The Mount of Transfiguration

As I wrote about Elijah yesterday I realized that it is not totally clear in the scriptures who was at the Mount of Transfiguration.  We know of course that the Savior was there with His three apostles, and they heard the voice of God the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matt. 17:5).  In the account in Matthew we also read that when Peter, James, and John were on the mount, “Moses and Elias” appeared unto them and spoke to them.  Everything I can find suggests that Elias here refers specifically to Elijah, even though the name Elias is used elsewhere as a more general term and refers to more than one person.  It’s interesting to me that when President Joseph F. Smith listed the “great and mighty ones” who were part of the Lord’s missionary force on the other side of the veil, he included, “Elias, who was with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.”  The way his next sentence starts talking about Elijah to me suggest that Joseph F. Smith was using the word Elias for Elijah simply to be consistent with the New Testament text (and using the two names interchangeably): “And Malachi, the prophet who testified of the coming of Elijah” (D&C 138:45-47).

               We also believe that John the Baptist was there in spirit for the transfiguration as well.  He had been slain before this time by the wicked King Herod, and so he could have only appeared in the spirit without his body.  That John the Baptist was there is what the JST suggests, although the language is a bit difficult: “And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses, or in other words, John the Baptist and Moses: and they were talking with Jesus” (Mark 9:4).  This language seems to suggest that Elias was John the Baptist and not Elijah, but most scholars seem to think that this is simply saying that John the Baptist was there in addition to Elijah.  Robert J. Matthews commented on the verse, “Considerable discussion has been stimulated by this comment, since the presence of the Baptist at the Mount has never before been suggested. Furthermore, it is certain that Elijah the Prophet was present at the Mount, and the term Elias (the Greek form the Hebrew name Elijah) has generally been understood to have reference to him….  What role John the Baptist might have had there is not known.”

               There likely were other heavenly messengers present at this event.  Of the ones that we know, though, it’s interesting that all of them played an important role in the Restoration of the gospel in our day.  The Father and Son were present just as they came to visit the boy Joseph in the Sacred Grove.  Peter, James, and John were there then just as they visited the Prophet Joseph and Oliver in 1829 to restore the Melchizedek Priesthood.  John the Baptist who was on the Mount also appeared to Oliver and Joseph to confer upon them the Aaronic Priesthood.  And of course Elijah came back in 1836 to give unto Joseph the sealing power.  So all of those that we know of being at the Mount of Transfiguration were also a part of the Restoration in an important way, a symbol of the significance of these modern miracles that helped establish the kingdom.