The Parallels Between Moses, Elijah, and Jesus
“And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.” (Mark 9:4)
Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9 all record the moment of Jesus’ transfiguration on a “high mountain (most likely Mount Hermon on the Syria-Lebanon border).” As Peter, James, and John stare at a remarkably glorified Jesus, Elijah and Moses suddenly appear. Many people ask, “Why these two men? Why not Abraham or Noah or David?” These men were also surely worthy, but they were not.
Elijah and Moses appeared for two main reasons — as representations of the Old Testament and precursors of the coming Messiah.
Several times in the New Testament, we find the phrase “the Law and the Prophets.” One example is when Jesus proclaims the Greatest Commandment to the Pharisees.
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 22:37–40)
As representatives of the Old Testament, Moses is “the Law,” and Elijah is “the Prophets.” Anytime we read “the Law and the Prophets” (see also Mt 5:17, 7:12; Rom 3:21), it refers to these two men, specifically, and the Hebrew Bible (the Old…
