And he said to them, “Amen, I tell you: some of those standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”
2 Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain, alone by themselves. And he was transformed right in front of them.[1] 3 His clothes became dazzling white — whiter than any launderer on earth could ever bleach them. 4 And Elijah appeared to them, along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”[2] 6 He didn’t know what to say, because they were terrified.
7 Then a cloud came and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, the one I love. Listen to him.” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus alone with them.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves, but they kept asking each other what “rising from the dead” meant.
11 Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?”[3]
12 He told them, “Elijah does come first and restores everything. But how is it written about the Son of Man? That he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt. 13 But I’m telling you, Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatever they wanted — just as it is written about him.”
14 When they reached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes arguing with them. 15 As soon as the whole crowd saw him, they were overcome with amazement and ran up to greet him.
16 He asked them, “What are you arguing with them about?”
17 Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”
19 He answered them, “You faithless generation — how long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me.”
20 So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening to him?”
He said, “Since he was a child. 22 It has often thrown him into fire and into water, trying to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe — help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rushing together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 It shrieked, threw the boy into violent convulsions, and came out. The boy looked like a corpse, so that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up, and he stood.
28 After he had gone into a house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He told them, “This kind can’t come out by anything except prayer.”
30 They left that place and passed through Galilee, and he didn’t want anyone to know it. 31 He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is being handed over into human hands, and they will kill him. And after he is killed, three days later he will rise.” 32 But they didn’t understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him.
33 They came to Capernaum. Once he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet, because on the road they had been arguing with each other about who was the greatest.
35 He sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
36 He took a little child and stood him in the middle of them. Then he put his arms around him and said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me doesn’t welcome me, but the one who sent me.”
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.”
39 But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him. No one who does a work of power in my name will be able to speak evil of me soon afterward. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Amen, I tell you: whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to the Anointed One will certainly not lose his reward.”
42 “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble — it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea.[4]
43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It’s better for you to enter life maimed than to go with both hands into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.[5] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It’s better for you to enter life lame than to be thrown with both feet into Gehenna. 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It’s better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown with both eyes into Gehenna, 48 where the worm doesn’t die and the fire is not put out.
49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Notes
Note 1. The text never names the mountain. Christian tradition since at least the third century (Origen) settled on Mount Tabor, a rounded rise of about 575 meters in Galilee. But some point instead to Mount Hermon, far taller at roughly 2,800 meters and much closer to Caesarea Philippi, where the previous scene takes place — a better fit for both “high” and the narrative’s location. ↩
Note 2. The word for “shelters” (skēnas) is the same one used for the huts built during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), when Israelites lived for a week in booths of branches to recall the desert years. ↩
Note 3. The expectation rests on Malachi 4:5–6, which promises that Elijah will return “before the great and dreadful day of the Lord” to turn parents’ and children’s hearts toward each other. This hope was widely held in Jesus’s time. ↩
Note 4. The Greek specifies a mylos onikos — literally a “donkey millstone,” the large upper stone of a commercial mill turned by a donkey rather than the small stone worked by hand. Such a stone could weigh a hundred pounds or more. ↩
Note 5. “Gehenna” is a real place — the Valley of Hinnom, just south of Jerusalem. Hebrew scripture records it as a site of child sacrifice under kings like Ahaz and Manasseh, and King Josiah defiled it (2 Kings 23:10). A popular explanation that the valley later served as a perpetually burning rubbish heap has no ancient evidence behind it; it first appears in a medieval commentary. What made the name a byword for judgment was that remembered history. ↩