Mark 9:2

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

THE TRANSFIGURATION

And after six days ... Luke placed this event as "eight days" afterward; but, as Barclay said, "There is no discrepancy here. They both mean what we would express by saying, `About a week afterward.'"[4]

In counting up a week, Sunday to Sunday, one gets eight days if he counts the Sundays and six days if he counts between the Sundays. Both styles of time reckoning were in vogue in those days. Outside of particular times noted in Mark's account of the Passion, this "is the only precise note of time given by Mark."[5] This fact, however, is no basis whatever for designating the transfiguration as a fulfillment of Mark 9:1.

Peter, and James, and John ... This is an example of Mark's stringing words, phrases, clauses, and episodes together by means of this simple connective. He also used "for" in the same manner, as in Mark 8:35-38. These three apostles formed somewhat of an "inner three" within the company of the Twelve, as also at the raising of Jairus' daughter, and in the Garden of Gethsemane. The special preferment given by the Lord to these three was doubtless prompted by the key roles that they would have in the church. James was the first to seal his testimony with his blood; Peter preached the first sermon; and John remained on earth the longest and delivered the final prophecy.

High mountain apart ... This was doubtless Mount Hermon, or one of its adjacent spurs. Only these mountains qualify as being in the vicinity where Jesus was placed in the sacred text and also as being "high." Mount Tabor, the traditional site, was not high, being only about 1,500 feet in elevation. Moreover, it was inhabited on top in the time of Christ, and it would not have been taking the apostles "apart" for the Lord to have led them up Mount Tabor. Mount Hermon is a snow-capped peak 9,200 in altitude.

Transfigured before them ... This word is found only in the New Testament records of this event and in Romans 12:2,2 Corinthians 3:18. "It means a change of form, an effulgence from within, not a mere `flood of glory' from without."[6] Both Matthew and Luke give fuller accounts of this wonder than does Mark. The parallel references are Matthew 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36. Each gospel writer added the priceless ingredient of some detail omitted by the others. Matthew mentioned the Saviour's coming and touching the apostles; Mark threw in that homely detail that "no fuller on earth" could have made Jesus' garments so white; and Luke provided the pertinent conversation between the Lord and Moses and Elijah.

[4] William Barclay, op. cit.. p. 215:

[5] Henry E. Turlington, The Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1946), p. 338.

[6] Frederick C. Grant, op. cit., en loco.