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Who witnessed the Transfiguration?
Synoptics: Peter, James and John ([Matt. xvii, 1]; [Mark ix, 2]; [Luke ix, 28]).
It is remarkable that Matthew, Mark and Luke, who did not witness the Transfiguration, are the only ones to report it; while John, who is declared to have witnessed it, knows nothing about it. Concerning this and other events which John is said to have witnessed, Greg says: “All the events said to have been witnessed by John alone are omitted by John alone. This fact seems fatal either to the reality of the events in question or to the genuineness of the Fourth Gospel.”
Regarding this subject Scott says: “By some singular fatality the writer of the fourth gospel seems incapable of describing any one incident in the life of Jesus as the Synoptics have described it.... It is hard to believe that we are reading narratives which profess to relate the life of the same person.... If then in these particulars, the Synoptic Gospels are correct, the Johannine version of the events is pure fiction; and if the latter be taken as the true account, no dependence whatever can be placed upon the former” (Life of Jesus, pp. 259–263).
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Compare the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus with the account of Moses at Mount Sinai.
| Matthew. | Exodus. |
| “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, “And was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light” ([xvii, 1, 2]). “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold a voice out of the cloud,” etc. ([5]). | “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu” ([xxiv, 9]). “And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. “And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire” ([15–17]). |