Jesus is Transfigured Before Peter, James and John and Reveals His Glory (9:1-8).
Having revealed to His disciples His coming glory, based on His coming suffering, Jesus will now completely open half-opened blind eyes so that they may see fully. It is one thing to be told of the glory that is coming, it is another to see it with one's own eyes. In a sense what happens now is a preview of Jesus' second coming.
There also seems little doubt that Jesus intended the scene now described to be looked on as to some extent paralleling Moses' entry into the Mount to meet God in Exodus. There Moses went into the mountain after six days where He met with God, accompanied by his servant Joshua, and beheld in a cloud the glory of God, observed also by the favoured group of seventy who had gathered in the Mount and eaten before God (Exodus 24:1-2; Exodus 24:9-11; Exodus 24:13-18). But the thought is not so much of a new Moses as of a new ‘divine event'.
Here the three disciples are taken up into the Mount, but what they see there is Moses with Elijah, who behold the glory of Jesus. The inference is clear. Jesus is on the divine side of reality, and is fulfilling the Law and the prophets. The disciples would not understand this at the time, but later John would write, ‘And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Son of a Father, full of grace and truth' (John 1:14), while Peter would declare, ‘We were eyewitnesses of His majesty' (2 Peter 1:16).
Analysis of 9:1-10.
a And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some here of those who stand by, who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Kingly Rule of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1).
b And after six days Jesus takes with Him Peter, and James, and John, and brings them up into a high mountain apart by themselves (Mark 9:2 a).
c And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became glistering, exceedingly white, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them (Mark 9:2-3).
d And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus (Mark 9:4).
e And Peter answers and says to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here” (Mark 9:5 a).
d “And let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah”, for he did not know what to answer, for they became grievously afraid (Mark 9:5-6).
c And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, hear you Him” (Mark 9:7).
b And suddenly looking round about, they saw no one any more, except Jesus only with themselves (Mark 9:8).
a And as they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen again from the dead, and they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean (Mark 9:9-10).
Note that in ‘a' some would not taste of death until they saw the Kingly Rule of God come with power, and in the parallel the three were not to tell anyone of what they had seen until the Son of Man was risen from the dead. In ‘b' the three went into the mountain with Jesus, and in the parallel they look round and see Jesus only with themselves. In ‘c' the transfigured Jesus is described in all His glory, and in the parallel the voice declares Him to be the Father's beloved Son Who is to be listened to. In ‘d' Elijah and Moses were talking with Jesus, and in the parallel Peter suggests making booths for all three so that they might live in them. Centrally in ‘e' Peter declares that it was good for them to be there.