According to
Michael Lockwood, the following episode from Buddhist myth is the source of the Transfiguration episode:
1Then Bhagavä, at the end of those seven days, arose from the state of samädhi, and went from the foot of the Ajapälo banyan tree to the (root of the tree of) Mucalindo. And when he had reached it he sat cross-legged at the foot of the Mucalindo tree uninterruptedly during seven days, enjoying the bliss of emancipation (vimutti-sukha-patisaµvede).
2 At that time a great cloud appeared out of season, rainy weather which was to last seven days, cold weather, storms and darkness. And the Serpent king Mucalindo came out of his abode, and seven times encircled the body of Bhagavä with his coils, and kept extending his large hood (phanam) over the head of Bhagavä, thinking to himself: “May no cold (touch) Bhagavä! May no heat (touch) Bhagavä! May no vexation by gadflies and gnats, by storms or the sun’s heat or
reptiles (touch) Bhagavä!”
3And at the end of those seven days, when the Näga King Mucalindo saw the open, cloudless sky, he loosened his coil(s) from the body of Bhagavä, made his own appearance (as a serpent) disappear, created the appearance of a young man, and stationed himself in the front of Bhagavä, raising his clasped hands while paying reverence to Bhagavä.
4 And Bhagavä, perceiving that, on this occasion, pronounced this solemn utterance: “Happy is the solitude of him who is full of joy, who has learnt the Dhammo, who apprehends (the Dhammo). Happy is the freedom from malice in this world, the (self-)restraint towards all beings that have life. Happy is the freedom from lust in this world, getting beyond all desires; the abandonment of that pride which comes from the thought ‘I am!’ This truly is the highest happiness.”
(my bold)
What strikes me is the fact that here a threat is made visible, differently from the gospel episode.
At that time a great cloud appeared out of season, rainy weather which was to last seven days, cold weather, storms and darkness
Is the cloud in the Gospel episode equally a threat?
Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud...
Lockwood has an interesting explanation, but I don't buy it. I would like to follow again and again the my point, that a celestial crucifixion is happening during the Transfiguration episode.
So in Matthew 17 there are two anomalies in comparison to Mark:
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
It is evident that "Matthew" is judaizing here, and much: the cloud is made a positive item, by becoming "bright" differently from the same cloud in Mark, that is strongly
dark.
In addition, in Matthew Jesus "
touched" them. The touch is the evidence
par excellence that Jesus is
carnal: he is not the spiritual Christ of Marcion.
If the cloud is a negative item in Mark, and the his negativity is implicitly recognized by a Matthew who makes it "bright" to remove any possible suspicion about it, then the cloud may be (interpreted as) coming from the demiurge.
Or, as preventing the same demiurge, Moses and Elijah themselves, from knowing Jesus.
In other terms, Matthew made it "bright" to avoid that the cloud was connected with the notion of
ignorance, with the idea that Moses and Elijah, in virtue of that dark cloud, couldn't realize who was
really Jesus. The voice itself from cloud raises some doubt about the his origin.
Was it the voice from the demiurge? Or was it the voice from the Good God?
If it was from the demiurge, then even the demiurge was confused by that cloud: he was moved to believe that Jesus was the
his messiah.
If it was from the Good God, then the cloud served to confuse the Moses and Elijah about the identity of the father of Jesus.
The cloud increases strongly the incertainty, the same fear of the OT prophets in the Sheol when they feared that the demiurge was tempting them by showing them Jesus as son of an alien god.
The voice from the cloud is possibly the voice of the Alien God.
Moses and Elijah disappear suddenly because they feared that the demiurge was tempting them, by commanding worship
only and only for Jesus alone.
There also a deliberate contrast between Peter who wants to cover,
without success, the light of Jesus, Moses and Elijah and the cloud that
is able to cover
really all them.
Did the cloud come from the demiurge, to make him cover successfully Jesus when even Peter failed to cover him?
The answer is in Luke 10:22:
No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him
Compare that with John 6:46:
not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
Note the great difference:
- The idea that the Father takes the disturb to reveal the identity of Jesus is pure judaism. The Father is YHWH.
- The idea that the Son takes the disturb to reveal the true identity of the his Father (an unknown god) is pure marcionism. The Father is the Alien God of Marcion.
Therefore the voice from the cloud is probably from YHWH. The episode can't be originally marcionite.