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t > are them for that event , he assumed , in the presence of three of them , a form sp lendid as the sun , and symbolical of the change which awaited him after his resurrection . Peter , who was much distressed at the thought that
his Divine Master was to undergo a cruel death , greedily laid hold of the magnificent scene before him as a happy means of averting the terrible event . And he expressed himself to
this effect : " Master , let us stay here and not go to Jerusalem - , for the splendour of thy appearance , and the testimony of Moses and Elias , will bring all men to the spot , and even thy
enemies will in consequence hail thee as the expected Messiah . " Now I maintain that this is the very circumstance to which Paul alludes when he says of Christ , " Who being in the form of God , did not think this divine form a thing to be caught at as the means of avoiding death ; but he divested himself of it , and became obedient unto death , even the death of the cross . " Now Dr . Smith remarks , that this allusion to the transfiguration is conjectural ; that , if true , it would be more definite ; and that , on the same
supnAcitlnn <"» - » rk nnrnna I nfrr / y / t ^/ . h / x ^ r /^ nl / i position , the original vizoipx ^ v would he the past participle virocp ^ ocq . To remove the first of these objections , it is only necessary to shew that the phrase " form of God" is an exact description of the transfiguration . It is well known that the term god in the genitive is often used by Hehrew , and even Greek writers , to denote pre-eminence . Thus the words " power of God , " denote " a mighty power ; " a " trumpet of God , " a loud
or awful trumpet ; a " wind of God / ' a violent tempest , or , as Homer writes , a " cloud of Jupiter , " as a dark , tempestuous cloud . On the same principle , a " form of God" may mean a very splendid form . Dr . Smith knows that Greek writers sometimes use fr « o ? exclusivel y to mean s 1 polloy or the sun . The reason of this is to be
sought in the origin of the word . The neorew my , zoe , to command , exists w Arabic in the form of Seio <; , to illumine or shine . The same word obtains in Persian , but is pronounced z ( which , through the medium of the Gothic , is the parent of our see j ^ d shew , the former of which means J ° perceive , the latter to exhibit , in tUe li ght ) . The Persian and Chaldean
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Dr . John Jones in answer to Dr . J . P . Smrth . S 51
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sages considered light as the emblem of God , and called the Benevolent Principle by that name . Hence the origin of 3 " £ os : and this etymology is confirmed by a remark of Aristotle , namely , that the Spartans pronounced Seioc , a-ioc : and thus the two different
modes of pronouncing the term among the Greeks corresponded to the different pronunciations of it among the Arabic and Persians . Nor were the writers of the New Testament ignorant of the primary import and origin of the word , as they seem to allude to it when they say that " God is light , " and call him " Father of lights . "
The history of our Lord ' s transfiguration is connected with his crucifixion , and founded on it . Peter seized the former as a plea to avoid the latter . The drift of the disciple's meaning is omitted in the narrative , and it is
remarkable that the apostle iti copying " the narrative has copied also the omission , and the ellipsis has rendered the passage forced and unnatural in the extreme . Let the ellipsis be supplied from the Gospel , and the words of
our apostle become as clear and natural as the light . And here let me ask , what can more decisively prove the truth of an allusion , than that it gives ease , grace and perspicuity to a paragraph which has hitherto baffled all the efforts of criticism to render it
intelligible ? If one key can , and ninety-nine keys cannot , open a lock without violence , is it conjectural that this is the true key ? If the apostle Paul uses terms which with the utmost propriety describe the transfiguration of our Saviour , and his conduct
on that occasion , is it conjectural that he alludes to that scene ? Indeed , my learned and excellent friend is not so happy here as he commonly is in the use of his terms . The Doctor quotes the following assertion of Chrysostom as illustrative of his own notion : " As the form of
a servant signifies no other than real and perfect man , so the form of God signifies no other than God . " The form of any visible object may mean
that object itself , for this very reason , that it has always been associated with it , has always appeared under it as an external mark peculiar to that object and that alone , precisely by the same association of ideas that the name of a thing stands for the thing itself . But
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/31/
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