“And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.”
His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them — the description of the garments is both simple and overwhelming: the whiteness exceeds anything human bleaching can produce. The dazzling white is the color of heavenly beings in apocalyptic literature (Daniel 7:9, Revelation 7:9). Mark's characteristic concrete specificity produces the parenthetical whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them — an eyewitness's attempt to communicate something that exceeds available categories by using the closest available comparison and then exceeding it.
Church Fathers on Mark 9:3
After the consummation of the cross, the glory of the resurrection is shewn, that they, who were to see with their own eyes the glory of the resurrection to come, might not fear the shame of the cross.
And He takes with Him the three chief of the Apostles, Peter, as confessing and loving Him, John, as the beloved one, James, as being sublime in speech and as a divine; for so displeasing was he to the Jews, that Herod wishing to please the Jews slew him.
Our Saviour then when transfigured did not lose the substance of real flesh, but shewed forth the glory of His own or of our future resurrection; for such as He then appeared to the Apostles, He will after the judgment appear to all His elect.
Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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