The Lost Narrative of Jesus: deciphering the transfiguration - Softcover

Peter Cresswell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1785352776 ISBN 13: 9781785352775

Publisher: Christian Alternative, 2016

Synopsis

The greatest Christian mystery resolved! Of all the stories about Jesus, the transfiguration has been the most difficult to understand. It contains improbable, miraculous elements: a secret meeting on a mountain with Moses and Elijah - both long since dead, God speaking from a cloud, Jesus with his face and clothes transfigured by heavenly light. The story sits, with curious inconsistencies, uneasily in the gospels. There are two current theories: either that it is an allegory or a misplaced post-resurrection account. The author carefully analyses the text to show that neither is right and, in the course of his investigation, causes the pieces of the puzzle to fall dramatically back into place. The underlying Jewish narrative of the first of the four canonical gospels is once more revealed. The transfiguration story is part of the lost ending of Mark, displaced within the text and modified by later Christian editors. It tells of the awesome moment when Jesus, his body scarred through crucifixion by the Romans, came down from Mount Hermon to greet a waiting crowd.

About this title

About the Author

With a background in the sciences, anthropology and sociology, Peter Cresswell has turned his talents in recent years to New Testament textual analysis. He has made some of the most significant discoveries in this field, increasing understanding of how and why Christian texts originated and uncovering a more original Jewish narrative.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Lost Narrative of Jesus

By Peter Cresswell

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2015 Peter Cresswell
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78535-277-5

Contents

Preface, 
Introduction, 
Chapter One: According to Mark, 
Chapter Two: According to Matthew and Luke, 
Chapter Three: According to Peter, Andrew and John, 
Chapter Four: Examining the Text, 
Chapter Five: According to Peter (again) and Saul, 
Chapter Six: Keeping the Word, 
Chapter Seven: Death in the First Century, 
Chapter Eight: Day of the Lord, 
Chapter Nine: Second Coming, 
Conclusion, 
References, 
Notes, 

CHAPTER 1

According to Mark

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

And on the way he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say I am?' And they replied to him, 'John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.'

He asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?'

Peter replied, 'You are the messiah.' And he warned them that they should not tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that son of man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again.

He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But, turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, 'Get behind me, Satan! For, you are not considering the things of God but the things of men.'

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, 'If anyone wants to become my follower, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world but forfeits his life? Indeed, what can a man be given in return for his life?

For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the son of man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels'.

And he said to them, 'Truly I tell you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they have seen that the kingdom of God has come with power.'

And after six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain, privately by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them and his clothes became a dazzling white, such that no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Then Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good for us to be here, so let us make three tents [CKHNAC], one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.' He had not known what he was saying (or 'what to say'), for they were terrified.

Then a cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my son, the beloved; listen to him.' And suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus alone with them.

And, as they were coming down from the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the son of man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what 'rising from the dead' could mean.

And they asked him, 'Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?'

And he said to them, 'Elijah indeed comes first to restore all things.'

And how was it written concerning the son of man that he must suffer many things and be rejected?

But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, just as it was written concerning him.

When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately amazed and ran forward to greet him.

And he questioned them, 'What are you arguing about with them [the scribes]?'

And someone from the crowd answered him, 'Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak and, whenever it seizes him, it throws him down and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid, and I asked your disciples to cast it out but they could not do it.'

Mark 8, 27 – 9, 18

The extract given above comes from the critical text, which is dependent on the fourth-century parchment codices, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. But the story itself may have been first formulated in the late first century.

I have divided up the text to highlight the framework of the narrative and excursions into acts of healings, sayings and commentary, attributed to Jesus, attached to it. It was recognised that the early gospel writers did not have any exact chronology for the events they recorded or for remembered sayings and conversations. So the placing of these, whether or not accurate in themselves, is not always going to be reliable.

It has been suggested that the synoptic gospel authors, as well as working from one or more passion narratives, also used a hypothesised collection of sayings (sayings gospel Q) that they then wove into the text.

