Mark 9:1

“I tell you,” he added, “that some of those who are standing here will not know death until they have seen the kingdom of God come in power.”


presence is power
this is not an options package

to be is to have effect
no matter what affect we present

if immediate assurance is desired
it can’t be given with a raised hand

to be alive readily demonstrates
a required evolutionary partnership

so no more waiting for a proof
only available after death


Do your best to understand why there would be a chapter break here. Does this simply stated assurance complete what has just been said? Is anticipation of some realized eschatology a needed lead-in to a Repentance or Transfiguration or Resurrection or Pentecost? My reading prefers this verse as a continuation.

Whichever way you would do the versification, remember this is still being spoken to the crowd and an implied reader as well as to the disciples.

Translations are all over the place with it comes to looking at the reference to death. Some sound as if the presence of G*D will arrive in All its power and glory, at which time they will die. Some talk about tasting death, seeing death, experiencing death. It seems wise here to continue in a poetic or metaphorical reading of γεύομαι (geuomai, to taste, experience, sample).

It is helpful to read paraphrases into more modern idioms. J. B. Phillips (~1950) and Eugene Peterson, forty years later:

…some of you standing here who will know nothing of death until you have seen the kingdom of God coming in its power! –Phillips

There is a sense of the transformative nature of death here that moves us beyond resignation or fear of an ending and experiencing what is hinted at in a mission of “repentance and trust”.

Some of you who are standing here are going to see it happen, see the kingdom of God arrive in full force. –Peterson

The emphasis here on the realization of G*D is disconnected from death. There is an experience awaiting. It even allows for dismissing the word “god” in favor of an edgy “Nature”.

Either way, these recognize Mark’s midrashic tendencies.