This is My beloved Son: the Transfiguration and the road down the mountain

Matthew 17 continues straight from the confession at Caesarea Philippi. The Gospel is traditionally attributed to the apostle Matthew, though many scholars hold that an unnamed Jewish Christian wrote it in Greek in the 80s of the first century, with some arguing for the 60s. It was written for Jewish-Christian readers who knew the Law and the Prophets. Chapter 17 shows Jesus before the heavenly witnesses of Moses and Elijah, speaking with the voice of the Father, and it then takes the reader back down to the ordinary needs of a crowd, a sick child and a tax.

The Transfiguration is told in Mark 9:2-13 and Luke 9:28-36, and the three accounts agree closely, which fits the usual view that Matthew and Luke used Mark. Luke adds that Jesus went up to pray, that he spoke with Moses and Elijah about his 'departure' (exodos) in Jerusalem, and that the disciples were heavy with sleep. Matthew adds that the disciples fell facedown in fear and that Jesus touched them. John's Gospel does not tell the scene, though some see allusions to it in John 1:14. A New Testament letter, 2 Peter 1:16-18, refers to it as the witness of eyewitnesses of Christ's majesty on the holy mountain. The healing of the boy is in Mark 9:14-29 (with more detail) and Luke 9:37-43, and the second prediction of the passion in Mark 9:30-32 and Luke 9:43-45. The temple tax is found only in Matthew.

The mountain is not named. Early tradition identified it as Tabor in Galilee, but many scholars think Mount Hermon, near Caesarea Philippi, fits the text better. The Transfiguration takes place 'after six days', so it is linked to Peter's confession and the first prediction of the cross. The temple tax at the end of the chapter was the annual half-shekel paid by Jewish men (Exodus 30:11-16). The collectors come to Capernaum, Jesus' base in Galilee.

The Transfiguration is a theophany, a visible manifestation of God's glory, and it has to be read against the great theophanies of the Old Testament. Matthew's wording invites this: six days, a high mountain, a shining face, a cloud, a voice, fear. Exodus 24:15-16 says the cloud covered Mount Sinai for six days before God spoke to Moses on the seventh. Exodus 34:29-35 describes Moses' face shining after he spoke with God. Elijah met God on Horeb (1 Kings 19). The scene places Jesus among them as the one to whom they bear witness.

The second principle is to read the chapter in its Matthean sequence. The Transfiguration follows the first prediction of the cross and the call to take it up (16:21-26), and it is followed by the second prediction (17:22-23). Glory and suffering are joined. Jesus is shown in glory, and then immediately comes down to the road to Jerusalem. The Transfiguration is not a detour from the cross; it declares who is going to the cross.

The last part of the chapter, the coin in the fish, is a short narrative with a riddle of Jesus' own: a question and an argument that sons are free. It is best read as a teaching about Jesus' status as Son and the willingness to waive a right to avoid offense. The miracle is promised, not narrated.

Verses 1–8

After six days Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain. He is transfigured (metamorphoo, changed in form) before them: his face shines like the sun, and his clothes become white as light. Moses and Elijah appear, speaking with him. Moses stands for the Law and Elijah for the Prophets. Peter says it is good to be there and offers to put up three shelters. The word recalls the tents of the wilderness and the Feast of Tabernacles. While he is speaking, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice from the cloud says, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!' The first part repeats the voice at the baptism (3:17), which drew on Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. The added command 'Listen to Him' echoes Deuteronomy 18:15, where Moses promises that God will raise up a prophet like him, and 'to him you shall listen'. The disciples fall facedown in terror. Jesus touches them and says, 'Get up. Do not be afraid.' When they look up they see no one except Jesus. The Law and the Prophets have borne witness and now step back. The voice commands attention to Jesus alone.

Verses 9–13

Coming down, Jesus orders them to tell no one the vision until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. They ask why the scribes say Elijah must come first, an expectation from Malachi 4:5-6. Jesus says Elijah does come and will restore all things, but Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him and did to him whatever they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man will suffer at their hands. The disciples understand he is speaking of John the Baptist. This continues what Jesus said in 11:14. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), and his fate foretells Jesus' own.

