Chapter
17
After six days, Jesus took with her Petra, Jamie, and Johanna her sister, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves.
She was transfigured before them. Her face shone like the sun, and her garments became as white as the light.
Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with her.
Petra answered, and said to Jesus, "Domina, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let's make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
While she was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Daughter, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to her."
When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid.
Jesus came and touched them and said, "Get up, and don't be afraid."
Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Don't tell anyone what you saw, until the Daughter of Woman has risen from the dead."
Her disciples asked her, saying, "Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
Jesus answered them, "Elijah indeed comes first, and will restore all things,
but I tell you that Elijah has come already, and they didn't recognize her, but did to her whatever they wanted to. Even so the Daughter of Woman will also suffer by them."
Then the disciples understood that she spoke to them of Johanna the Baptizer.
When they came to the multitude, a woman came to her, kneeling down to her, saying,
"Domina, have mercy on my daughter, for she is epileptic, and suffers grievously; for she often falls into the fire, and often into the water.
So I brought her to your disciples, and they could not cure her."
Jesus answered, "Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring her here to me."
Jesus rebuked her, the demon went out of her, and the girl was cured from that hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, "Why weren't we able to cast it out?"
She said to them, "Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
But this kind doesn't go out except by prayer and fasting."
While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Daughter of Woman is about to be delivered up into the hands of women,
and they will kill her, and the third day she will be raised up." They were exceedingly sorry.
When they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the didrachma coins came to Petra, and said, "Doesn't your teacher pay the didrachma?"
She said, "Yes." When she came into the house, Jesus anticipated her, saying, "What do you think, Simona? From whom do the queens of the earth receive toll or tribute? From their children, or from strangers?"
Petra said to her, "From strangers." Jesus said to her, "Therefore the children are exempt.
But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater coin. Take that, and give it to them for me and you."