Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 1 Study # 3
December 20, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(366)
1901 ASV
9:2 And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them;
9:3 and his garments became glistering, exceeding white, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.
9:4 And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.
9:5 And Peter answereth and saith to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
9:6 For he knew not what to answer; for they became sore afraid.
9:7 And there came a cloud overshadowing them: and there came a voice out of the cloud, This is my beloved Son: hear ye him.
9:8 And suddenly looking round about, they saw no one any more, save Jesus only with themselves.
- I. After Six Days.
- A. This is Mark's "signal" that the prophecy by Jesus is going to be fulfilled.
- B. What was prophesied to be "seen" is now going to be given its details.
- C. Why "six days" is the time frame is not obviously apparent to me, though it is contextually tied to "seeing" the Kingdom of The God having come with power".
- 1. Peter did comment upon this event in 2 Peter 1:16-18 and focused upon it as a foundation for remaining confident through the difficulties of our present experience.
- 2. He said that a part of his ministry was "making known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [as] eyewitnesses of His majesty" and that God the Father corroborated that "eyewitness" with a "voice" (verbal, audible, words) from the "excellent glory" identifying Jesus as "My Beloved Son" (1:11, not repeated by Mark until 9:7) [a literary device where the beginning of the opening thesis of Mark has this Father's testimony given, and, now the opening of the second thesis of Mark has the same testimony].
- a. In terms of "literary device", 9:1-13 is the initiation of a chiasm and 11:1-11 is the closing of it.
- 1) Both of these paragraphs are focused upon the identity of Jesus as the King of the coming Kingdom.
- 2) With 1:11 in mind, as the preliminary issue of the first major segment of Mark's effort, we can see that Mark clearly understands the difficulty of the disciples' dealings with the "contrary" theses so that he makes sure that we do not "lose" our grasp of Jesus as The Coming Mighty One as we watch Him being subjected to all manner of actions designed to humiliate Him and put Him to death. Mark's record in 15:31 brings this tension out in the open: "He saved others; Himself He cannot save".
- b. Mark is doing the very same thing Peter said he was doing: reminding so that the truth of the one thesis is not lost in the face of the following thesis.
- II. Jesus "Is Taking" The Peter, and The James, and The John with Him.
- A. The present tense verb in the historical narrative is intensive.
- 1. The verb (paralambano) is used by Mark in six places.
- a. In 4:36, Jesus is already in the boat and "they are taking Him..." (Present Tense).
- b. In 5:40, Jesus only allowed the Peter, and James, and John to go with him to Jairus' house and He "is taking" (Present Tense) the father, the mother, and "those who were with Him" (the Peter, James, John) into the room where the dead girl had been laid.
- c. In 7:4, what is "received to hold" (Aorist) is a host of traditions regarding the details of "uncleanness" (in this case, eating with unwashed hands).
- d. In 9:2 (our current text) the verb is present tense and involves the Peter, and the James, and the John.
- e. In 10:32, Jesus, "having taken" (Aorist) again The Twelve, He began to say to them...".
- f. In 14:33, we are back to "is taking" (Present) and the Peter, and James, and John (with the apparent additions of the definite article before James and John by some copyist) and they are to pray with Jesus before His arrest in the garden.
- 2. Clearly the three men He "is taking" are "special privilege" men whose futures reveal how special they were.
- a. Peter became "the" apostle to the circumcision.
- b. James became the first of the apostles to be martyred.
- c. John died a natural death after being the author of a Gospel, three letters, and the Book of The Revelation.
