The Transfiguration of Christ

AN EXEGETICAL AND THEOLOGICAL READING

Patrick Schreiner

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2024 by Patrick Schreiner

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schreiner, Patrick, author.

Title: The transfiguration of Christ : an exegetical and theological reading / Patrick Schreiner.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, [2024] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023025962 | ISBN 9781540965967 (paperback) | ISBN 9781540967527 (casebound) | ISBN 9781493445424 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493445431 (pdf )

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ—Transfiguration. | Bible. New Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Spiritual formation—Christianity.

Classification: LCC BT410 .S37 2024 | DDC 232.9/56—dc23/eng/20230710

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023025962

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016.

Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

To my Mom,

who always shines with Christ’s light

and will one day shine even brighter

when she sees him face to face.

Come now—if you trust me—as I spread out before you a spiritual banquet of words: let us ascend with the Word today, as he goes up the high mountain of the Transfiguration.

—St. Andrew of Crete

Let us climb the mountain, and join in contemplation, and let us be changed along with him, and radiate light along with him.

—Leo the Wise

Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD.

Isaiah 2:3

Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction: A Two-Level Christology

1. The Necessity of the Transfiguration

Five Reasons We Neglect the Transfiguration

Five Reasons Not to Neglect the Transfiguration

2. The Glorious Setting

A Hermeneutical Grammar

Six/Eight Days Later

Up the Mountain

The Three Witnesses

Purgation—Spiritual Ascent

3. The Glorious Signs

A Trinitarian Grammar

Jesus’s Shining Face and White Clothes

The Bright Cloud

Moses and Elijah

Illumination—Divine Sight

4. The Glorious Saying

A Christological Grammar

Peter’s Inglorious Saying

“This Is My Beloved Son”

“Listen ...

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About The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading

This book challenges reductive modern readings of the transfiguration and shows how the mountain scene is not only about Jesus’s glory but also about our own spiritual formation.

All three Synoptic Gospels tell the story of Jesus’s transfiguration. Yet there has been surprisingly little written about this key event, and many readers struggle to understand its significance and place in redemptive history, let alone how it might be applied.

Here, Patrick Schreiner provides a clear and accessible study of the transfiguration with an eye toward its theological significance and practical application. Namely, this event points to Jesus’s double Sonship, revealing the preexistent glory of the eternal Son and the future glory of the suffering Messianic Son. Further, the transfiguration points to Christians’ own formation and transfiguration. Schreiner not only traces the transfiguration theme through Scripture, but he employs hermeneutical, trinitarian, and Christological categories to assist his exegesis, thus challenging modern readings.

This enlightening study will be of interest to students, pastors, and serious lay readers.

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Table of Contents