One of my best friends, Jeremy Buchanan, resumed classes a few weeks ago at Asbury Seminary, working on getting his Master’s in Divinity. Over a meal with a close group of guys, he shared some wisdom that he had heard earlier that day. We were discussing Jesus’ transfiguration before his death.

The Transfiguration Mark 9:2-13 (New International Version)

After six days 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. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, 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 to say, they were so frightened.) Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

The lesson to learn was on context and understanding Jewish culture, which is critically important when looking at the Bible; we were also looking at grammar in the English language, and to illustrate his point, Jeremy wrote down this sentence: “I never said that she didn’t lie.” That sentence can be read four different ways, based on how you put emphasis on the words:

“I never said that she didn’t lie.”
(Meaning that someone else said that she lied.)

“I never said that she didn’t lie.”
(Meaning that I implied it through my body language without verbalizing it.)

“I never said that she didn’t lie.”
(Meaning that some other female lied, but not that specific individual.

“I never said that she didn’t lie.”
(Meaning that she didn’t tell all of the truth or give all the details, but she didn’t lie about what she said.)

When studying the bible, read it out loud, because the words have power.

Back to the passage in Mark - what was Mark’s emphasis in verse seven?
“This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

I think that God is speaking that Jesus is his Son, that he has a higher importance than Moses or Elijah: the two highly respected authorities in the Old Testament: one as the lawgiver and the other as the prophet.