Transfiguration of the Lord

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Raphael : Transfiguration (1516/20), Vatican Museums, Rome
Carl Bloch : Transfiguration of Christ (1872)

Transfiguration of the Lord , Transfiguration of Christ or Transfiguration (from Latin transfiguratio Domini ; Greek μεταμόρφωσις metamorphosis , hence German also older Transformation of Christ ) describes an event of revelation that, according to the testimony of the Gospels, three apostles experienced when they saw Jesus Christ on a mountain in a special, transfigured state Form and saw with the prophets Moses and Elijah . It is considered a secret of faith .

The happening

Jesus takes the disciples Peter , James and John aside and leads them to a high, unspecified mountain. A reference to the Old Testament Bible passage Exodus 24 EU can be seen , in which Moses takes with him Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 elders of Israel in his ascent.

The Evangelist Luke says: “He went up with them to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his robe became bright white ”( Lk 9.28-36  EU ). On the top of a mountain, Jesus is outshone (“transfigured”) by unearthly light (“ Tabor light ”) in front of the three disciples . In the Gospel of Mark it is written about it: “His clothes became brilliant white, as no one on earth can make them bleach”, Mk 9.2–9  EU . The evangelist Matthew writes: "His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light" ( Mt 17 : 1-8  EU ).

Now Moses and Elijah - personifying the law and prophecy of the Old Covenant - appear and speak to him. The three apostles fall to the ground in shock. The apostle Peter suggests building three huts, so there is again a reference to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.

There comes a cloud ( Shechina ), and from the cloud a voice calls out, “This is my beloved son.” This is the proclamation of sonship . The baptism scene ( Mt 3,13  EU ; Mk 1,9  EU ; Lk 3,21  EU ), where the voice from the cloud spoke the same words, seems to be repeated. But God adds an imperative: "You should listen to him."

time indication

In the Gospels, a time is first given. Matthew and Mark speak of six days. Luke writes about eight days in his report. In the Jewish festival calendar, there are only five days between two important festivals: Yom Kippur , the great festival of Atonement, and the one-week festival of tabernacles (Sukkot). On this feast of atonement, the high priest of the Jews solemnly pronounces the name YHWH in the sanctum of the temple. The dating of the event speaks for the last day of Sukkot.

Liturgy and feast day

Mosaic in the basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor with the inscription from Mt 17.2: et transfiguratus est ante eos ("And he was transfigured before their eyes")

The Gospel texts that report on the Transfiguration establish a connection between this event and the suffering and death of Jesus. All three are embedded in Jesus' references to the Passion event that is to come and can therefore easily be connected with the liturgical Passion time . In the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, since the Second Vatican Council, the pericope of the transfiguration of Christ has also been read alternately on the second Sunday of Lent according to one of the synoptic gospels.

Due to the teaching of the church father Gregorios Palamas about uncreated light, the feast of the transfiguration of Christ has a much more important role in the Eastern Byzantine churches than in the western churches. The festival developed in Palestine in connection with a church founded by Empress Helena on the Tabor and has been celebrated as a metamorphosis since the 6th century . As the Kontakion teaches, the festival is also related to the Passion event: "[...] and the disciples saw your glory [...] so that they could see that your suffering was voluntary when they saw you on the cross, and announced to the world that you are truly the reflection of the Father. "

In the Middle Ages, when the individual stages of Jesus' life were examined, the festival found its way into the liturgy of the Latin Church . In 1457 it was made by Pope Callistus III. after the victory over the Turks at the siege of Belgrade (1456) included in the liturgical calendar of the Latin Church ( In Transfiguratione Domini nostri Iesu Christi ).

The feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated in the liturgical calendar of the Orthodox Churches , the Roman Catholic Church , the Anglican and Old Catholic Churches on August 6th , whereby this day is celebrated in the old calendar Orthodox churches, e.g. B. the Russian Orthodox Church , falls on August 19th according to the Gregorian calendar . In the Lutheran congregations it always takes place on the last Sunday after Epiphany . In the calendars of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod , August 6 is an additional day of remembrance, as is the Evangelical diary of the Evangelical Michael Brotherhood . In Armenia the transfiguration is closely related to the Vardavar linked -Brauch.

Venue and patronage

Mount Tabor in Galilee

The mountain, which is not precisely designated in the New Testament, has been identified with Mount Tabor in Galilee since early Christian times . This tradition is first found in Origen . Eusebius of Caesarea names Mount Hermon as an alternative location for the action. In the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, the prefation generally speaks of the “Mount of Transfiguration”, the texts of the Orthodox Churches explicitly name the Tabor as the scene.

Churches with the patronage of the festival secret are called Transfiguration Churches .

The Martinstal Charterhouse near Crimmitschau was also called "House of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ in St. Mertenthal an der Pleiße". The only Charterhouse in the United States is the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration in Vermont.

literature

Web links

Commons : Transfiguration of the Lord  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Transfiguration, the. In: Duden online. Retrieved August 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ The late antique repertoire of hymns developed on the Tabor has been preserved in an old Georgian translation: Charles Renoux: L'Hymnaire de Saint-Sabas (Ve – VIIIe siècle) , Vol. 2 (Patrologia Orientalis 53, 1) 527-539; for the dating of the solid formation cf. ibid. 537 note 1
  3. ↑ Joachim Schäfer: The Transfiguration of the Lord. In: Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon (heiligenlexikon.de). April 18, 2018, accessed August 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Monika Müller: Tabor. In: WiBiLex . September 20, 2018, accessed on August 6, 2019 : “Section 2.3: History” .