NEW PROPOSAL FOR THE APPEARANCE OF MOSES AND ELIJAH
The key for the Gospel
audiences to understand the significance of the appearance of Moses and Elijah
is the way these prophets attained heavenly glory after their lives on earth in
contrast to the way that Jesus will ultimately attain heavenly glory. All three
epiphanic figures in the transfiguration narrative – Moses, Elijah, and Jesus –
were prophetic figures who experienced opposition, rejection, and suffering at
the hands of their own people. Although Elijah was rejected as a prophet, he
was never put to death by his people. Indeed, Elijah- escaped earth altogether
and rode a flaming chariot into heavenly glory (2 Kgs 2:11).
Likewise, the prophet Moses
was never put to death by the people who opposed him. Moses attained heavenly
glory either after dying peacefully at an old age (Deut 34:5) or according to
some traditions by not dying at all but being translated to heaven like Elijah
and Enoch.
In contrast to Moses and
Elijah Jesus will attain heavenly glory, not by forgoing death or after dying a
natural death, but by being raised by God after being put to death by his own
people as an innocent and righteous prophetic figure. We propose that the point
of the epiphanic appearance of Moses and Elijah in conversation with the
transfigured Jesus is to indicate to the Gospel audiences that although Jesus
will attain heavenly glory like Moses and Elijah, he, unlike them, do so by
being raised by God after suffering the unjust death of a rejected prophet.
(John Paul Heil, The Transfiguration of Jesus: Narrative Meaning and
Function of Mark 9:2-8, Matt 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36 [Analecta Biblica 144;
Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 2000], 98-100)
