Matthew 17: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, where his appearance changes and Moses and Elijah appear with him, and a voice from a bright cloud calls him God's beloved Son. Coming down, he tells them Elijah has already come and been mistreated, and says the Son of Man will suffer in the same way; the disciples understand he means John the Baptist. Jesus then heals a boy his disciples could not help, explains that their little faith was the reason, and again tells them he will be killed and raised on the third day. The chapter ends in Capernaum, where Jesus tells Peter to pay the temple tax with a coin found in a fish's mouth.

Claim by Claim

1. 17:1
   • Six days passed.
   • Jesus took Peter with him.
   • Jesus took James with him.
   • Jesus took John, the brother of James, with him.
   • Jesus led them up a high mountain.
   • They were by themselves.
2. 17:2
   • Jesus was transfigured in front of them.
   • His face shone like the sun.
   • His clothing became white as the light.
3. 17:3
   • Moses appeared to them.
   • Elijah appeared to them.
   • Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus.
4. 17:4
   • Peter responded and spoke to Jesus.
   • Peter called Jesus Lord.
   • Peter said it is good for them to be there.
   • Peter offered, if Jesus wished, to make three shelters there.
   • Peter said one shelter would be for Jesus.
   • Peter said one shelter would be for Moses.
   • Peter said one shelter would be for Elijah.
5. 17:5
   • Peter was still speaking when it happened.
   • A bright cloud overshadowed them.
   • A voice came out of the cloud.
   • The voice said this is my beloved Son.
   • The voice said in him I am well pleased.
   • The voice commanded them to listen to him.
6. 17:6
   • The disciples heard the voice.
   • The disciples fell on their faces.
   • The disciples were very afraid.
7. 17:7
   • Jesus came to them.
   • Jesus touched them.
   • Jesus told them to get up.
   • Jesus told them not to be afraid.
8. 17:8
   • They lifted up their eyes.
   • They saw no one except Jesus alone.
9. 17:9
   • They were coming down from the mountain.
   • Jesus commanded them.
   • Jesus told them to tell the vision to no one.
   • Jesus set the limit as until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.
10. 17:10
    • The disciples asked Jesus a question.
    • The disciples asked why the scribes say that Elijah must come first.
11. 17:11
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus said Elijah does come first.
    • Jesus said Elijah will restore all things.
12. 17:12
    • Jesus said Elijah has already come.
    • Jesus said they did not recognize him.
    • Jesus said they did to him whatever they wanted.
    • Jesus said the Son of Man is likewise about to suffer at their hands.
13. 17:13
    • The disciples understood.
    • They understood that Jesus was speaking to them about John the Baptist.
14. 17:14
    • They came to the crowd.
    • A man came to Jesus.
    • The man knelt down to Jesus.
    • The man spoke.
15. 17:15
    • The man called Jesus Lord.
    • The man asked Jesus to have mercy on his son.
    • The man said his son is moonstruck.
    • The man said his son suffers badly.
    • The man said his son often falls into the fire.
    • The man said his son often falls into the water.
16. 17:16
    • The man said he brought his son to Jesus' disciples.
    • The man said the disciples could not heal him.
17. 17:17
    • Jesus answered.
    • Jesus called the generation faithless.
    • Jesus called the generation perverse.
    • Jesus asked how long he would be with them.
    • Jesus asked how long he would put up with them.
    • Jesus told them to bring the boy to him.
18. 17:18
    • Jesus rebuked the demon.
    • The demon came out of him.
    • The boy was healed from that hour.
19. 17:19
    • The disciples came to Jesus privately.
    • The disciples asked why they could not cast it out.
20. 17:20
    • Jesus answered them.
    • Jesus said the cause was their unbelief.
    • Jesus said truly I say to you.
    • Jesus said that if they have faith like a grain of mustard seed, they will tell this mountain to move from here to there.
    • Jesus said the mountain will move.
    • Jesus said nothing will be impossible for them.
21. 17:21
    • Jesus said this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
22. 17:22
    • They were staying together in Galilee.
    • Jesus said to them that the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
23. 17:23
    • Jesus said they will kill him.
    • Jesus said on the third day he will be raised.
    • They were exceedingly grieved.
24. 17:24
    • They came to Capernaum.
    • Those who collect the two-drachma tax came to Peter.
    • They asked Peter whether his teacher pays the two-drachma tax.
25. 17:25
    • Peter said yes.
    • Peter came into the house.
    • Jesus spoke first, before Peter did.
    • Jesus asked Simon what he thought.
    • Jesus asked from whom the kings of the earth take customs or tax.
    • Jesus asked whether it is from their own sons or from others.
26. 17:26
    • Peter said from others.
    • Jesus said to him that therefore the sons are free.
27. 17:27
    • Jesus said this so that they would not offend them.
    • Jesus told Peter to go to the sea.
    • Jesus told Peter to cast a hook.
    • Jesus told Peter to take the first fish that comes up.
    • Jesus said Peter would open its mouth.
    • Jesus said Peter would find a stater coin there.
    • Jesus told Peter to take the coin.
    • Jesus told Peter to give it to them for Jesus and for Peter.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

17:1

Peter, James and John are the three disciples Jesus repeatedly takes aside on their own at key moments. "Apart" in the King James just means by themselves, away from the other nine. The six days are counted from the conversation in chapter 16, where Peter called Jesus the Messiah and Jesus first told them he would be killed and raised.

