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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 16:28 - 16:28
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
28. οὐ μὴ γεύσωνται θανάτου κ.τ.λ. Compare
The valiant never taste of death but once.
SHAKSPEAR, Jul. Cæs. Act II, 2.
St Matthew’s version of this ‘hard saying’ indicates more plainly than the other Synoptic Gospels the personal presence of Christ. St Luke has, ἕως ἂν ἴδωσιν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ: St Mark adds to these words, ἐληλυθυῖαν ἐν δυνάμει: but the meaning in each case is the same. Various solutions are given. The expression is referred to (1) the Transfiguration, (2) the Day of Pentecost, (3) the Fall of Jerusalem. The last best fulfils the conditions of interpretation—a judicial coming—a signal and visible event, and one that would happen in the lifetime of some, but not of all, who were present. To take ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ in a literal external sense would be to repeat St Peter’s error, and to ignore the explanation of the Kingdom just given.