Mateo 17

VBL · Chapter 17/28

1Seis días después Jesús llevó consigo a Pedro, a Santiago, y a su hermano Juan hacia una montaña alta para estar solos allí.

2Entonces Jesús se transformó frente a ellos. Su rostro brillaba como el sol. Sus vestiduras se volvieron blancas como la luz.

3De repente, aparecieron Moisés y Elías delante de ellos, y estos dos estaban hablando con Jesús.

4Pedro los interrumpió diciéndole a Jesús: “Señor, qué bien se siente estar aquí. Si tú quieres haré tres enramadas—una para ti, una para Moisés, y una para Elías”.

5Mientras Pedro aún hablaba, una nube brillante los cubrió. Entonces se escuchó una voz que salía desde la nube, que decía: “Este es mi hijo a quien amo, el cual me complace. Escúchenlo”.

6Cuando oyeron esto, los discípulos cayeron sobre sus rostros, completamente aterrorizados.

7Jesús se acercó a ellos y los tocó. “Levántense”, les dijo. “No tengan miedo”.

8Cuando levantaron la vista, no vieron a nadie más allí, excepto a Jesús.

9Cuando descendieron de la montaña, Jesús les dio instrucciones precisas: “No le digan a nadie lo que vieron hasta que el Hijo del hombre se haya levantado de entre los muertos”, les dijo.

10“¿Por qué, entonces, los maestros religiosos dicen que Elías debe venir primero?” preguntaron sus discípulos.

11“Es cierto que Elías viene a poner cada cosa en su lugar,

12pero déjenme decirles que Elías ya vino y sin embargo la gente no reconoció quién era él. Hicieron con él todo lo que quisieron. De la misma manera, el Hijo del hombre también sufrirá en manos de ellos”.

13Entonces los discípulos se dieron cuenta de que Jesús se estaba refiriendo a Juan el Bautista.

14Cuando se aproximaban a la multitud, un hombre llegó y se arrodilló delante de Jesús.

15“Señor, por favor, ten misericordia de mi hijo”, le dijo. “Él se vuelve loco y sufre ataques tan terribles que a veces hasta se lanza al fuego o al agua.

16Lo traje ante tus discípulos pero ellos no pudieron sanarlo”.

17“¡Este pueblo se niega a confiar en mi, y todos están corruptos!” respondió Jesús. “¿Cuánto tiempo más tengo que permanecer aquí con ustedes? ¿Cuánto tiempo más tendré que aguantarlos? ¡Tráiganmelo aquí!”

18Jesús confrontó al demonio y éste salió del joven, y quedó sano de inmediato.

19Después de esto, los discípulos vinieron a Jesús en privado y le preguntaron: “¿Por qué nosotros no pudimos sacarlo?”

20“Porque ustedes no creen lo suficiente”, les dijo Jesús. “Les digo que aún si la confianza de ustedes fuera tan pequeña como una semilla de mostaza, ustedes podrían decir a esta montaña ‘muévete de aquí para allá,’ y esta se movería. Nada sería imposible para ustedes”.

21[El versículo 21 no está en los primeros manuscritos.]

22Mientras caminaban por Galilea, Jesús les dijo: “El Hijo del hombre será traicionado y la gente tendrá poder sobre él.

23Lo matarán, pero el tercer día, él se levantará de nuevo”. Los discípulos se entristecieron.

24Cuando llegaron a Capernaúm, los que estaban encargados de recolectar el impuesto de medio siclo en el Templo, vinieron donde estaba Pedro y le preguntaron: “Tu maestro paga el medio siclo, ¿no es así?”

25“Si, por supuesto”, respondió Pedro.

26“A los otros”, respondió Pedro. Entonces Jesús le dijo: “En ese caso, los hijos están excentos.

27Pero para no ofender a nadie, ve al lago y saca un pez con un anzuelo. Saca el primer pez que atrapes, y cuando abras su boca encontrarás una moneda estatera. Toma la moneda y paga por ti y por mi”.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, appearing with Moses and Elijah; coming down the mountain, he heals a demon-possessed boy the disciples could not deliver and again predicts his death and resurrection.

Explanation

The transfiguration momentarily reveals Jesus's divine glory, with Moses representing the law and Elijah the prophets, suggesting that all of prior Scripture pointed to him. The Father's voice repeating 'this is my beloved Son, hear him' echoes the same declaration made at Jesus's baptism, now before close witnesses. The healing of the epileptic or demon-possessed boy, which the disciples had been unable to perform, is attributed by Jesus to little faith and the need for prayer, showing that spiritual ability is neither automatic nor permanent. The episode of the coin found in the fish's mouth, used to pay a temple tax, is one more example of God's unexpected provision in practical, everyday situations.

