what they had, of their earnest readiness to do their little best, if they could but secure it
- make booths for the heavenly Visitants28 - and themselves wait in humble service and
reverent attention on what their dull heaviness had prevented their enjoying and
profiting by, to the full. They knew and felt it: 'Lord' - 'Rabbi' - 'Master' - 'it is good for us
to be here' - and they longed to have it; yet how to secure it, their terror could not
suggest, save in the language of ignorance and semi -conscious confusion. 'They wist
not what they said.' In presence of the luminous cloud that enwrapt those glorified
Saints, the y spake from out that darkness which compassed them about.
27. Conder, u.s. vol. i. p 265.
28. Wünsche (ad loc.) quotes as it seems to me, very inaptly, the Rabbinic realistic idea
of the fulfilment of Is. iv. 5, 6, that God would make for each of the righteous seven
booths, varying according to their merits (Baba B. 75 a) or else one booth for each
(Bemid. R. 21, ed. Warsh. p. 85 a). Surely, there can be no similarity between this and
the words of Peter.
And now the light-cloud was spreading; presently i ts fringe fell upon them.29 Heaven's
awe was upon them: for the touch of the heavenly strains, almost to breaking, the bond
betwixt body and soul. 'And a Voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My Beloved30
Son: hear Him.' It had needed only One other Testimony to seal it all; One other Voice,
to give both meaning and music to what had been the subject of Moses' and Elijah's
speaking. That Voice had now come - not in testimony to any fact, but to a Person - that
of Jesus as His 'Beloved Son,'31 and in gracious direction to them. They heard it, falling
on their faces in awestruck worship.
29. A comparison of the narratives leaves on us the impression that the disciples also
were touched by the cloud. I cannot agree with Godet , that the question depends on
whether we adopt in St. Luke ix. 34 the reading of the T.R. εκεινους, or that of the Alex.
αυτους.
30. The more correct reading in St. Luke seems to be 'Elect Son.'
31. St. Matthew adds, 'in Whom I am well pleased.' The reason of this fuller account is
not difficult to understand.
How long the silence had lasted, and the last rays of the cloud had passed, we know
not. Presently, it was a gentle touch that roused them. It was the Hand of Jesus, as with
words of comfort He reassured them: 'Arise, and be not afraid.' And as, startled,32 they
looked round about them, they saw no man save Jesus only. The Heavenly Visitants
had gone, the last glow of the light-cloud had faded away, the echoes of Heaven's Voice
had died out. It was night, and they were on the Mount with Jesus, and with Jesus only.
32. St. Mark indicates this by the words: 'And suddenly, when they looked round about.'
Is it truth or falsehood; was it reality or vision, or part of both, this Transfiguration-scene
on Hermon? One thing, at least, must be evident: if it be a true narrative, it cannot
possibly describe a merely subjective vision without objective reality. But, in that case, it
would be not only difficult, but impossible, to separate one part of the narrative - the