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religionspiritualitychristianity
Looking at the Transfiguration
About this Episode
We are having author Sarah Hinlicky Wilson on this episode about her new book "7 Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration." She is also the author of the fiction book we read for our book club, "A-Tumblin' Down."
She talks about theories of the Transfiguration, and why people think Moses and Elijah were on top of that mountain with Jesus. The talks about different accounts of the Transfiguration of Christ in the different gospel accounts.
She talks about the interesting position of the celebration of the transfiguration in the church liturgical calendar from a church history standpoint, and it's connections with the crusades, and how that changed in the Reformation, and why it now comes just before Lent in the current liturgical calendar.
Moses and Elijah are the only prophets who climb Mt. Sinai (called Horab in some passages), and the significance of meeting God at a mountaintop. Though the transfiguration did not happen on Mt. Sinai, but theres a reaching from the New Testament into the Old Testament in these accounts.
It's very important to look at the story progression in regard to the transfiguration (what story comes right before, and what story comes right after) to interpret this passage correctly. While we often look at these passages in segments, this story is part of a bigger story progression in the gospels. It's connection to the Feast of Booths from the Old Testament puts it in context of the Israelites "liturgical calendar" of feasts, connected to the traditional agrarian calendar, and what it meant that Jesus brought them into the Feast of Booths that comes just before the Passover, which was a hard thing to understand just after Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Christ.
Sarah does such a great job of explaining the significance of the Transfiguration, and layering the various calendars of the feasts, harvest time, and Jesus showing them that the passover has to happen still, and you can't skip the sacrifice of the Lamb. to bring this event into focus.
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