Luke 9:27. ἀληθῶς = ἀμὴν in parallels.—αὐτοῦ, here = ὧδε in parallels.—τὴν βασ. τ. Θ., the Kingdom of God, a simplified expression compared with those in Mt. and Mk., perhaps due to the late period at which Lk. wrote, probably understood by him as referring to the origination of the church at Pentecost.

27. which shall not taste of death] In the Arabian poem, Antar, Death is represented as slaying men by handing them a cup of poison. This was a common Eastern metaphor.

till they see the kingdom of God] St Mark (Mark 9:1) adds “coming in power.” St Matthew (Matthew 16:28) says “till they see the Son of man coming

Luke 9:27. Τῶν ὧδε ἑστώτων) This Genitive may seem to have arisen from parallelism.[79] For the Vulg. has “hic stantes.”[80]

[79] To stand parallel to the Genitives at the close of Luke 9:26.—ED. and TRANSL.

[80] So also ab. But “hic stantium” in c; d has “qui hic stant.”—ED. and TRANSL.

Verse 27. - But I tell you of a truth, there he some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. This magnificent promise has always been more or less a difficulty to expositors. Two favourite explanations which

(1) in the Transfiguration mystery,

(2) in the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jewish state,

see the fulfilment of this great prediction, must be put aside as inadequate, as failing utterly to satisfy any idea of the kingdom of God. Concerning (1), it must be borne in mind that the words were addressed, not only to the disciples, but to a mixed multitude; the expression then, "there be some standing here," etc., would seem to point to more than three (Peter, James, and John were alone present at the Transfiguration) who should, while living, see the kingdom of God. Concerning (2), those who were witnesses of the great catastrophe which resulted in the sack of Jerusalem and the ruin of the Jewish polity, can scarcely be said to have looked on the kingdom of God. It was rather a great and terrible judgment; in no way can it fairly be termed the kingdom, or even its herald; it was simply an awful event in the world's story. But surely the Lord's disciples, the holy women, the still larger outer circle of loving followers of Jesus, who were changed by what happened during the forty days which immediately succeeded the Resurrection morning - changed from simple, loving, fearful, doubting men and women, into the brave resistless preachers and teachers of the new faith - the five hundred who gazed on the risen Lord in the Galilaean mountain, - these may in good earnest be said to have seen, while in life, "the kingdom of God." These five hundred, or at all events many of them, after the Resurrection, not only looked on God, but grasped the meaning of the presence and work of God on earth. The secret of the strange resistless power of these men in a hostile world was that their eyes had gazed on some of the sublime glories, and their ears had heard some of the tremendous secrets of the kingdom of God. Luke 9:27Taste of death

The word taste, in the sense of experience, is often used in classical Greek; as, to taste of toils, of sorrow, of freedom, but never of death. The phrase, taste of death, is common in Rabbinical writings. In the New Testament only here and Hebrews 2:9, used of Christ. Chrysostom (cited by Alford) compares Christ to a physician who first tastes his medicines to encourage the sick to take them.

The kingdom of God

See on Luke 6:20.

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