Some of these may be a stretch, but taken all together I think it's convincing that there's a connection.
Matthew 17 compared with Exodus 24 & 34:
- Same setting: a high mountain (Ex 24:12, 15-18; 34:3; Mt 17:1)
- A cloud descends and overshadows the mountain (Ex 24:15-18; 34:5; Mt 17:5)
- A voice comes from the cloud (Ex 24:16; Mt 17:5)
- The central figures become radiant (Ex 34:29-30, 35; Mt 17:2)
- Those who see the radiance / hear the voice become afraid (Ex 34:30; Mt 17:6* (they hear); Mk 9:6)
- The event takes place after six days (Ex 24:16; Mt 17:1)
- A select group of 3 people is mentioned (Ex 24:1; Mt 17:1)
- Moses and Elijah are only OT figures of whom it is said that they spoke with God on Mount Sinai. (Elijah in 1 Kings 19 is on "Mount Horeb" - understood to be Sinai). Their appearance on a mountain should evoke the thought of Sinai.
And compared with Mark's account, if indeed Matthew was using Mark's account or its equivalent, it looks like Matthew made the following changes:
> Moses now comes before Elijah
> Matthew says Jesus’ “face shone like the sun” while Mark only mentions garments (cf. Ex. 34:29-35)
> Adds adjective “bright” to the cloud (a paradox) that overshadows. Shekinah?
“with whom I am well pleased” is same as in baptism (not in Mark or Luke), quotes the suffering servant of Isaiah 42:1.
In the group last Tuesday, one of our members brought up the idea that Peter and James and John may have been observing Moses talking with God on the mountain, and Elijah talking with God on the mountain (it was seconded by two others)... in a kind of time warp (aka "Lost" or some other sci fi fantasy) - or chronos (linear time) vs kairos (God's special specific time). What an amazingly interesting idea!
I'm open to this, but we still have to probe and ask why the Holy Spirit, and why Matthew, recorded this story here at this point in the gospel?
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