The warning to the disciples of Jesus' imminent suffering and death, in the above extract, follows a standard formula. It is, I suggest, a Christian take, intended to show that Jesus (being part God) was in control of his destiny as opposed to being a victim of circumstance. Jesus is also, on the journey from Bethsaida to villages in the region of Caesarea Philippi, given to address a crowd on the benefits of following him and to extract from his key disciple Peter an admission that he was the messiah.

That this is also an artifice can be seen from that fact that, if Jesus had claims to the throne of David (and it appeared from his actions and from Pilate's responses that he had) then his close followers and family would all along have known on what grounds – specifically the line of descent – this was based.

Peter could not, in a first-century context and while Jesus was alive, have understood him to be a Christian messiah, in terms of a framework of ideas that was yet to be created.

The speculation as to Jesus' role or identity, attributed to a wider audience, repeats material used earlier in Mark. In the story describing the death of John the Baptist, Herod learns that people have been saying that the healer Jesus was either John, raised from the dead, or Elijah reincarnated or a prophet, like one of the prophets of old (Mark 6, 15).

Jesus goes on with Peter, James and John to reach what is described as a 'high mountain'. Given this reference and the direction of travel from Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee towards the villages of Caesarea Philippi, there is a strong presumption that the destination intended was Mount Hermon, which was certainly high at over 9,000 feet.

The story begins with a reference to the time, six days, that it had taken to get to the mountain. After the transfiguration event, the narrative continues with an account of what happened on the way before merging, not at all seamlessly, at the end into a typical healing miracle story.

The main elements of the transfiguration, as it can be seen, do serve a specific purpose. The long-dead and possibly even mythical Jewish figures of Moses and Elijah are summoned to appear before Jesus and three of his disciples. The disciples witness the voice of God, speaking from a cloud, pronouncing Jesus as his son and, at the same time giving him precedence over the figurehead representatives of the Jewish Law and prophets, Moses and Elijah.

The message is clear. The old order is over, or at least has reached its fulfilment in Jesus. God's religion is no longer the Judaism of the Old Testament, but Christianity.

There are a number of more minor details that could fit with this as a Christian-invented story. Mountains were often seen as sacred, so this would have been an appropriate location for God to deliver a message, just as in the Old Testament story of Moses and the ten commandments.

The meeting was conducted in secret. After the event, the disciples were sworn to secrecy, as they were also on the way to the mountain in respect of Jesus' messianic identity. The purpose, it has to be presumed at this point, would have been to avoid Jesus being pre-emptively caught and executed. This would have been, according to Christian doctrine, so that he could achieve precisely the same outcome at a subsequent time of his choosing.

Of course, if the disciples kept their vow, the story would logically never have come to light and been written down. The editor/storyteller gets round this by qualifying the command to silence until 'after the son of man had risen from the dead'.

It has also to be supposed that the disciples did not understand this.

This is more than a little clumsy. The text has been fashioned to convey a Christian explanation, incomprehensible in its historical context, that Jesus was intent on fulfilling a cosmic purpose. The commonsense explanation is that, as a prominent Nazorean leader, Jesus would have wanted to help oust the Romans while avoiding being crucified (though ultimately failing in both respects).

In order to sustain the fiction, the disciples are made to appear as dumb and uncomprehending, unaware of a greater, divine purpose. In the context, they were of course unaware of any such agenda, as Jewish followers of a Jewish messiah. They would certainly have been aware of Jesus' credentials and, like other Jews, would have had no problem understanding 'what rising from the dead could mean'.

The gloss is there to explain away what would at the time have appeared as an awkward fact. Not only were the family and followers of Jesus not Christians, but they were in the first century involved in conflict with the Jewish breakaway sect's first followers.

It is not easy to find an immediate explanation for some of the elements of the narrative. One curious feature is the proposed provision of tents for the ghostly visitors. Such equipment could not have been found at the top of a high mountain. But the story does not explain why the disciples might have taken tents with them.

