But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.
But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, х diagreegoreesantes (G1235) de (G1161)]. So certainly mint interpreters Understand the expression. But as the word signifies, not 'to awake,' but 'to keep awake,' which agrees much better with the manifest intention of the Evangelist, we should either, with Meyer and Alford, render the words, 'but having kept, awake,' or, better still perhaps, with Olshausen, 'having roused themselves up,' or shaken off their drowsiness. From Luke 8:37 it would appear that this Transfiguration scene took place during night, and that the Lord must have passed the whole night on the mountain; because it was "the next day" before He and the three "came down from the hill." This will account for the drowsiness of the disciples.
They saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. The emphasis here lies on the word "saw;" so that they were "eye-witnesses of His majesty," as one of them long afterward testifies that they were (2 Peter 1:16). In like manner, Elijah made it the one condition of Elisha's getting a double portion of his spirit after he went away, that he should see him ascend: "If thou see me taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so." Accordingly, immediately after the record of Elijah's translation, it is added, "And Elisha saw it" (2 Kings 2:10; 2 Kings 2:12).