Matthew 17:1-8 - The Transfiguration Vision

Doesn’t the transfiguration of Moses and Elijah prove that Moses and Elijah were not really dead? (Matthew 17:2,3) Many seem to think so. They may even ask, "what about the statement of Jesus regarding Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that God is not a God of the dead but of the living?” (Matthew 22:32) These texts have often been used to support both the immortal soul theory and the eternal torment theory. But let us examine these scriptures closely.

Moses and Elijah on the Mount

It is thought by many that Moses and Elijah appeared in person to the disciples and Jesus. (Matthew 17:1-8) However, Jesus told his disciples expressly that what they had seen was a VISION. (Matthew 17:9) Peter in his second letter explains that the vision foreshadowed the glorious kingdom of the Messiah, therefore fulfilling Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:28. — 2 Peter 1:16-18.

The word rendered “vision” in the Greek is horama. This word occurs twelve times in the New Testament, and in each instance it is properly rendered by most translations as “vision.” To take two examples: in Acts 9:11,12, we read: “The Lord said unto him [Ananias], Arise and go into the street that is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold he prayeth and hath seen in a vision [horama] a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.” The man seen by the blind Saul of Tarsus was evidently not a reality, but a vision. In Acts 12:7,9, we read: “Behold an angel of [Jehovah] came upon him and a light shined in the prison, and he smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly…And he went out and followed him and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision” — horama. Peter thought that what he had seen was a vision, and did not say that it was reality. These examples make it evident that the word horama used by the Messiah indicated that Moses and Elijah were not really present on the Mount, but only appeared to be there prophetically in a vision. The whole scene was a vision.

To say that Moses and Elijah actually stood with the Messiah on the Mount would be to contradict the teaching of the Scriptures that Jesus was the first to rise to eternal life from the dead. — Acts 26:23; I Corinthians 15:20; Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5,17,18.

See our studies related to Life After Death.

Regarding Matthew 22:32, since God reckons that which is not at though it were (Romans 4:17), all are alive to him. (Luke 20:37,38) God knew of his plan for Christ to die for those in sheol from the beginning, and thus he, he reckoned them as being alive. Those who are in the oblivious condition of sheol are counted or reckoned as being alive to God. -- Ecclesiastes 9:5,10.

See our study: Not a God of the Dead.