The Transfiguration

Plain English Version (PEV)

Mat 17:1–8

1 Jesus and his followers went and stayed in the town called Capernaum. There were some men that worked in God’s ceremony house. Every year they collected the tax money that all the Jewish people had to pay to look after God’s ceremony house. Those men went to Peter and asked him, “Is your teacher going to pay the tax money for God’s ceremony house?”
2 Peter said, “Yes.” Then Peter went into the house where they were staying, to talk to Jesus about it. But Jesus talked first, he said, “Peter, think about the big bosses of this world. They take money from people, but what do you reckon? Do they take it from their own mob or do they take it from other people?”
3 Peter answered, “They take money from other people, not from their own mob.” Then Jesus said, “All right. That means their own families don’t have to pay anything. And we are God’s family, so we don’t have to pay money for God’s house.
4 But we don’t want to make those tax men angry. So, you get a fish line and go down to the lake, and throw in the line to catch a fish. Get the first fish that you catch, open its mouth and you will find a gold coin inside it. Take that coin and give it to those tax men. This will be enough money for both my tax and your tax.”

2 6 days later Jesus got Peter, James and John and they went by themselves up to the top of a big hill. While they were there Jesus started to look different.
3 His clothes got really shiny and white. Nobody could wash them enough to make them properly white like that.
4 And Peter, James and John saw 2 men that lived a long time ago. They were Moses, the man that was a leader of God’s people, and Elijah, the man that told God’s message to people. They were there, and they talked to Jesus.
5 Peter, James and John were very frightened and they didn’t know what to say, but Peter talked anyway. He said to Jesus, “Teacher, this is great. We have to put up special bush shades, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
6 Then a cloud covered them all and God talked to them from the cloud and said, “This is my son. I love him very much. You have to listen to him.”
7 Then Peter, James and John looked around for those old men, but they couldn’t see them any more. They were gone. Only Jesus was there with them.
8 Then they all started to come down from the hill, and as they walked along Jesus told them really straight, “Don’t tell anyone what you just saw. You have to wait till after I die. I’m God’s special man, and I will die and then come back alive again. After that you can talk about what you saw.”