Verses 14–20

At the foot of the mountain a man kneels and asks mercy for his son, who has seizures and often falls into fire or water. The disciples could not heal him. Jesus calls the generation unbelieving and perverse, echoing Moses' words about Israel (Deuteronomy 32:5), and asks how long he must put up with them. He rebukes the demon, and the boy is healed from that moment. The disciples ask privately why they could not. 'Because you have so little faith', he says. 'If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ''Move from here to there,'' and it will move.' The mustard seed, the smallest seed a farmer sowed, shows that the power is not in the amount of faith but in the One in whom faith is placed. The image of a moving mountain was a Jewish figure for something impossible. Some manuscripts have a verse 21, 'this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting', which the best early manuscripts lack and which may come from Mark 9:29, so the numbering skips from 20 to 22.

Verses 22–23

Back in Galilee Jesus says the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, that they will kill him and that on the third day he will be raised. The disciples are deeply grieved. Matthew mentions the resurrection, but the disciples hear only the death.

Verses 24–27

In Capernaum the collectors of the two-drachma tax ask Peter whether his teacher pays it. This was the annual temple tax of a half-shekel. Peter says yes. Jesus asks him from whom kings collect taxes, from their sons or from others. From others, says Peter. Then the sons are exempt, says Jesus. The point is that he is the Son of the God whose house the temple is, and so is free from its tax. But so as not to give offense (skandalizo), he tells Peter to go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish, in whose mouth he will find a four-drachma coin (a stater), enough for both of them. Jesus claims freedom and chooses to waive it. After AD 70 the Romans required Jews to pay a tax to the temple of Jupiter in place of the temple tax, and some scholars suggest the passage had a fresh interest for Matthew's readers, though this is a suggestion.

The chapter carries several doctrines.

• The first is revelation: the Father speaks, and the Law and the Prophets bear witness. The Old Testament is not discarded; it points to Jesus and gives way to him as its fulfilment.
• The second is the glory of the Son. The disciples see, for a moment, what Jesus' glory is, and the same glory is later described in John 1:14 and Philippians 2:6-11. The glory of the Son and the suffering of the Son are not opposed. The Father's voice at the Transfiguration and the passion predictions on either side belong together.

• The third is the prophetic pattern of rejection. John was rejected as Elijah, and Jesus will be rejected as Son.
• The fourth is faith and prayer. The disciples have power given to them (10:1), yet they fail. Their failure shows that the power belongs to God, and that faith is trust in him, however small.
• The fifth is the freedom of the Son and the humility of the Son. Jesus is free as the Son of the king, and he gives up the right so as not to cause offense. The same pattern is seen in Philippians 2:6-8.

This chapter shows who Jesus is in several ways at once. The Transfiguration is a fulfilment and a type together. Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, speak with him and then disappear, leaving 'no one except Jesus' (17:8). The command 'Listen to Him' echoes Deuteronomy 18:15, the promise of a prophet like Moses, and Acts 3:22 and 7:37 apply it to Jesus. The words of the voice also combine Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42, the royal Son and the suffering Servant, as at the baptism. The scene also suggests a greater Moses: Moses saw God's glory on Sinai; now the disciples see Jesus' own.

Jesus names John the Baptist as the Elijah of Malachi 4:5. The forerunner has come, which means the Messiah is here. His statement that the Son of Man will suffer as John did connects the Transfiguration glory to the cross. The second prediction of his death and resurrection makes plain that the glory they saw is the glory of one who will die and rise.

The story of the temple tax shows Jesus claiming to be the Son of the One whose house the temple is. The kings of the earth do not tax their sons. Jesus identifies himself as a Son who is free, and yet he pays, including Peter in the payment. In 20:28 he says the Son of Man came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In both cases the Son uses his freedom to take on a burden for others.