Point of the Transfiguration & the Saints

"Adam Clarke makes an interesting point about this story, to wit, that Moses and Elijah demonstrated two ways of receiving a glorified body; 

(1) by being translated without seeing death, as in the case of Elijah, or 

(2) by dying but then later being resurrected and given a glorified body, as in the case of Moses. 

Perhaps one of the purposes of the story is to show us that both routes lead to the same end result:

"Elijah came from heaven in the same body which he had upon earth, for he was translated, and did not see death, 2 Kings 2:11. And the

body of Moses was raised again (Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. Jude 9), as a pledge of the resurrection; and as Christ is to come to judge the quick and the dead, for we shall not all die, but all shall be changed, Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Cor. 15:51-2. 

He probably gave the full representation of this in the person of Moses, who died, and was thus raised to life (or appeared now as he shall appear when raised from the dead in the last day), and in the person of Elijah, who never lasted death. Both their bodies exhibit the same appearance, to show that the bodies of glorified saints are the same, whether the person had been translated, or whether he had died."

--Properly understood, the story of the transfiguration provides support not for the doctrine of immortal souls freed from a body, but rather for the teaching that the redeemed dead will be resurrected with glorified but very real bodies." 

F.D. Nichol