by them while on earth are today inherent in the
restored Church of Jesus Christ. The authority of Elias is inferior to
that of Elijah, the first being a function of the Lesser or Aaronic
order of Priesthood, while the latter belongs to the Higher or
Melchizedek Priesthood. Malachi's prediction, that before "the great and
dreadful day of the Lord" Elijah the prophet would be sent to earth to
"turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the
children to their fathers,"[792] did not reach fulfilment in the mission
of John the Baptist, nor in that of any other "Elias";[793] its complete
realization was inaugurated on the third day of April, 1836, when Elijah
appeared in the temple at Kirtland, Ohio, and committed to Joseph Smith
and Oliver Cowdery the keys of the authority theretofore vested in
himself. "The great and dreadful day of the Lord" was not the meridian
of time; that awful though blessed period of consummation is yet future,
but "near, even at the doors."[794]

NOTES TO CHAPTER 23.

1. Interval Between Time of Peter's Confession and that of the
Transfiguration.--Both Matthew (17:1) and Mark (9:2) state that the
Transfiguration occurred "after six days" following the time of Peter's
great confession that Jesus was the Christ; while Luke (9:28) notes an
interval of "about an eight days." It is probable that the six-day
period was meant to be exclusive of the day on which the earlier events
had occurred and of that on which Jesus and the three apostles retired
to the mountain; and that Luke's "about an eight days" was made to
include these two days. There is here no ground for a claim of
discrepancy.

2. Peter, James, and John who were selected from among the Twelve as the
only earthly witnesses of the transfiguration of Christ, had been
similarly chosen as witnesses of a special manifestation, that of the
raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51); and, later,
the same three were the sole witnesses of our Lord's night agony in
Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37; Mark 14:33).

3. Place of the Transfiguration.--The mountain on which the
Transfiguration occurred is neither named nor otherwise indicated by the
Gospel-writers in such a way as to admit of its positive identification.
Mount Tabor, in Galilee, has long been held by tradition as the site,
and in the sixth century three churches were erected on its plateau-like
summit, possibly in commemoration of Peter's desire to make three
t