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Mount Tabor - location profile

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Location and Setting 

• Mount Tabor is a fairly steep-sided hill rising 1,350 feet above the Plain of Jezreel. It lies some ten miles from the Sea of Galilee and six miles southeast of Nazareth.
• The mountain is symmetrical, resembling an upside down tea cup, standing alone in the plain.
• The top of Mount Tabor offers a panoramic view of the area, with the Nazareth Ridge nearby on the northwest, Mount Carmel to the west, the Hill of Moreh beside it to the south, and Mount Gilboa beyond Moreh.

Historical and Biblical Significance

• Mount Tabor was the staging area for the armies of Deborah and Barak, as they faced the assembly of Canaanites and their chariots arrayed below them on the plain to the west (Judg 4:6, 12, 14).
• It was on Mount Tabor that the Midianite kings Zebah and Zalmunna killed Gideon’s brothers (Judg 8:18).
• Many identify Mount Tabor as the site of the Transfiguration. This is highly unlikely, however, for several reasons.

1. The historian Josephus mentions a Roman fortress located on Mount Tabor at the time of Christ. Probably other structures were also on Mount Tabor since this had been a well-populated region for at least a century. The presence of these structures would diminish the likelihood of this being the setting for such a sensitive and significant event that Jesus meant for His closest disciples.
2. The height of Mount Tabor would hardly be considered a "high mountain" (Mark 9:2), especially in comparison with other mountains in the vicinity.
3. Mount Tabor was located a considerable distance from Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus had made His historic announcements to His disciples just six days earlier. The group had passed higher mountains than Mount Tabor, including the 4,000-foot Mount Meron, as they traveled south from Caesarea Philippi towards their destination at Capernaum.
4. Mount Tabor was located a day’s journey south of Capernaum. It would have been unlikely that Jesus and His disciples would have traveled this distance beyond Capernaum and then retraced their steps back to that city on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Bibliography

1. Alden, R.L. "Mount Tabor." The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
2. Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
3. Longenecker, Richard N. and Merrill C. Tenney, eds. New Dimensions in New Testament Study. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1974.
4. Payne, D.F. "Tabor, Mount" The New Bible Dictionary. 2^nd ed. Ed. J.D. Douglas. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1982.