Arguments in Favour of Tabor as the Scene of the Transfiguration
Luke 9:28-36
And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.…


The tradition which has pointed to Tabor has been often contradicted, yet the objections raised against this are, according to our opinion, not well founded. That this tradition existed even in the time of , and that the Empress for this reason erected a church on Tabor, proves of itself not much, it is true. Yet it may still be called remark. able, that tradition designates a place so far distant from Caesarea Philippi, where our Saviour had just before been found (Matthew 16:13). Without sufficient ground in the apostolic tradition, it appears probable that they would not have assumed the theatre of the one event to be so far removed from that of the other. For the other mountains which have been thought of instead of Tabor, viz., Hermon, or Paneas, there is almost less yet to be said. Yet it must not be forgotten that about a week intervened between the Transfiguration and the first prediction of the Passion, in which time the Saviour may very well have traversed the distance from Caesarea to Tabor, which, it is true, is considerable. If the Saviour, moreover, after He left the mountain, returned to Capernaum (Matthew 17:24-27), this town was scarcely a day's journey from Tabor. The single important difficulty is that raised by De Wette, following Robinson, that at this time there was a fortification on the summit of Tabor. But although Antiochus the Great fortified the mountain, , it is not by any means proved that in the time of Jesus this fortification was yet standing, and though, according to Josephus, this mountain, in the Jewish war, was fortified against the Romans, this, at all events, took place forty years later. Traces of these fortifications are found apparently in the ruins which have since been discovered, especially on the south-western declivity; but in no case is it proved that the whole mountain was built over in the time of Jesus.

(Van Oosterzee.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.

WEB: It happened about eight days after these sayings, that he took with him Peter, John, and James, and went up onto the mountain to pray.




Arguments in Favour of Hermon as the Scene of the Transfiguration
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