Fun facts

  • Later Christian tradition identified the 'high mountain' of the transfiguration as either Mount Tabor or Mount Hermon, though the biblical text does not specify the exact location.
  • The temple tax mentioned (the didrachma) was an annual fee every adult Jewish man paid for the upkeep of the Jerusalem temple, based on Exodus 30.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Mateo 17:1‘Six days later’ links this episode directly to the previous conversation about suffering and death — Peter, James, and John make up Jesus’ innermost circle, present also at other key moments in the Gospel.
  2. Mateo 17:2‘Transfigured’ describes a visible change in Jesus’ own physical appearance — face and clothes shining in a way associated, in Jewish tradition, with the direct presence of God’s glory.
  3. Mateo 17:3Moses represents the Law and Elijah represents the Prophets — the two greatest figures of the Old Testament appearing side by side with Jesus suggests that He fulfills and completes both traditions.
  4. Mateo 17:4‘Tabernacles’ are temporary shelters, the kind Jews built for the Feast of Tabernacles, recalling the time the people lived in tents in the wilderness. Peter seems to be trying to prolong that moment by building shelters for the three of them — the reaction of someone who doesn’t quite know what to do in the face of such an overwhelming scene.
  5. Mateo 17:5The bright cloud is an image associated with God’s presence in the Old Testament, like the cloud that guided the people in the wilderness — the voice speaking from within it repeats almost the same words spoken at Jesus’ baptism, in chapter 3.
  6. Mateo 17:6Falling face down before a divine manifestation was a common and expected reaction in biblical tradition — a sign of reverence and also of genuine fear in the face of something beyond the human.
  7. Mateo 17:7Jesus’ touch and His instruction not to be afraid contrast with the frightening scene before it — a gesture of personal care right after the overwhelming manifestation of divine glory.
  8. Mateo 17:8The vision ends with Jesus alone, without Moses or Elijah — a detail suggesting the experience had a specific, limited purpose, not a permanent change in His appearance.
  9. Mateo 17:9Asking for secrecy until after the resurrection follows the same pattern as other requests for silence in the Gospel — in this case, explicitly tying the right moment to reveal the vision to a specific future event.
  10. Mateo 17:10The law teachers read the prophet Malachi as a promise that Elijah would physically return before the Messiah’s arrival, preparing the way for Him. Jesus answers that this expectation had already been fulfilled, just not the way the scribes expected — and the text right after makes clear He was talking about John the Baptist.
  11. Mateo 17:11Jesus confirms the scribes’ expectation that Elijah would come to prepare the way, citing the same prophecy from Malachi already mentioned in chapter 11.
  12. Mateo 17:12Jesus indirectly identifies this ‘Elijah’ with someone who had already come and been mistreated — an allusion to John the Baptist, which the text confirms explicitly in the next verse.
  13. Mateo 17:13Confirms what had already been suggested in chapter 11: John the Baptist fulfilled the expected role of the Elijah figure, without literally being the same prophet reincarnated.
  14. Mateo 17:14The scene shifts abruptly from the top of the mountain, with its manifestation of glory, to the middle of the crowd and a concrete human problem — a desperate father asking for help for his own son.
  15. Mateo 17:15‘Lunatick’ described, at the time, crises we would today associate with epilepsy — falling into fire and water suggests seizures that put the child in real, repeated physical danger.
  16. Mateo 17:16The disciples’ failure to heal the boy, despite having received that kind of authority in chapter 10, sets up the question they ask Jesus in private later on.
  17. Mateo 17:17Jesus’ rebuke sounds harsh and sweeping, directed not just at the father or the disciples, but at an entire ‘generation’ — a sign of frustration with the widespread lack of faith He had been encountering.
  18. Mateo 17:18The healing happens directly and immediately, with a simple rebuke to the spirit — the same pattern of authority without lengthy rituals already seen in other exorcisms in the Gospel.
  19. Mateo 17:19The disciples ask privately, away from the crowd, perhaps showing some embarrassment over their own failure in a case others had already seen them resolve before.
  20. Mateo 17:20The mustard seed was known at the time as one of the smallest seeds under cultivation. Jesus isn’t comparing faith to something weak, but the opposite: even a tiny amount, the size of that seed, is already enough for an enormous result.
  21. Mateo 17:21This verse, about fasting and prayer, doesn’t appear in the oldest manuscripts of Matthew — many scholars consider it a later copy from the parallel account in Mark.
  22. Mateo 17:22This is the second of the three direct predictions of His own death that Jesus makes throughout the Gospel, still within the territory of Galilee, before the final trip to Jerusalem.
  23. Mateo 17:23The disciples’ sorrow shows that, even after the Transfiguration and so many miracles, they still reacted to the idea of Jesus’ death with genuine shock, apparently without fully grasping the part about the resurrection.
  24. Mateo 17:24The ‘didrachma’ was the annual tax every adult Jewish man paid toward the upkeep of the Jerusalem temple, no matter where he lived. Asking whether Jesus paid this tax was, in practice, asking whether He considered Himself bound by the same religious obligations as any ordinary Jew.
  25. Mateo 17:25Jesus anticipates Peter’s question before he even mentions the tax collection, using an example of earthly kings to argue that, as the Son of God, He shouldn’t by rights have to pay the tax for His own Father’s temple.
  26. Mateo 17:26Peter’s answer confirms Jesus’ reasoning: kings don’t collect taxes from their own children — the same logic applied to the relationship between Jesus and His Father’s temple.
  27. Mateo 17:27A ‘stater’ was a silver coin worth exactly enough to pay the temple tax for two people — which is why it works for both Peter and Jesus. It’s an unusual way to settle a very concrete, everyday obligation: paying a tax without having any money saved up.

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