Mount Tabor #64

Mount Tabor is a distinctive dome-shaped mountain in Lower Galilee, rising abruptly to about 1,929 feet (588 meters) above the sea from the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley. It stands roughly five to six miles from Nazareth. In the Old Testament it is a boundary landmark and the launching point of one of Israel’s great victories, and in Christian tradition since the early centuries it has been the mountain of the Transfiguration.

Biblical Significance

In the book of Judges, the prophetess Deborah summons Barak to gather ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them to Mount Tabor to confront the Canaanite general Sisera (Judges 4:6). When Sisera brought his chariots to the Kishon River, Deborah told Barak that the moment had come, and Barak came down from Tabor with his men (Judges 4:12-15). The mountain offered a defensible high position above the plain where the chariots were strongest, and the Lord routed Sisera’s army. Tabor also appears in the account of Gideon, who confronts the Midianite kings Zebah and Zalmunna over the men they had killed there (Judges 8:18).

The mountain is mentioned as a border of tribal territory in Joshua 19:22. The prophets and poets use it as a familiar landmark: Psalm 89:12 pairs Tabor with Hermon as mountains that sing for joy, Jeremiah compares a mighty conqueror to Tabor among the mountains (Jeremiah 46:18), and Hosea denounces leaders whose corruption has become “a net spread upon Tabor” (Hosea 5:1).

The New Testament does not name the mountain of the Transfiguration. The Gospels say only that Jesus led Peter, James, and John up “an high mountain” where he was transfigured and Moses and Elijah appeared with him (Mark 9:2-8). From at least the fourth century, Christian writers such as Cyril of Jerusalem and Jerome connected the event with Tabor. Others have pointed to Mount Hermon because of its nearness to Caesarea Philippi, and some scholars note that Tabor’s summit appears to have been occupied by a fortification in some periods around the first century. The identification of Tabor, therefore, is best understood as an ancient tradition rather than something Scripture states.

Today

The summit of Mount Tabor is crowned by the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration, completed in the 1920s on the ruins of earlier Byzantine and Crusader churches, and a nearby Greek Orthodox church of Saint Elias. Pilgrims climb a road of many switchbacks to reach the top, where the view spans the Jezreel Valley, the hills of Galilee, and on clear days the distant slopes of Hermon. Excavations on the summit have uncovered remains from several periods, including Hellenistic and Roman fortifications, along with the medieval monasteries and fortresses that followed.