Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Mark 9 opens with an interesting quote from Jesus. He says, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the

kingdom of God after it has come with power.

This is a continuation from what we read at the end of Mark 8 yesterday, but the conversation

is just broken up in a weird spot.

You may already know this, but these verse and chapter divisions aren't part of the original

scripture.

Each book was written out like a normal letter.

Chapters were marked out

in the 13th century, and verse divisions were only added about 500 years ago. They serve their

purpose in helping us find things easily, but just be aware that they don't always fall at the best

breaking point. After all, they aren't divinely inspired. But back to this statement Jesus makes,

what does it mean that they will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power?

There are five or six prominent theories on what Jesus might be referring to here.

We'll link to an article that gives more of an overview, but just to skim the surface, the most popular theories are that this points to A, the Transfiguration, which happens about a week later,

B, the resurrection, which is about six months away, or C, the Holy Spirit showing up on the scene

at the Feast of Pentecost, which is still about eight months away. All three of those events are

times where God's power and his kingdom are displayed in unique ways. At the resurrection, God demonstrates his power

over death and the grave. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell believers for the first time

ever, Jews and Gentiles both. And the Transfiguration is what we encounter next in today's reading.

About a week after he tells him he's going to have to suffer and die, he takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountaintop

and lets them see behind the curtains of the spiritual dimensions briefly.

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