Bede : And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah, one of whom we read was dead and the other taken up into the heavens, were seen in majesty with the Lord (as Luke writes), signifying the future glory of all the saints in Him. Evidently at the time of judgment, some will be found alive in the flesh, or also, having previously tasted death, will be resurrected and will reign together with Him. As the Apostle testifies: The dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess. IV). Alternatively, Moses and Elijah, that is, the legislator and the eminent prophet, appear and speak with the Lord coming in the flesh, to show that He is the one whom all the oracles of the law and the prophets promised. However, they appear not in the lowly places, but on the mountain with Him, because, indeed, only those who transcend earthly desires in their mind perceive the majesty of Holy Scripture, which is fulfilled in the Lord. Finally, even the sons of Israel saw Moses, but they did not deserve to follow him as he went up to God on the mountain, and they saw him turned back to them not without a veil. They knew Elijah, but it was only Elisha who with the sons of the prophets contemplated his triumphant ascent. Because many of us widely read the words of Scripture; but how exalted it shines in the mysteries of Christ, very few more perfect ones understand. — On the Gospel of Mark Cyril of Jerusalem : Now the life that is really and truly life is God the Father, the fount of life, who pours out his heavenly gifts upon all his creatures through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the blessings of eternal life are faithfully promised even to us men, through his love for us. There must be no incredulity about the possibility of that. For we ought to believe, because our minds should be set on his power, not on our feebleness. For anything is possible with God, and that our eternal life is both possible and to be looked forward to by us is shown when Daniel says, "the understanding … from among the many righteous shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." And Paul says, "And so shall we be ever with the Lord." For "being ever with the Lord" means the same thing as eternal life. — Catechetical Lecture 18:29 Ephrem the Syrian : This Jesus that gathered and carried and brought with him of the fruit was longing for the Tree of Life to taste the fruit that quickens all. For him Rahab too was looking. For when the scarlet thread in type redeemed her from wrath, in type she tasted of the Truth. For him Elijah longed, and when he did not see him on earth, he, thoroughly cleansed through faith, mounted up to heaven to see him. Moses saw him and Elijah. The meek man from the depth ascended, the zealous from on high descended, and in the midst beheld the Son. They figured the mystery of his advent: Moses was a type of the dead, and Elijah a type of the living, that fly to meet him at his coming. For the dead that have tasted death, them he makes to be first: and the rest that are not buried, are at last caught up to meet him. — HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 1 Gregory of Nyssa : For that which has taken place in Christ's Humanity is a common boon bestowed on mankind generally. For as when we see in Him the weight of the body, which naturally gravitates to earth, ascending through the air into the heavens, we believe according to the words of the Apostle, that we also "shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air," even so, when we hear that the true God and Father has become the God and Father of our First-fruits, we no longer doubt that the same God has become our God and Father too, inasmuch as we have learnt that we shall come to the same place whither Christ has entered for us as our forerunner. — AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.1 Methodius of Olympus : For it is to be observed that the word of God says, that after the cry all the virgins arose, that is, that the dead shall be raised after the voice which comes from heaven, as also Paul intimates, that "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;" that is the tabernacles, for they died, being put off by their souls. "Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them," meaning our souls. For we truly who are alive are the souls which, with the bodies, having put them on again, shall go to meet Him in the clouds, bearing our lamps trimmed, not with anything alien and worldly, but like stars radiating the light of prudence and continence, full of ethereal splendour. — Methodius Discourse VI. Agathe Tertullian : Well, then, what difference is there between heathens and Christians, if the same prison awaits them all when dead? How, indeed, shall the soul mount up to heaven, where Christ is already sitting at the Father's right hand, when as yet the archangel's trumpet has not been heard by the command of God, -when as yet those whom the coming of the Lord is to find on the earth, have not been caught up into the air to meet Him at His coming, in company with the dead in Christ, who shall be the first to arise? To no one is heaven opened; the earth is still safe for him, I would not say it is shut against him. — A Treatise on the Soul Tertullian : For we shall, according to the apostle, be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord (even the Son of man, who shall come in the clouds, according to Daniel ) and so shall we ever be with the Lord, so long as He remains both on the earth and in heaven, who, against such as are thankless for both one promise and the other, calls the elements themselves to witness: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth. — Against Marcion Book III Tyrannius Rufinus : That the righteous shall ever abide with Christ our Lord we have proved above, where we have shewn that the Apostle says, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." And do not marvel that the flesh of the saints is to be changed into such a glorious condition at the resurrection as to be caught up to meet God, suspended in the clouds and borne in the air, since the same Apostle, setting forth the great things which God bestows on them that love Him, says, "Who shall change our vile body that it may be made like unto His glorious body." It is nowise absurd then, if the bodies of the saints are said to be raised up into the air, seeing that they are said to be renewed after the image of Christ's body, which is seated at God's right hand. But this also the holy Apostle adds, speaking either of himself or of others of his own place or merit, "He will raise us up together with Christ and make us sit together in the heavenly places." — A COMMENTARY ON THE APOSTLES' CREED 46