Abstract
A literary-critical analysis of narrative voice(s) in Luke’s account of the Trans-figuration leads to a reading over against triumphalism. Historical-critical readings of this passage view its tandem visions as mutually reinforcing a triumphal view of Jesus. This article puts forward a reading of these visions as, instead, antithetical. In this alternative reading, the epiphany of the transfigured Jesus is an inappropriate vision of the glory of the Messiah Jesus. Luke’s version sees messianic glory not as exaltation, but as humiliation. This is shown by reading the Transfiguration as the culmination of three themes: Jesus’ identity, ‘hearing’ Jesus and the ‘glory’ to be fulfilled in Jesus. The first two themes come to clear conclusions in the Transfigu-ration. However, the third refuses to be held by the visions, and the story forces us to the remaining pericopes of ch. 9 for an answer to the question of what makes glory glorious.
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