34 While he said these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
While he thus spake there came a cloud,.... While Peter was making the above request, before an answer was returned, a cloud appeared, a very uncommon one, as a symbol of the divine presence: "and overshadowed them"; Jesus, Moses, Elias, and the disciples:
and they feared as they entered into the cloud; either as they themselves entered into it, that coming gradually over them, because of the glory of it, and the solemnity that attended it; or as Moses and Elias entered into it; and so the Syriac and Persic versions read, "they feared when they saw Moses and Elias enter into the cloud"; which took them out of their sight: just as the cloud received Jesus out of the sight of his disciples, when he ascended to heaven, Acts 1:9.
a cloud--not one of our watery clouds, but the Shekinah-cloud (see on Matthew 23:39), the pavilion of the manifested presence of God with His people, what Peter calls "the excellent" of "magnificent glory" (2-Peter 1:17).
a voice--"such a voice," says Peter emphatically; "and this voice [he adds] we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount" (2-Peter 1:17-18).
A cloud came and overshadowed them all. And they, the apostles, feared, while they (Moses and Elijah) entered into the cloud, which took them away.
*More commentary available at chapter level.