17:2

"Transfigured" renders a Greek word meaning that his form or outward appearance was changed; the same verb gives us the word metamorphosis. "Raiment" is simply clothing.

17:3

"Elias" is the Greek spelling of Elijah, which the King James New Testament uses throughout for the Old Testament prophet. Moses was the man through whom Israel received the law at Sinai; Elijah was the prophet taken up to heaven in a whirlwind in 2 Kings 2. Both are figures whose departures from the world the Hebrew scriptures describe as unusual.

17:4

"Tabernacles" here does not mean the great tent of Israel's worship. The Greek word means a booth or hut, a temporary shelter made of branches, like those Jews built and lived in for a week each year at the Feast of Booths.

17:5

"Overshadowed" means covered or enveloped, not darkened; the cloud is described as bright. In Exodus a cloud settles on Mount Sinai and fills the tent of meeting as the visible sign that God is present. "Hear ye him" means listen to him, in the sense of obey.

17:6

"Sore" in the King James is an intensifier meaning greatly or severely, not an injury. "Sore afraid" is terrified.

17:9

"Son of man" is the phrase Jesus habitually uses of himself in the Gospels. In Hebrew and Aramaic it can simply mean "a human being," but it also echoes the figure "like the Son of man" in Daniel 7, who is given lasting authority and a kingdom. The English phrase keeps both senses open, as the Greek does.

17:10

"Scribes" were the professional experts in the law of Moses, trained to copy, interpret and teach it. Their expectation that Elijah must come first rests on Malachi 4:5, the last lines of the Hebrew scriptures, which promise that Elijah will be sent before the great day of the LORD.

17:11

"Restore all things" picks up the promise in Malachi that Elijah will turn the hearts of parents and children back toward one another, that is, put what has gone wrong back in order.

17:12

"Whatsoever they listed" means whatever they pleased or wanted; "list" in 1611 English meant to wish or choose, and has nothing to do with making a list. "Suffer of them" means suffer at their hands.

17:13

Matthew has already reported that John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas and then beheaded, which is what "they have done unto him whatsoever they listed" refers back to.

17:14

Kneeling in front of someone showed deep respect. People knelt before kings, and before anyone they were begging for help.

17:15

"Lunatick" comes from the Latin word for moon, and translates a Greek verb meaning "moonstruck." It was the ordinary ancient word for the condition we describe as seizures or epilepsy, which was widely believed to come and go with the phases of the moon. It does not mean insane in the modern sense. "Sore vexed" means suffering severely.

17:17

"Perverse" here carries its root sense of turned aside or twisted out of shape, not the narrower modern sense. "How long shall I suffer you" means how long must I put up with you; "suffer" in the King James regularly means to allow or endure.

17:18

The King James uses "devil" for two different Greek words. Here the word is the one meaning a demon, an individual unclean spirit, not Satan himself. "Rebuked" means issued a sharp, commanding word.

17:20

Greek manuscripts differ at this point: some read "unbelief," others read "littleness of faith," which is why modern translations say you have so little faith. The mustard seed was proverbially the smallest seed a farmer handled, so the point is the smallness of the quantity, not the kind of plant. "Verily I say unto you" is a solemn formula meaning I tell you the truth. "Remove hence to yonder place" means move from here to there.

17:21

"Howbeit" means nevertheless. This whole verse is missing from the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of Matthew and is generally thought to have been copied in later from the parallel account in Mark 9:29, which is why many modern translations skip from verse 20 to verse 22. "Fasting" means deliberately going without food for a set time as part of prayer.

17:22

"Abode" means stayed or remained. "Betrayed" translates a Greek verb that means handed over or delivered up. It can cover treachery, but it can also simply mean transferred into someone's custody, and the same word is used later for Pilate handing Jesus over.

17:23

"Exceeding sorry" means deeply grieved. In 1611 "sorry" meant full of sorrow, not apologetic.

17:24

This is not a Roman tax. "Tribute money" here translates a word meaning the two-drachma payment, the annual half-shekel that Exodus 30 required of every adult Jewish male toward the upkeep of the temple in Jerusalem. Two drachmas was roughly two days' pay for a laborer. "Your master" means your teacher.

17:25

"Prevented" in 1611 English means went before or spoke first, not stopped or hindered. "Custom or tribute" means duties on goods and taxes on persons or property. "Strangers" means those outside the royal family, that is, the king's subjects rather than his own household.

17:26

"Children" here means sons, and the argument turns on that: a king's own sons are not the ones taxed. The Greek word rendered "free" means exempt from the payment.

17:27

"Lest we should offend them" means so as not to give them cause for stumbling or grievance. "The sea" is the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake. The "piece of money" is a stater, a coin worth four drachmas, which is exactly two temple taxes, enough for Jesus and Peter together.

Where the Manuscripts Differ

Worth knowing before you stand up: a listener following a modern translation may not have this verse in front of them.

17:21

Most modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.