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Toto · 08-07-2013, 01:06 AM

August 6 is a church feast day in remembrance of the Transfiguration for the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Bulgarian traditions

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On August 6 the Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ (Sveto Preobrazhenie Gospodne).

According to the Church, this is the day that Christ strengthened the belief of his disciples in his holy origin by transfiguring himself in front of the eyes of Peter, Jacob and John. Preobrazhenie starts fifty days of fasting (fish is allowed). On this day people pick the first grapes and give them out to relatives and neighbours. According to folklore beliefs, on Preobrazhenie the "summer turns" and starts approaching the autumn and, respectively, the cold weather.

Orthodox Bulgarians also take grapes to church to sanctify it and give them out for health and fertility during the next year. People believe that when God created the grapes, the Devil made the blackberry, called by the people "devil's grapes". The Devil did so that it ripened earlier that the grapes. That is why it is unlucky eats blackberries on Preobrazhenie. The good Christian tastes first the fruit of God and only after that he can eat blackberries without fear.

(The article goes on to explain that young men and women would traditionally look for a suitor at this time, so the wedding could be in September and the first child born in June, so the bride could get back to work in the fields by summer...)

In New Testament Narrative as Old Testament Midrash Robert M. Price notes:

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Jesus’ ascent of the unnamed mountain and his transfiguration there is, of course, Mark’s version of Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the Torah and his shining visage in Exodus 24 and 34:29. As Bowman notes (p. 190), the Markan introduction, “And six days later” (9:2), must be understood as a pointer to the Exodus account. God calls Moses up the mountainside to receive the tablets (Exodus 24:12), and he takes Joshua with him (v. 13). Once they make the climb, the glory cloud covers the height for six days (v. 16), and on the seventh the divine voice calls to Moses from the depth of the cloud. Mark has apparently foreshortened the process.

The glowing apparition of Jesus is most obviously derived from that of Moses in Exodus 34:29, but as Derrett (p. 159) points out, we must not miss the influence of Malachi 3:2, especially since Elijah, too, appears: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.” This, then, is the prophesied return of Elijah, and Jesus’ garments glow white “like no fuller on earth could have bleached them” (Mark 9:3).

Jesus appears like Moses, yet with Moses. He is the predicted prophet like Moses from Deuteronomy 18:15: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. Him you shall heed.” The heavenly voice reiterates this commandment in Mark 9:7, “This is my beloved son; listen to him” (Bowman, p. 193).

From Vridar

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The topos was for gods to wander about the earth and reveal themselves to selected individuals. One example is how the goddess Demeter came disguised as an old woman but chose to reveal her divine nature to Metaneira, the mother of a child Demeter had hoped to make an immortal god.

When she had so said, the goddess changed her stature and her looks, thrusting old age away from her: beauty spread round about her and a lovely fragrance was wafted from her sweet-smelling robes, and from the divine body of the goddess a light shone afar, while golden tresses spread down over her shoulders, so that the strong house was filled with brightness as with lightning. And so she went out from the palace. (Hymn to Demeter, line 275)

The similarity with the transfiguration scene in Mark hardly needs pointing out. A number of scholars (e.g. Moss, Collins) have argued that the details of Mark’s scene (9:2-8) would surely have been familiar to the original audience as another scene of an epiphany of a god.

Eric H · 08-07-2013, 05:02 AM

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Toto

The glowing apparition of Jesus is most obviously derived from that of Moses in Exodus 34:29, but as Derrett (p. 159) points out, we must not miss the influence of Malachi 3:2, especially since Elijah, too, appears: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.” This, then, is the prophesied return of Elijah, and Jesus’ garments glow white “like no fuller on earth could have bleached them” (Mark 9:3).

Moses is said to represent the law of God and Elijah is said to represent the prophets, all the law and the prophets hang and depend on the greatest commandments. Does Jesus, the central figure in the Transfiguration, represent these commandments?

just a thought.

Toto · 08-07-2013, 07:55 PM

I sometimes think that so much of Christianity was lost when Protestants made it all rational and straight laced. I'm really concerned about those poor blackberries. What did they every do? Give some early Christian indigestion?

