The Transfiguration happened at night!
We aren't accustomed to reading the Bible stories as events that, if it weren't for time and distance, we could have been there to see it. At the beginning of our workshops we ask people to read a story each from Mark's Gospel as if they were actually there to witness it and then read it to a partner. Not only is the way they read it dramatically different - always people tell us that by doing that simple exercise they noticed small details in the stories that they'd never noticed before - even though it may have been fairly familiar to them.
I had that experience yesterday about the Transfiguration story.
I only noticed yesterday that the Transfiguration must have happened at night. This isn't immediately obvious at first and you cannot see it in Matthew or Mark's accounts - but if you look closely at Luke's version you can see it.
The give away line in Luke's account is at the beginning of the next story which begins:
"On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain..." Luke 9:37
Evidently, Jesus had taken Peter, John and James up the mountain to pray and they stayed there all night before they came down. This fits a pattern that Luke gives us of Jesus praying through the night (see Luke 5:16 and the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:39-45)
Another clue is that how Luke describes the disciples:
"Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory..." Luke 9:32
Just like at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took his friends to pray through the night with him but they didn't have the stamina and they fell asleep.
Why does this matter? It doesn't really - but read this description and visualise it as happening in the dark:
"As he was praying, the appearance of his face was changed, and his clothing became bright like lightning." Luke 9:29
How much more spectacular is that! Just like lightning is far more impressive at night time - the sun wasn't visible to dilute Jesus' glory.
Most of the classical works of art based on the transfiguration miss this detail about the story (even the famous 'Jesus Film') but here's a painting by Raphael that is pretty cool (see right).
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Monday 1:18 pm, February 9 2009 - Permalink
Categories: LukeJesus,
- Consequences of Prayer in Luke and Acts
- How to host a great Backyard Bard storytelling event
- New Structure for Public Bible Reading Workshops
- Short Talk from Jonah
- Lessons from Paul's Third Missionary Journey
- Short Talk from Ruth
- New Workshop Structure - 'Connecting' and 'Communicating'
- First place in everything
- The low-hanging fruit in church
- Tips for better Bible reading
- A brief history of Public Bible Reading
- The Transfiguration happened at night!
- Misreading the Beatitudes
- Jesus: A Short Life - John Dickson
- A Father's pain
- Certainty of what you've been taught
- I said to myself: "Self, ..."
- Why stories are important in the Bible
- Gabriel would tell us off as well
- No longer pokey
- Purpose of this blog
