The Transfiguration is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. In Christian teachings, the Transfiguration is a pivotal moment, and the setting on the mountain is presented as the point where human nature meets God: the meeting place for the temporal and the eternal, with Jesus himself as the connecting point, acting as the bridge between heaven and earth.
Figures
Jesus, Moses, Elijah
Symbols
Burning Chariot: Elijah’s ascent into heaven
Burning Bush: the call of Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage
Alpha and Omega
Hand of God
The Glory: a golden flood of light enveloping more than one person, as in the Transfiguration
Two-rayed Nimbus (around the head of Moses): When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, “…the skin of his face shone because he had been speaking with the Lord” (Exodus 34:29) In Hebrew, the word of this emanation of light is “KORAHN”. It is similar in its root to the word “KEREN”, which means “horn”. It may be that a stream of light has the appearance of a horn. Michelangelo, using an old translation of the Hebrew passage, created his statue of Moses with two horns on his head. In our window, we have the radiance illustrated by two streams of light.
Clerestory Window
Symbols
Descending Dove
