If, then, Jesus’ human form was the Tabernacle in which God was present among his people, and his physical body could be thought of as the veil in the Tabernacle which concealed his divine glory from the world, and protected the world from it, there was one occasion on which this veil slipped a little, and let through a chink of that glorious light. This was, of course, what we call the transfiguration, recorded in all three synoptic gospels. It is significant, I believe, that it is these three accounts that contain three of the four occurrences of ‘skene’ in the gospels. The three accounts differ slightly, with Luke, in particular, supplying some interesting detail not given by the other two; but all three report, almost identically, the words of Peter (who else ?), who, in the stress of the moment, blurts out “Lord, it is good for us to be here: if you want” – in Matthew only – “let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Matt 17.4, Mark 9.5, Luke 9.33). Matthew charitably forbears to comment on Peter’s suggestion (group loyalty to a fellow member of the twelve?), but Mark and Luke both add: “for he did not know what he was saying” – or “what to say”. Why, then, is this mindless saying recorded in all three accounts, when it appears to be an irrelevance ? One possibility is that, like Peter’s denial, recorded in all four gospels, it is something that Peter himself often returned to in his teaching and preaching, and wanted recorded as a sign of his own foolishness and fallibility now that he was the (earthly) head of the church, just as Paul used to recall his former persecution of the church to emphasise that “it is by the grace of God that I am what I am” (1 Cor 15.10). But perhaps there is another reason as well: maybe they came to realise that this suggestion that they make three ‘tents’, or ‘booths’, was actually full of interesting ironies. These we will now explore.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
SKENE 18: the Transfiguration
If, then, Jesus’ human form was the Tabernacle in which God was present among his people, and his physical body could be thought of as the veil in the Tabernacle which concealed his divine glory from the world, and protected the world from it, there was one occasion on which this veil slipped a little, and let through a chink of that glorious light. This was, of course, what we call the transfiguration, recorded in all three synoptic gospels. It is significant, I believe, that it is these three accounts that contain three of the four occurrences of ‘skene’ in the gospels. The three accounts differ slightly, with Luke, in particular, supplying some interesting detail not given by the other two; but all three report, almost identically, the words of Peter (who else ?), who, in the stress of the moment, blurts out “Lord, it is good for us to be here: if you want” – in Matthew only – “let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Matt 17.4, Mark 9.5, Luke 9.33). Matthew charitably forbears to comment on Peter’s suggestion (group loyalty to a fellow member of the twelve?), but Mark and Luke both add: “for he did not know what he was saying” – or “what to say”. Why, then, is this mindless saying recorded in all three accounts, when it appears to be an irrelevance ? One possibility is that, like Peter’s denial, recorded in all four gospels, it is something that Peter himself often returned to in his teaching and preaching, and wanted recorded as a sign of his own foolishness and fallibility now that he was the (earthly) head of the church, just as Paul used to recall his former persecution of the church to emphasise that “it is by the grace of God that I am what I am” (1 Cor 15.10). But perhaps there is another reason as well: maybe they came to realise that this suggestion that they make three ‘tents’, or ‘booths’, was actually full of interesting ironies. These we will now explore.
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