VIEWS

Peter & The Voice of God

Transfiguration In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, went up with Jesus to the top of a mountain. The narratives say that Jesus was transfigured before them, his face shining and his clothes becoming bright white. And they heard a voice, saying —

Mat 17:5 : ... This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

This is the certification by God of his own son. God is pleased with him. And he says, listen to Jesus, pay attention to what he is saying, believe him. It is the Voice of God, direct and clear.

There is a remarkable passage in Peter's Second Letter that recounts the same event —

2Pe 1:16-18 : 16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

The passage is remarkable in several ways. First there is the independent confirmation that the event happened, which leads to the conclusion that the other events in the Gospels took place. Peter claims to have been an eyewitness of Christ's majesty. Should we believe him? But even more striking is Peter's assertion that these have not been cunningly devised fables. The Bible, through Peter, claims to be true. These are not fairy tales.

But most remarkable are the verses that follow —

2Pe 1:19 : We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

The more sure word of prophecy is the written word, the scriptures (for Peter, the Old Testament, but more on that below). And Peter encourages us to pay attention to it.

And then come some of the strongest statements the Bible makes about itself —

2Pe 1:20 : Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

The scriptures are not of any private interpretation. The words private and interpretation might have been better translated its own (from the Greek idios) and unfolding (from the Greek epilusis). From the scope of the passage, the meaning is not how the reader interprets the scripture, but rather how the scripture came about in the first place, that it did not originate from the prophet on its own. Why?

2Pe 1:21 : For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Holy men wrote the scriptures, moved by God's Spirit (also known as “inspiration”). And Peter is saying these scriptures are more certain, “more sure,” than his eyewitness claim, strong as it is.

And yes, Peter probably had what we now call the Old Testament in mind when he wrote these words, but consider a statement he makes just before he closes the letter —

2Pe 3:15-16 : 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Peter refers to the letters of Paul (and comments on how they may at times be hard to understand!) and then groups Paul's writings with the other scriptures. Before our eyes the canon of the New Testament is being formed and becoming scripture itself.

The Voice of God indeed!

LINKS - For Further Consideration
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God & The Voice of Peter - A Personal View

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