Mark 8:38

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man also shall be ashamed of him, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

This verse is actually the conclusion of this paragraph, having no connection whatever with Mark 9:1. The paragraphing here has spawned much error. Mark 8:38 and Mark 9:1 regard utterly different subjects, and one may regret the gratuitous extension of this paragraph by the later versions to make Mark 9:1 appear in this context. Mark, it would appear, reported Jesus' admonition against men's being ashamed of him, either because Jesus himself repeated the admonition in this context, or because it was an oft-repeated warning by Jesus which Mark considered to be appropriate in context. Either way, it is authentic and inspired. A similar warning was recorded by Matthew 10:32-33.

That human pride should lead men to be ashamed of the sinless Son of God and his holy teachings is one of the mysteries of iniquity; yet the fact of its doing so is evident everywhere. Satan has indeed deceived and deluded men in whom such being ashamed occurs.

When he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels ... This is a clear and dramatic reference to the second coming of Christ at the end of the dispensation when he shall appear apart from sin and with the purpose of executing eternal justice upon his creation. The presence of the holy angels in conjunction with the second coming is affirmed throughout the New Testament. It appears in the parables of the kingdom (Matthew 13) and in the writings of Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:7f). It is the function of the angels to separate the precious from the vile at the time of the final judgment (Matthew 13:41,49). Therefore, the coming of Christ in this verse must be identified with "the judgment" so frequently mentioned by Jesus (Matthew 12:41,42, etc.).

Mark 9:1 states: "And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There are some here of them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power."

Cranfield identified this verse as an "independent saying,"[17] thus giving scholarly confirmation of evident implications of the text itself. This verse can have no connection whatever with the verse (Mark 8:38) to which it is artificially joined by the unjustifiable distortion of the paragraph. The second coming of Christ in glory with ten thousand of his holy angels did not occur during the lifetime of the Twelve; therefore the coming of the kingdom of God in this verse is impossible of understanding as a reference to Mark 8:38.

Having incorrectly joined the two verses (Mark 8:38 and Mark 9:1), the commentators have found it impossible to give a logical interpretation. Cranfield took notice of no less than eight radical and diverse explanations of Mark 9:1, which is here summarized:

1Jesus here taught that the second coming would occur within a very short while (this interpretation demeans the Lord of glory).

2The seeing of the kingdom of God come with power refers not to physical seeing of it but to intellectual perception of it!

3The "taste" of death mentioned in Mark 9:1 does not refer to physical death but to spiritual death.

4The persons who will not taste of death until the kingdom comes with power are those who will be alive and caught up, without death, at the second coming.

5The coming of the kingdom with power refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

6Others have thought of Pentecost and the spread of the gospel.

7The coming of the kingdom promised here is a visible manifestation of the Rule of God displayed in the life of the Elect Community.

8Mark 9:1 is a reference to the Transfiguration!

Cranfield, Erdman, and others favor understanding the Transfiguration as the fulfillment of Mark 9:1; but there is no way that such a view can be satisfactory. As Bickersteth said, "The solemnity of these words (Mark 9:1) forbids us to limit them to an event that would occur within eight days."[18] Only the most imaginative devices can construe the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, witnessed by only three persons, as the coming of the kingdom of God with power.

All of the above interpretations are advocated by renowned scholars; and the very proliferation of their explanations suggests a fundamental misunderstanding. It is the opinion here that "the kingdom of God" is a reference to the church of Jesus Christ. The failure of the scholars to see this derives from their failure to include the light which falls upon this place from the parallel in Matthew where Christ used the terms "church" and "kingdom" interchangeably (Matthew 16:18,19). For an extended examination of this thesis, the reader is referred to my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 337-341.

Understanding the church and the kingdom as one and the same thing satisfies all the teachings in Mark 9:1. The kingdom of God coming with power on Pentecost took place at a time after both Jesus himself and Judas had tasted death, and also within the lives of the others. There is no other explanation that this student has ever encountered which so completely fulfills all the requirements of the sacred text as does this.

[17] Ibid., p. 285.

[18] E. Bickersteth, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), Vol. 16 (II), p. 1.