Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and James’s brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves.[1] 2 And he was transformed right in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 Then Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus.
4 Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here. If you want, I’ll put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”[2]
5 While he was still talking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice came from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, the one I love. In him I take delight. Listen to him.”
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown, terrified. 7 But Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus alone.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them strict orders: “Don’t tell anyone what you saw until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?”[3]
11 He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore everything. 12 But I’m telling you, Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him. They did whatever they wanted to him. In the same way, the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
14 When they reached the crowd, a man came up to Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord,” he said, “have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire and often into the water.[4] 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
17 Jesus answered, “You unbelieving and twisted generation — how long do I have to be with you? How long do I have to put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him. And the boy was healed from that moment on.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He said to them, “Because you have so little faith. Amen, I tell you, if you have faith even as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
22 While they were gathered together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be handed over into human hands. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.” And they were deeply upset.
24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”[5]
25 “Yes, he does,” Peter said.
When Peter went into the house, Jesus spoke first. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duties or taxes — from their own children, or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. 27 But so we don’t offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook. Take the first fish you pull up, and when you open its mouth, you’ll find a coin worth four drachmas. Take it and give it to them for me and for you.”[6]
Notes
Note 1. Two traditions locate this mountain: Mount Tabor in lower Galilee, about 575 meters high, and Mount Hermon on the Lebanon–Syria border, rising over 2,800 meters. Matthew says only “a high mountain,” a phrase that fits Hermon far better, though Tabor became the more popular pilgrimage site in later centuries. ↩
Note 2. The Greek word (skēnas) means temporary booths, like those Jews built each year for the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), living a week in leafy huts to recall Israel’s wandering in the desert. ↩
Note 3. The scribes’ teaching rests on Malachi 4:5–6, which promised God would send the prophet Elijah before “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” This became a fixed expectation in the centuries before Jesus, and Jewish tradition still pours a cup for Elijah at the Passover seder and opens the door for him. ↩
Note 4. The Greek verb here (selēniazetai) literally means “moon-struck.” Ancient popular and medical belief tied seizures and mental illness to the phases of the moon — the same notion that gives us the English word “lunatic.” We render the father’s description in plain medical terms. ↩
Note 5. This was the annual half-shekel (Greek didrachma, worth two drachmas) collected from Jewish men for the upkeep of the Temple, a practice traced back to Exodus 30:13–16. ↩
Note 6. The coin is a stater (four drachmas), which equaled exactly two half-shekels — the tax for two people. ↩