The precedent for Jesus' metamorphosis is presumably the story of Moses, whose face shone after encountering God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34, 29-35). However, there is no direct reference here to any visual transformation. It is, rather, Jesus' clothes that shine.

Before embarking on further analysis, there are two other synoptic accounts of the transfiguration, as well as some other versions, that need to be considered. I will therefore look next at the stories of the transfiguration in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

It may be that these, though later in origin than Mark and to a great extent dependent on Mark as their source, will cast more light on the situation.

As prelude to this, I draw attention to a major anomaly, which the reader may already have noticed, by pointing to a fact of geography.

The text from Mark 8, 27 to 9, 1 describes a journey from Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee to Caesarea Philippi and what was said on the way. The route would have involved a relatively gentle ascent along a valley, beside streams making up the river Jordan. The total distance was about 24 miles over not too difficult terrain. At a time when walking was the major form of transport for most people, and for men used to hard physical labour and an outdoor way of life, this journey could have been achieved in a day.

So why does the author of Mark introduce an unexplained gap of six days? This could not simply have been the time taken to undertake such a relatively short journey. So is he pointing to something else that happened in the time frame, but failing to describe it? Or is the reference to six days an error or an intrusion from some other part of the narrative?

There is something amiss here with the text. Just what, I hope to find out.

CHAPTER 2

According to Matthew and Luke

Now, when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say is the son of man?' and they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'

He said to them, 'But who do you consider me to be?'

And Simon Peter replied, 'You are the messiah, the son of the living God.'

And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you Simon Bariona [the Outlaw]. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven.'

'And I tell you, you are Peter [[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] rock] and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.'

'I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'

Then he ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the messiah.

From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, 'May God be gracious to you, Lord, that this will never happen to you.'

But he turned around and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you are not considering the things of God, but the things of men.'

Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be my follower, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what does it benefit a man, if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a man be given in exchange for his life? For the son of man will come in the glory of his father and with his angels and then he will repay everyone according to their actions. Truly I tell you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they have seen the son of man coming in his kingdom.'

And after six days, Jesus took Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain privately.

And he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

Then Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tents [CKHNAC] here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.'

While he was speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud a voice said, 'This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.'

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were overcome with fear. But Jesus came and touched them and said, 'Get up and do not be afraid'. And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus alone.

And, as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus ordered them, 'Tell no one about the vision until the son of man has been raised from the dead.'

And the disciples asked him, 'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?'

And he replied, 'Elijah indeed is coming and will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come and they did not recognise him but did to him whatever they wished. So also is the son of man about to suffer at their hands.' Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him and said, 'Lord have mercy on my son for he is an epileptic ...'

Matthew 16, 13 – 17, 14

It happened that, while Jesus was praying alone with only the disciples near him, he asked them, 'Who do the crowds say that I am?'

They answered, 'John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and still others that one of the ancient prophets has risen.'

He said to them, 'But who do you say than I am?'

Peter answered, 'The messiah of God'.

He warned them and ordered them not to tell anyone.

Then he said that the son of man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Then he said, 'If anyone wishes to follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life on account of me will save it. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the world but loses or forfeits himself?'

'For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and the holy angels. But truly I tell you there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.'

Now about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

And while he prayed, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men were talking with him, who were Moses and Elijah. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure [[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]] which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions had been weighed down with sleep, but having awakened fully (or 'stayed awake'), they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

As they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is good for us to be here; so let us make three tents [CKHNAC], one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.' – not knowing what he said.

And, while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. Then, from the cloud came a voice that said, 'This is my son, the chosen one; listen to him.' When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent, and in those days told no one any of things they had seen.

On the following day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then, a man from the crowd shouted, 'Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child ...'

Luke 9, 18-38

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Lost Narrative of Jesus by Peter Cresswell. Copyright © 2015 Peter Cresswell. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
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Edition details

• Publisher: Christian Alternative
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1785352776
• ISBN 13: 9781785352775
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168