Coming Down the Mountain

I want to speak about the interval between the transfiguration and the confrontation. I'll explain by saying this: Jesus and three disciples came down from the mountain upon which had occurred the transfiguration. That took time. Between the transfiguration and their return to the remaining disciples, who were confronted by the scribes, there was a space in which occurred a little more than scampering over rocks.

In Mark 9:9-13 a certain amount of conversation took place that I wish to look at, but first I'll backtrack enough to say this: the transfiguration was stunning. It was stunning not so much because of the brightness, but because the disciples were stunned. Such things just didn't happen. For men to appear in such a manner might seem more appropriate in a science fiction setting than a real-world historical setting. The disciples were afraid. They hardly knew how to act or what to say.

And then there was that voice from nowhere. Suddenly, everything seemed normal again. The men were gone and the disciples stood with Jesus only. Of course, Jesus charged them to keep it all a secret. That fact in itself deserves examination, but I will leave it for others. I want to bring up a matter of a different nature. The disciples recognized dead prophets. In a society that frowned on images, insomuch that there were neither statues nor paintings of the prophets, just how did these simple men recognize them as Moses and Elijah?

Were they moved only by old testament descriptions? If so, they must have been awfully well read for their non-clerical vocations. Or, did Jesus tell them who the two men were? In the space that it took them to return to the other disciples, a conversation occurred on two separate levels. The first was between the disciples themselves, which would suggest that they came down the mountain either ahead of Jesus, or trailing.

Jesus had told them, in verse 9, that he wished the matter kept secret until the Son of man “were” risen, and so in verse 10 the disciples are seen “questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.” I get the sense they huddled at some distance behind Jesus as they walked. They tried to figure it out on their own but came up short. Then they caught up with him to ask outright.

The fact that they asked about Elijah shows me that they at least connected the dots in a scriptural sense. They had recognized the dead prophet, Elijah, and they remembered that Elijah must come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Malachi 4:5. Here is my question. Did anyone see what Jesus said in Mark 9:9? He said, “Till the Son of man were risen.” Was it just bad grammar in those days, or are we to understand the term 'Son of man' in a plural sense?

The writers gave that name a greater degree of respect, as we can see in the fact that they capitalized 'Son.' He is the only begotten, so, we must look not at the word son but rather at the word 'man.' Normally, when we think of man in the plural form, we say or write the word 'mankind.' Perhaps the writers of scripture haven't always followed that protocol. On a divergent note, allow me to suggest an alternative interpretation. It may be that the word 'were' was used as a replacement for the future tense expression 'would be.' It was a condition I Progressive, putting emphasis on the course of an action.

Other scripture passages make a clearer case of Jesus' comparison between Elijah and John the Baptist. In Mark 9:12-13, Jesus shows the reason that Elijah had to be first. That reason was restoration. Indeed, if we look closely at Malachi 4:6, we see that it was either restoration or a curse: there was to be one or the other. John was Elijah, setting the stage for the work of Jesus. Malachi has a strong connection to the transfiguration passages of Mark nine. Take note that a fuller is referenced both in the transfiguration and in Malachi 3:2.

Jesus responded not only about the prophetic connection to John but also to prophetic connections to himself. He said, “And how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things and be set at nought.” It seems that Jesus was commenting about a notable difference between Elijah and the Son of man. That difference was one of direction: Elijah waxed while Jesus waned, as is found in Isaiah 53:12, “He was counted among the transgressors . . .” They were two sides of the wheel of Yin and Yang, yet, the reverse was said by John in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Lastly, Jesus indicated that they had done with John (Elijah) as it was written of him. There was a written source that told or foretold of John's demise. Elijah went up in a fiery chariot. Nothing was done to him. Where is the book to which Jesus refers?