Mt. Tabor Overview Tour: Transfiguration of Christ, Israel, Deborah, Barak, Jezreel Valley, Apostles

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Mount Tabor is the best candidate for the transfiguration of Christ. It has a lot of evidence dating back to the Old Testament, along with believers after the time of Christ, who set this site aside as the true place of the transfiguration. Learn about this powerful event and see all the sites on Mt. Tabor.

Location
1. Mount Tabor, rising like a dome-like mountain from the Plain of Jezreel, is the place where Christian tradition places the transfiguration of Jesus.
2. It’s about 11 miles (15 km.) southwest of the Sea of Galilee and about 5 miles (8 km.) east of Nazareth.
3. Mount Tabor stands some 1,500 ft. (457 m.) above the Jezreel Valley plain in lower Galilee.
4. It held a strategic position at the junction of several trade routes. For this reason, many battles have been fought around it.
5. It is mentioned as one of the key mountains in Scripture: The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name (Psalm 89:12).

Historical Background
1. In the Old Testament, Mount Tabor is described as a sacred mountain and a place for worship. It is not mentioned by name in the New Testament.
2. Throughout its history, it has been a place where mankind has sought contact with the divine.
3. It also served as an important fortress during the Old Testament, Greek, Roman, and Crusader times.
4. It is best known as the believed place where the transfiguration of Christ took place, an event in the Gospels in which Jesus is transfigured upon an unnamed mountain and speaks with Moses and Elijah as described in Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–8, and Luke 9:28–36.
5. Christian tradition in the early centuries named Mount Tabor as the place of the transfiguration of Christ. This location is cited in early apocryphal writings and was accepted by the Syriac and Byzantine churches.
6. The earliest identification of the Mount of Transfiguration as Tabor is by Origen in the 3rd century.
7. During the Byzantine period, due to the importance of Mount Tabor in Christian tradition, it became a pilgrimage site from the 4th century and onward. According to descriptions of the pilgrims visiting this site during the 6th century, there were three churches that resided on the top of Mount Tabor.
8. Some biblical scholars today now question this tradition. These scholars see the much higher Mount Hermon as a more likely location as it was closer to Caesarea Philippi, where Peter’s confession of Christ took place.
9. However, there is great value in considering the 2,000-year traditional history of this site.
10. Scripture says that the transfiguration of Christ took place 6 days after Peter’s confession of Christ in Caesarea Philippi. Mount Tabor is about 40 miles (65 km.) south of Caesarea Philippi which could easily have been reached in 6 days.
11. It’s really not important where this event happened but that it did happen.
12. Today, there are two main churches and monasteries on top of Mount Tabor marking the event of the transfiguration of Christ. They include the Franciscan Basilica of the Transfiguration and St. Elias Greek Orthodox Church.

Places of Interest
1. Franciscan Basilica of the Transfiguration – Main church that is visited and sits at the highest part of Mount Tabor. This church, which is part of a Franciscan monastery complex, was completed in 1924. It was built on the ruins of an ancient (4th–6th-century) Byzantine church and a 12th-century church of the Crusader Kingdom period.
2. St. Elias Greek Orthodox Church – Located on the northeast side of Mount Tabor. It’s named after the Prophet Elijah.
3. Tower & Walls
4. Other ancient structures, chapels, cisterns, and quarries.
5. Descentibus Chapel
6. Melchizedek Chapel
7. Jezreel Valley