Transfigured Christ, believed and loved
The book of Daniel has the same character of apocalyptic writing as Revelation. It is a difficult language to translate into thought. Take nothing literally, but do look for meaning! In the earlier verses of Chapter 7, Daniel is relating to us a dream he has had. In this prophesy, various mythical creatures have their wings torn off or are dealt with in other ways. Each of these are symbolic of the enemies of the people of God - and all of whom were destroyed in historical battles. AS the dream continues, Daniel introduces two more characters: The Son of Man - and The Ancient of Days. Who are they? This was written before there was a clear idea of the trinity, so God was singular - the ancient of days. The ancient of days is taken to mean the prime mover - an idea from Aristotle, meaning that which started everything off. John the evangelist is talking about the same idea in the prologue to his good news - in the begining was the word...
The son of man is the one who brings salvation to the world: a prophesy of the messiah. Subsequently Jesus uses this title for himself. And in Daniel's dream, God makes the son of man into the glorious king that we know Jesus to be.
Christ, Fully human, with a human mother and ancestors traceable back to David, is in the transfiguration, revealed to be fully God. And then the incident seemingly is forgotten - never mentioned again. In fact the apostles are told not to mention it. So why is it in the Gospel? Probably for the simple reason that it did happen!
The transfiguration seems to be almost impossible to describe - "His face was altered" and "his clothes became dazzling white" are hardly the apocalyptic, descriptive, poetic language of Daniels' dream. Language just can not keep up with the reality of what happened.
It is equally somewhat hard to understand - but then so much about God is. Clearly the details in the text relates the incident back to Daniel's transfiguration dream, thus linking Jesus to the Son of Man, and thus to be the Son of God. The glory of Jesus is revealed, but also, in his meeting with Elija and Moses, Jesus is being prepared for what is to come in Jerusalem. Notice that Jesus is from now on, in control of events. The phrase used here is 'what he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem' - not for example ' what he would suffer in Jerusalem'.
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Ps 97(96):1-2. 5-6. 9; Luke 9:28b-36