The three read as a progression of eternal states rather than three men, bound by a shared peculiarity: none of them has a known grave. No one in Israel knows where Moses is buried, for the Lord buried him; Elijah was not buried at all but taken up by a whirlwind in a fiery chariot; and of Jesus they found the stone rolled away and to this day no one knows where they laid the body. Their names give the sequence: Moses is the Egyptian verb to be born, and in Hebrew to draw out - something is being drawn out and must be born; Elijah is 'my God is Jehovah', which properly said is 'my God is I AM'; Jesus, which is the same word as Joshua, is 'Jehovah is saviour'. So man is drawn out by Moses, passes through the sheer untempered power of Elijah, and flowers in Christ Jesus, where the same infinite power is tempered with love. Moses draws out but cannot enter the promised land; only Joshua takes them in. On the Mount of Transfiguration these are the three who appear, and at the end of it, when the whole thing vanishes, there is only Jesus.