Transfiguration - What does it mean?

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In the Bible in the New Testament in Luke there is a story called the Transfiguration of Jesus where Jesus looked white as snow and Moses and Elijah were there.

This, to me, sounds like a Hinduism visualization story.

What does it mean?

Is Jesus Christ trying to toss Moses and Elijah (non-profit Judaism) out the window so to speak and replace Judaism with non-profit Christianity?

This story sounds a little like a non-profit religious coup/a non-profit religion power grab by Jesus.

Jesus Christ is saying he's the new Elvis Presley, the old Elvis Presleys (Moses and Elijah) are out now?

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Jesus Christ Superstar is a musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar

Absolutely not!

Two places in time brought together (or at least in the sense of group premonition). In reading Charles Capps and his analogy of the transfiguration the idea was that the disciples were given a full on image of the rapture - seeing it in future tense as well as the symbolism of both the dead and the living (Moses and Elijah) being gathered up in the same sweep of the earth. Supposedly 'on a high mountain' was euphemism for something that would have been a bit too wild to write about in those times.

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Certainly Jesus was looking backwards in time in the Transfiguration when two persons from the past, Moses and Elijah, appeared there with him. In some way it was a living dream where two persons long gone appeared to Jesus.

In Fiddler on the Roof (musical movie), there is a cemetery scene where people from the past come back to life to help clarify whether a marriage of a young woman to an older, rich widowed butcher would be appropriate or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_on_the_Roof_(film)

Regarding the trinity known as Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, that certainly was a temporary summit of well-known religious leaders - two elders (Elijah and Moses) and a newcomer (Jesus Christ).

To me it suggests a kind of linear story telling, where Moses is the first elder, Elijah is the second elder, and the baton is being passed to Jesus to become the newest elder and as the New Testament presents Jesus as the greatest elder of all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar

Well, to give you a bit more detail - as you may be aware - many biblical figures had ascended aside from just Jesus and Mary. The idea is that Peter, James, and John were being shown the works of what would come with the rapture, the seven years of 'earth management' classes that would occur for the ascended during the tribulation, just like both the dead (Mosus) and the living (Elijah) would be swept up on a chariot to heaven - first the angels would take the dead, then they'd swing the same coach around to pick up the living and ferry them up. Ultimately that summit was much more one of symbolic meaning than of just bringing one dead and one MIA patriarch back to impress a few disciples. Supposedly Michael himself will be making a special trip for Mosus.

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Am unfamiliar with how part of the gospels really relate to the Book of Revelation, sorry. Have seen Charles Capps on Christian TV a few times. Frankly, I do not have firm views of the Tribulation at all since I've heard several vastly different summaries of what some persons believe the Tribulation is as described in the Bible. I do feel that the Book of Revelation is a Greek mythology like bookend to the whole Bible, that is, the Book of Revelation wraps up everything with a Battle at Armageddon, a judgment by Jesus where some go to a lake of heck and others to a heaven which has 12 pearly gates, streets of gold, foundations of precious gems and the center is where the Lamb of God/the peace of God resides under conditions in which there is no sun and no night. I certainly did get the impression that heaven would be populated, sooner or later, by righteous men such as Moses and Elijah. As I recall, there is a lot going on in the Book of Revelation in terms of events happening every page or so - an activity schedule which tended to overload my ability to grasp its patterns. Thanks for sharing your interpretation of the meaning of the Transfiguration and how subsequent events will unfold.
I certainly did get the idea that Judaism and Christianity go into a regular kind of sorting process where some folks go up, others stay behind/whatever. The Transfiguration scenario seemed to me like some kind of idea purification exercise - values clarification class.

Its funny you should say that, John Ralston Saul in Voltaire's Bastards had a similar take - that it was conventional authority putting a tombstone on the power of Jesus's message and taking Christianity back to the reigns of bureaucracy.

As far as reading the books though, most others as you know aren't quite as thickly laden with symbolism, but the claim is that every story and every set of numbers given - whether the age that Mosus died at or the structural dimensions of Solomons temple, all have double entente meaning. I think one of my biggest questions, and why I got curious again to read a book by Charles on end times prophecy, is that I get the narrative of what happened up until Abraham, until Jesus, what I didn't get is what the purpose of the world post-Jesus has been, ie. what's supposed to be happening right now. His book did shed a lot of light on that. If we were to go by the Jewish calender though we've got another 240 years before such things start happening. One of the odd claims made though was that the rapture won't be a 'thief in the night' moment, that it'll come on the wake of all kinds of miracles, but rather that the second coming at the end of the tribulation will be that. There's a lot more I could add here but - like you - I'm still out on just how much of the bible I buy into and while a compelling theory is a compelling theory that's about as far as it goes.

Agreed.

It may be interesting to note that the one gospel that does not tell the story of the transfiguration is thought to be written by one who was actually there. John's gospel is the most theological of the four and many people think it shows a strong gnostic influence. Jesus asked the three who were with him to keep that story quiet until after he was risen, perhaps John thought the story was not for everyone even then; there may be many other things that one would need to understand before he is ready to understand what happened there.

Certainly! !???

You were there so you know for sure?

ruveyn