From here:

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Michaelmas have been subject for shifting dates, varying from the fast in honour of the Cross in the Orthodox Church spanning from the 14th to 27th of September and until 11th of October as was the day of the Old Michaelmas. Legend tells that on this day Satan was thrown out from heaven and landed in brambles, hence the blackberries should not be collected after this date as Satan defecated upon the berries on this day and made them poisonous. Other stories of probably East European origin informs us that the bramble and blackberry was formed by the Devil as his response to grapes, hence its praise name as The Devil’s Grapes.

ph2ter · 08-13-2013, 01:27 AM

I'm a little late, but this Bulgarian blackberries' customs have nothing in common with the Transfiguration and probably are the remnants of old pre-Christian beliefs.

In the epistle of 2 Peter the mountain of Transfiguration is termed 'sacred mountain', but the problem is that there is no any sacred mountain in Galilee. Such epithet could get only the mountains like Sinai/Horeb or Sion. What enabled 2 Peter and the evangelists to give such honor to a mountain in Galilee maybe is indicated with Matt 17:20 - You can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.

This hyperbole could veiled the fact that the evangelists took the freedom to move the mountain of Horeb/Sinai into Galilee. Looking from Jerusalem, the mountain of Transfiguration is situated in a diametrically opposite direction to that of Sinai. That mountain must be located somewhere near Caesarea Philippi according to the Gospels. It could be Mt. Hermon at which base the River of Jordan rises. Look at the map and you will see that the region of Caesarea Philippi lies exactly on the line which goes from Sinai and through Jerusalem.
The evangelists moved the symbolism of Horeb into the region of Galilee to stress that the old covenant is to be transferred from the Jews to the nations. The Transfiguration scene is the elaboration of ideas which appeared in 2 Corinthians 3:6-4:6 while mining Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus 24. Mosses and Elijah are the only persons in OT which experienced epiphany at Horeb. This is another indication that the mount of Transfiguration corresponds to Horeb.

rizdek · 08-13-2013, 03:09 AM

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Preobrazhenie starts fifty days of fasting (fish is allowed). On this day people pick the first grapes and give them out to relatives and neighbours.

I thought fasting meant going without eating. Why pick grapes and give to friends and family if they are going to be fasting (only eating fish) for the next 50 days?

Toto · 08-13-2013, 08:09 AM

"Fasting" often refers to not eating meat, or animal products.

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08-13-2013, 01:27 AM	#4
ph2ter Regular Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Europe Posts: 219	I'm a little late, but this Bulgarian blackberries' customs have nothing in common with the Transfiguration and probably are the remnants of old pre-Christian beliefs. In the epistle of 2 Peter the mountain of Transfiguration is termed 'sacred mountain', but the problem is that there is no any sacred mountain in Galilee. Such epithet could get only the mountains like Sinai/Horeb or Sion. What enabled 2 Peter and the evangelists to give such honor to a mountain in Galilee maybe is indicated with Matt 17:20 - You can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. This hyperbole could veiled the fact that the evangelists took the freedom to move the mountain of Horeb/Sinai into Galilee. Looking from Jerusalem, the mountain of Transfiguration is situated in a diametrically opposite direction to that of Sinai. That mountain must be located somewhere near Caesarea Philippi according to the Gospels. It could be Mt. Hermon at which base the River of Jordan rises. Look at the map and you will see that the region of Caesarea Philippi lies exactly on the line which goes from Sinai and through Jerusalem. The evangelists moved the symbolism of Horeb into the region of Galilee to stress that the old covenant is to be transferred from the Jews to the nations. The Transfiguration scene is the elaboration of ideas which appeared in 2 Corinthians 3:6-4:6 while mining Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus 24. Mosses and Elijah are the only persons in OT which experienced epiphany at Horeb. This is another indication that the mount of Transfiguration corresponds to Horeb.

08-13-2013, 08:09 AM	#6
Toto Contributor Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Los Angeles area Posts: 40,549	"Fasting" often refers to not eating meat, or animal products.

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