How did Peter know....?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drw72
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

drw72

Guest
How did Peter know that the two people with Jesus were Moses and Elijah?
(Matt. 17:3-4, Luke 9:30-33)
 
Great question! Cornelius a Lapide gave 3 good possibilities, 1 is that he knew by divine inspiration, 2 by the conversation and words that was taking place, 3 he recognized them by their attire, since OT Scripture is descriptive about that.
 
“by the conversation that was taking place”

That’s been my assumption.
 
i always assume things like this when he saw two men he didnt know God revealed it to him.
 
drw72 said:
How did Peter know that the two people with Jesus were Moses and Elijah?
(Matt. 17:3-4, Luke 9:30-33)
Click to expand...
The story of the Transfiguration is a masterpiece of theological revelation.

Both Moses and Elijah experienced theophonies on Mount Horeb. Moses was given the law and Elijah the prophetic tongue. Thus Moses represents the law and Elijah, the prophets. Jesus was to fulfill both the law and the prophets.

Moses asked Yahweh what his name was and God responded with, I AM. Jesus will later asks the apostles, “Who do people say that I AM”? It was Peter who said, You are the Christ…Yahweh walking among his people. The divinity of Jesus is affirmed by Peter because it was revealed to him by God. If God chooses to reveal the very person of Jesus as God, Moses and Elijah were also likely reveald by God, as well.
 
The knowledge was given-as part of the experience. Later visionaries in our Catholic faith tradition have experienced similar events, where relevant knowledge about some particular thing or another was simply given/infused directly.
 
It was a “midrashic” teaching device the writer of the gospel used to show the superiority of the Life and Teachings of Jesus over Moses…the giver of the Law…and Elijah…the greatest of Israel’s prophets.
 
=drw72;9407213]How did Peter know that the two people with Jesus were Moses and Elijah?
(Matt. 17:3-4, Luke 9:30-33)
Click to expand...
It OBVIOUS:

They wore name tags:D

This was a DEVINE revelation friend go back and re-read Mt. 16:15-19 =infused knowledge:thumbsup:

God Bless,
Pat
 
I figured it was through revelation. I even used Mt. 16:17 as an example myself.

I left out the beginning of the story of my question.

A non-denominational friend of mine at work asked me how Peter knew that it was Moses and Elijah that Jesus was speaking to. I told him I had never thought about it but the best explanation I could come up with was Divine revelation. I even used Matthew 16:17 as an example which was also very fitting since it was Peter in both cases.

I had to post the original question briefly since I was at work but I did not want to forget it and I wanted to see if there were any other explanations. 🤷

Thank you all for the replies…

Vivat Jesus

Dave W.
 
The Transfiguration

Luke 9:38 - 28
About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure,[a] which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
Click to expand...
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
Click to expand...
If we take the Lucan account, Christ deliberately took Peter, James and John up this mountain with him, leaving the others behind. These three figure well ahead of the other disciples if we do a name count in the New Testament, with Peter miles ahead of anybody else (195 times compared to 29 for John and 19 for James).

Christ regarded these three as his core disciples.

It may have been purely divine revelation. But I suspect Christ would have warned them to be prepared for something. So I don’t think it would have taken them competely by surprise. You know the sort of thing - “I want the three of you to come with me up that mountain. Not long ago you witnessed the feeding of five thousand men and their families. Now there’s something else I want to show you. Just the three of you.”

I don’t think they went up that mountain without some inkling of what Christ was up to.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top