Conversation Points for Mark 9:2-9

Study Format: 1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The transfiguration happened “six days later” (v.2), after the teaching at Caesarea Philippi (8:27-9:1), where Jesus asked the disciples, “who do you say that I am,” and Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.” That confession by Peter was the first time a human correctly identified Jesus (demons had been identifying him since the beginning). The transfiguration demonstrates the truth of Peter’s statement, that Jesus is, in fact the Messiah, God’s beloved son (8:29; 9:7; 14:61).
• The glory of the coming Son of Man Jesus spoke of in Caesarea Philippi (“when he [the Son of Man] comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” 8:38) is anticipated by the shining white garments of Jesus at the transfiguration (9:3).
• Like in Caesarea Philippi, when the disciples finally correctly identified Jesus and got the same command he had given the disciples (“And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him” 8:30), the witnesses to the transfiguration get the same command, but with a twist (“he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead” 9:9). The disciples at this point did not know what Jesus was referring to, though he predicted his passion and resurrection at Caesarea Philippi (“Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” 8:31).
• The three disciples present at the transfiguration, Peter, James, and John, are part of the first group of disciples he called. They were also present at the healing of Jairus’s daughter (5:37) and will be the ones he took into the Garden at Gethsemane with him (14:32). Despite being with Jesus at all these crucial moments, they didn’t seem to have any special insight into him. Peter already screwed up the whole “You are the Messiah” thing by arguing about the need for Jesus to suffer (8:33), James and John will have a fight about who’s the greatest (10:35-37), and all three will fall asleep in the garden (14:33-41).
• The appearance of Moses and Elijah demonstrated Jesus’ status above them. Moses and Elijah are two of three figures (Enoch was the third, Genesis 5:21-24) whom Jewish tradition believed were alive in heaven. Moses’ burial place was unknown (“Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the LORD’s command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day” Deuteronomy 34:5-6), and Elijah was taken up in a chariot (2 Kings 2:1-11).
• Other Old Testament allusions include the dazzling white clothing of heavenly beings (“As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took his throne; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire” Daniel 7:9; “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” Daniel 12:3). The mountain, clouds, and divine voice echo God’s appearance to Moses on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 24:15-18.
• One of the primary purposes of this story seems to have been to demonstrate Peter’s continued lack of understanding, as demonstrated by his attempt to “make three dwellings.” Some scholars think this was a reference to the booths built for the Feast of Tabernacles (“You shall live in booths for seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” Leviticus 23:42-43). Others think it was an attempt to replicate Moses’ tent of meeting (“Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each of them, at the entrance of their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tents. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent” Exodus 33:7-11).
• The reader of Mark’s Gospel recognizes the voice from heaven in 9:7 (“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’”) as the same one that spoke at Jesus’ baptism in 1:11(“And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”).

Works Sourced:
Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel of Mark.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.