If the wilderness tradition
provides the background for all motifs in the transfiguration narrative, it is
natural to assume that the meaning of this pericope is equally determined by
this tradition. The function of Moses and Elijah in this story is neither to
predict the resurrection nor to forecast the parousia of Christ. Rather their
role is to reveal the character of Jesus as the one in whom the prediction of
the second exodus becomes a reality. The epiphany of the glory of God is an
indispensable element of the desert tradition. In the case of both Moses and
Elijah it serves as divine vindication of their mission during their life in
the wilderness. The same is true of Jesus. His mission had started with his
baptism in the desert. There the voice of God had declared him to be his
beloved son (1.11). Now, at the transfiguration on the wilderness mountain,
this voice is heard again and the metamorphosis is the revelation of the hidden
quality of Jesus’ life. The lonely Galilean understands John’s call to
repentance as the call to a life of persistence in the desert. The obedience to
the call is now vindicated by God on the way through the wilderness. To be
sure, the way through the wilderness has not yet reached its termination in the
transfiguration. This precisely is the misunderstanding of Peter who, in
suggesting that tents be erected, implies that he regards the time as fulfilled
and the goal of the eternal sabbath as accomplished. But the position of the
transfiguration between the first prediction of suffering (8.31) and the
dialogue between Jesus and the disciples on the way down from the mountain
(9.11-13) makes it quite clear that Peter’s words in 9.5 reflect the same wrong
concept as his answer in 8.32. The time in the wilderness has not yet come to
an end, rather it is still to culminate in Jesus’ suffering and death. The
interpretation of Luke in his version of the transfiguration is therefore fully
in keeping with the intention of Mark when the third Evangelist notes that
Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus ‘if his departure’ (την εξοδον αυτου), which he was going to
accomplish in Jerusalem’ (Luke 9.31). For the first time, therefore, we get the
impression that the wilderness theme in Mark is related to Jesus’ passion. It
may well be that Moses and Elijah are not only to be taken as the prophets in
the wilderness, but also perhaps even more specifically as representatives of
the suffering servant. Moses is called the servant of the Lord forty times in
the Old Testament, and perhaps Elijah is also referred to in this matter in
Ecclus. 48.10. (Ulrich W. Mauser, Christ in the Wilderness [Studies in
biblical Theology First Series No. 39; London: SCM Press, 1963; repr., Eugene,
Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2009], 117-18)
