Did the Transfiguration take place on Mount Tabor?
In Mark 9:2 it says that Jesus "took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them." Some in the early Church believed that this took place on Mount Tabor, and that identification has been widely accepted by many in the Eastern and Western Churches.
A difficulty with identifying Tabor with the mount of transfiguration that we learn from Josephus is the fact that in Jesus' day it had a village on it, which had been there for some time (Ant. 13.396), and which Josephus fortified (Life 188). Nevertheless the town was besieged and overthrown by the Romans during the Jewish War (Jewish War 4.54).
As such it was not a very good place for Jesus and his disciples to go to be, as Mark says, "all alone".
Comments
Post a Comment