In "Extraterrestrials in Biblical Prophecy" (1989), G. Cope Schellhorn writes:

"In (the Gospel of) Matthew we are told how Jesus leads Peter, John and James, his brother, up a high mountain:
"And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the Sun, and his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." He was still speaking, when lo, a bright CLOUD overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only."
Several things about this passage should give us pause for thought. No wonder the disciples are filled with "awe." What they are seeing is extraordinary. The "bright cloud," it makes sense to assume, is reference to a hovering spacecraft (modern UFOs often appear in the form of "clouds", that is to say, their true spacecraft appearance is hidden by a cloud-like energy). The commander of the craft communicates with ground level by means of a loudspeaker. Undoubtedly those at ground level who had never seen a spacecraft reflecting the Sun and heard a voice emanating from it would be very impressed, even overwhelmed. The disciples surely are. They "fell on their faces." Not only is the man they follow extraordinary, but he leads them literally and figuratively to extraordinary, out-of-this-world experiences."

If the abovementioned "CLOUD" was in reality a spacecraft, it then has to be asked, who was the being that said, "This is my beloved Son....?"

No one in contemporary times can begin to imagine what really happened. The mystery to me, however, is that afterward Jesus told the disciples not to tell anyone about what they had seen. When he cured the blind man he also instructed him to not tell anyone about the miracle.

How then do these events appear in the Bible? If no one told anyone else, how then did it pass into the collective memories of Scripture?

as iaapac stated, it is impossible to separate the facts from the embellisments from the pure fiction in bibletales.

it all could just as easily be a tale dreamed up while on a mushroom trip up on the moutain.

etvisitor - have you ever read anything by Alan F. Alford? In 'Gods of the New Millenium', he makes a compelling case with a similar theory to what you've posted. Alford's theories, in a sense are similar to Zechariah Sitchin, but I think Alford is more eloquent.

Regards, PA

What happened ... "Whatever Jesus' followers experienced after the crucifixion, it happened in their hearts and minds, not as a matter of history . . .”--Stephen J. Patterson, Associate Professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis

Pretty much sums it up for me.

Kindly,

Sean

what really happened, is over three hundred years later, the roman empire broke apart into two halves, eastern and western. a man named theodosius managed to become sole roman emperor. he wanted to secure the roman empire for all time for his descendants. he mandated christianity as the sole acceptable religion in the empire, and systematically eradicated paganism. he had all the pagan temples burned (including whoever happened to be inside), including the one containing the library at alexandria, the last remaining repository of knowledge. he convened the council of constantinople, which recalled all the existing new testaments, burned them, and wrote their own version. we have a few remaining codices containing fragments of one book or another, but we don't really know what was in the original gospels, etc. around the same "saint jerome" began his translation into latin of what became the "vulgate" edition. the only other religion, barely tolerated, was judiasm. for some reason, he spared my ancestors.by the way, when theodosius died eleven years later, the empire fell apart again. it was supposed to be nominally divided between his two sons, one of whom was a minor (a pagan was chosen as his "regent"-theodosius paid the equivalent of millions of dollars to pagan goths to maintain the borders of the empire, and this was one of their generals-go figure!). the empire quickly fell apart again, so theodosius's work was pretty much in vain. the only thing we have left is modern christianity and the "new testament". we don't know what really happened at the transfiguration, or if Yeshuah ben Yosef was a real person, or how the disciples knew what moses and elijah looked like!

PA, I've never read any of Alford's books, although I've heard of 'Gods of the New Millenium'. I shall look out for it in bookstores, and maybe even buy it sometime. Thanks for letting me know about that author; I'm very interested in reading his books.
I own one of Zechariah Sitchin's books. It's full of tantalising, thought-provoking ideas.
PA, I like your open-minded attitude to this and other similar subjects. Namaste, Mark

What happened? Nothing! There is no evidence that Jesus ever existed, the gospels were written by anonymous non-witnesses long after the last witness had died and are little more that recrutiment tools written in the form of fiction. To even think that some similar happened would make all the transformations of all the preceding savior gods just as valid has his. The up side is, fewer and fewer people are buying into this mythology and the religion is slowly sliding into extinction.