What Does Mark 9:5 Mean?
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Teacher, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.THE KEY
The Greek word Peter uses for a tent also becomes the verb for God dwelling among people, so his wish to shelter the moment points toward a presence larger than any shelter he can build.
THE MEANING
You can recognize the urge to make a luminous moment stay. Peter calls the place good and immediately imagines three shelters, giving his wonder a form he hopes can hold it. The verse holds the beauty of being here alongside the human wish to preserve it.
THE ROOT
σκηνάς
skēnas
GROWS FROM
σκην
Tent, booth, dwelling (skēn-).
The word for Peter’s tents belongs to the same Greek family as the verb used for God dwelling among people. English gives us a set of shelters here, while the root also carries the idea of taking up a dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
skēnē: tent, booth, dwelling
σκηνή
This is the singular form behind Peter’s word for the shelters he proposes.
skēnoō: to pitch a tent, dwell
σκηνόω
This verb carries the same root into the act of dwelling, as in John’s description of the Word dwelling among us.
skēnopoios: tentmaker
σκηνοποιός
The word for a person who makes tents preserves the same root in a human craft.
THE PATTERN
Divine presence moves toward people and makes its dwelling among them.
And the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the weight of the LORD filled the dwelling.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.And I hear a great voice from the throne, saying, Look, the tent of God is with humankind, and he will pitch his tent among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.THE THREAD
And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.Mark names the shelters with σκηνή (skēnē, “tent”); John uses ἐσκήνωσεν (eskēnōsen, “dwelt” or “tented”) from the same word family. The image opens from building shelters around a vision to divine presence dwelling among people.
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