It has been a while since I read an issue of JTI all the way through. Somehow I did in the case of the Spring 2010 issue, and copied more than one article for my files. If you only have time for one, though, it should probably be Bogdan Bucur’s “Sinai, Zion, and Tabor: An Entry into the Christian Bible.”
Moses receiving the Law on Sinai, from Jesus. Winchester Bible, 12th century.
Bucur, who pays an evident debt to Jon Levenson’s wonderful Sinai and Zion (1985), concentrates on the refraction of Sinai and Zion through Mt. Tabor, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Here’s what he says about Sinai and Tabor:
It is now clear that, for an important segment of patristic exegesis, the Transfiguration is not only a vision that the disciples have of Christ, but, so to speak, a vision of a vision—a vision granted to Moses and Elijah, witnessed to by the disciples—and that Moses and Elijah appear on Tabor, beholding Jesus, because they have gazed upon him before on Sinai. In fact, the exegetical connection between Sinai and Tabor is also reflected in the readings assigned for the Feast of Transfiguration: the texts selected to explicate Christ’s appearance on Tabor are Exod 24 (the anthropomorphic appearance of the Lord to the 70 elders on Sinai), Exod 33 (“the promise”), and 3 Rgns/1 Kgs 19 (Elijah at Horeb).
— B. G. Bucur, JTI 4/1 (2010): 38.
The article is accompanied by some wonderful illustrations, presented online by Eisenbrauns. I hope future issues of JTI make more use of this feature.