What does the chapter narrate, and what does it leave as an instruction?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The account narrates the transfiguration, the child’s cure and an announcement of suffering, then ends with instructions concerning the didrachma.

Chapter breakdown

# Matthew 17

After six days, Jesus takes Peter, James and James’s brother John apart into a high mountain. He is transfigured: his face shines as the sun and his garments become white as snow. Moses and Elias appear talking with him. Peter proposes three tabernacles, one for each, if Jesus wills. While he speaks, a bright cloud overshadows them. A voice calls Jesus its beloved Son, declares pleasure in him, and commands them to hear him. The disciples fall on their faces in great fear. Jesus touches them and tells them to rise without fear; looking up, they see only Jesus. On the descent he forbids telling the vision until the Son of man has risen from the dead. Asked why the scribes say Elias must come first, he says Elias shall come and restore all things, but has already come unrecognized and been treated as people wished; the Son of man likewise will suffer. They understand him to mean John the Baptist.

At the multitude, a kneeling father begs pity for his suffering son, using the source’s term “lunatic” and saying that he often falls into fire and water. He reports that the disciples could not cure him. Jesus reproves the unbelieving and perverse generation and orders the child brought. At his rebuke the devil departs and the child is cured from that hour. Privately asked why they could not cast it out, Jesus attributes this to their unbelief. He says that faith as a mustard grain can move the mountain and that nothing shall be impossible to them, adding that this kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting. These are the chapter’s reported words, not a modern medical diagnosis or a general treatment guarantee.

While they abide together in Galilee, Jesus foretells betrayal into human hands, death, and resurrection on the third day. The disciples are exceedingly troubled. At Capharnaum, the didrachma collectors ask Peter whether his master pays it; Peter says yes. In the house Jesus anticipates him, asking whether kings receive tribute or custom from their own children or strangers. Peter answers strangers, and Jesus says the children are free. To avoid scandalizing them, Jesus instructs Peter to cast a hook into the sea, take the first fish, find a stater in its mouth, and pay for both of them. The chapter ends with the instruction; it does not narrate Peter’s subsequent fishing or payment.

**Source commentary.** The mustard-grain note interprets this as perfect faith resembling the grain in its properties and fruits in Matthew 13:31. The didrachma note identifies it as half a sicle or half a stater, approximately 15d. English, and a tax laid on every head for temple service. The note does not call it a civil levy or specify adult Jewish citizenship.

The story inside

The mountain vision is followed by explanation about Elias, a father’s petition, private teaching, and the question of tribute.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The high mountain is unnamed in this source span.
2
The note interprets mustard-grain faith as perfect faith in properties and fruits.
3
Finding the coin and paying are commanded but not separately narrated.

Test your recall

Six days; Peter, James and John; the child cured; the stater instruction.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 112442–112515
Matthew Chapter 17 The Transfiguration of Christ: He cures the lunatic child: foretells his passion; and pays the didrachma. 17:1. And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: 17:2. And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. 17:3. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. 17:4. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 17:5. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. 17:6. And the disciples hearing fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. 17:7. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them: Arise, and fear not. 17:8. And they lifting up their eyes, saw no one, but only Jesus. 17:9. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead. 17:10. And his disciples asked him, saying: Why then do the scribes say that Elias must come first? 17:11. But he answering, said to them: Elias indeed shall come, and restore all things. 17:12. But I say to you, that Elias is already come, and they knew him not, But have done unto him whatsoever they had a mind. So also the Son of man shall suffer from them. 17:13. Then the disciples understood, that he had spoken to them of John the Baptist. 17:14. And when he was come to the multitude, there came to him a man falling down on his knees before him saying: Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffereth much: for he falleth often into the fire, and often into the water. 17:15. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 17:16. Then Jesus answered and said: O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. 17:17. And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. 17:18. Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? 17:19. Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you. As a grain of mustard seed.... That is, a perfect faith; which in its properties, and its fruits, resembles the grain of mustard seed, in the parable, chap. 13. 31. 17:20. But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.
Lines 112517–112544
17:21. And when they abode together in Galilee, Jesus said to them: The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: 17:22. And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. And they were troubled exceedingly. 17:23. And when they were come to Capharnaum, they that received the didrachmas, came to Peter, and said to him: Doth not your master pay the didrachma? The didrachmas.... A didrachma was half a sicle, or half a stater; that is, about 15d. English: which was a tax laid upon every head for the service of the temple. 17:24. He said: Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying: What is thy opinion, Simon? The kings of the earth, of whom do they receive tribute or custom, of their own children, or of strangers? 17:25. And he said: Of strangers. Jesus said to him: Then the children are free. 17:26. But that we may not scandalize them, go to the sea, and cast in a hook: and that fish which shall first come up, take: and when thou hast opened its mouth, thou shalt find a stater: take that, and give it to them for me and thee.