Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The Transfiguration episode put bluntly and clearly Jesus on a superior level than the symbols of the old order, Moses and Elijah, who have to open the way, velim nolim, to the representant of the new order.

Hence it makes a lot of sense if the Baptism Episode and the equation “John the Baptist = Elijah” was introduced only later in the Gospels, only after that Elijah appeared only during the Transfiguration episode, in a position of clear inferiority in comparison to Jesus.

Therefore John the Baptist was co-opted by the Christians only to make him the new Elijah, and thereby who precedes Jesus along the lines of a continuity, and not of a striking discontinuity, between “old” and “new”, between Law and Gospel.

This talks in support of Marcionite priority, since the baptism was absent in the Gospel of the heresiarch.

This explanation is more probable than the traditional explanation.

Since the traditional explanation requires that Jesus explained that John is Elijah to his disciples:

(Mark 9:11-13)

...contra factum that even a blind realizes easily from the incipit of Mark that John is Elijah redivivus (hence the Jesus's explanation to disciples that “Elijah is already came” is entirely not-necessary and redundant).


At contrary, it is decisively more expected that Mark 9:11-13 was an interpolation to reiterate insistently again and again that the Transfiguration happened after the Baptism, and not before.

But the excessive emphasis betrayes the traces of the Judaizing interpolator.

Elija = Helios

Moses = the Moon

In older myths, the Sun and the Moon were portrayed as paling before the appearance of the new God-Saviour.

Curiously, in the Transfiguration episode, the garb of Moses and Elijah are paling beyond any limit before the appearance of the Son of an alien God.

The act of paling themselves is clearly a further sign of submission before the appearance of the new deity: this is a feature of the Transfiguration that is often ignored, but it is essential to interpret the episode as an episode of violent rupture (ANTITHESIS) betwen “old” and “new”.

Someway, the paling of Moses and Elijah and of the same (Son of) man Jesus are signs of their “annihilation” (their becoming quasi ontologically inconsistent) before a supreme Being who only then did the his apparition before them.

Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:26 am Elija = Helios

Moses = the Moon

In older myths, the Sun and the Moon were portrayed as paling before the appearance of the new God-Saviour.

Curiously, in the Transfiguration episode, the garb of Moses and Elijah are paling beyond any limit before the appearance of the Son of an alien God.

The act of paling themselves is clearly a further sign of submission before the appearance of the new deity: this is a feature of the Transfiguration that is often ignored, but it is essential to interpret the episode as an episode of violent rupture (ANTITHESIS) betwen “old” and “new”.

Someway, the paling of Moses and Elijah and of the same (Son of) man Jesus are signs of their “annihilation” (their becoming quasi ontologically inconsistent) before a supreme Being who only then did the his apparition before them.

I find this idea interesting. I wonder if it has any relation to what Plutarch says here:

Plato calls the Intelligible "Idea," "Model," "Father," and Matter he terms "Mother," "Nurse," the seat and receptacle of generation; and that which results from both he is accustomed to denominate "Issue," and "Birth," and we may conjecture that the Egyptians [reverence] the most beautiful kind of triangle, because they liken it to the nature of the universe... We must therefore compare the line forming the right angle to the male, the base to the female, the hypothenuse to the child of the two; and the one to be Osiris, as the Final Cause; the other, Isis as the recipient; the third, Horus as the result...

So the interaction between what Plato/Plutarch call "Idea", "father", or "Osiris" with what they call "mother", "nurse", or "Isis" creates what they call "Issue", "birth", or "Horus". So the interaction of two "forces"(Moses and Elijah) gives "birth" to the third "force"(Jesus).

I remember in a Church of Prague a statue of Moses where he is portrayed with "horns". A reference to the Moon as regulator and legislator of the time (and obviously Moses was a legislator).

Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:53 am I remember in a Church of Prague a statue of Moses where he is portrayed with "horns". A reference to the Moon as regulator and legislator of the time (and obviously Moses was a legislator).

Moses has horns due to Jerome's translation of Exodus 34:29-30

Vulgate

29 cumque descenderet Moses de monte Sinai tenebat duas tabulas testimonii et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Dei 30 videntes autem Aaron et filii Israhel cornutam Mosi faciem timuerunt prope accedere

Douay-Rheims Bible

And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord.
And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near.

Andrew Criddle

andrewcriddle wrote: ↑Tue Sep 25, 2018 11:05 am

Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:53 am I remember in a Church of Prague a statue of Moses where he is portrayed with "horns". A reference to the Moon as regulator and legislator of the time (and obviously Moses was a legislator).

Moses has horns due to Jerome's translation of Exodus 34:29-30

Interestingly, the scene of the "horned Moses" took place at Mount Sinai. The name Sinai refers to the ancient Moon god Sin.