Who Will See “The Kingdom of God Coming with Power” 25 prediction in 9,1 is, in short, thought to be a hidden reprimand to those followers of Jesus who have set their sights solely on his coming in glory while bypassing the life of suffering (14). His linking of 9,1 with the ultimate cost of discipleship in 8,34-37 provides for an intriguing and unique reading. While Trocmé’s proposal is attractive, it does not extend the synonymous relationship between 8,38 and 9,1 to include “the kingdom of God coming with power” (15). Instead, the synonymous parallelism appears overt and extends to every part of 8,38 and 9,1. In addition to the parallelism between the “ashamed” and the bystanders and between the “son of man coming in glory” and the “kingdom coming with power”, Mark includes a temporal parallel. The temporal marker, “this sinful and adulterous generation”, in 8,38 can be equated with “will not taste death until”, in 9,1, indicating that the fulfillment of both predictions will occur at the same time. In Mark’s story world, it is doubtful that “this generation” refers to persons other than Jesus’ contemporaries. Although Mark certainly has in mind those members of his community who can no longer embrace his eschatological hope, at the level of the story’s performance the designation refers to anyone who does not wholeheartedly embrace the radicalism which Jesus not only demands, but he himself undertakes. The “tasting of death” in this context cannot be equated with spiritual death (cf. John 8,51-52) (16) or the immortal figures of Jewish folklore (17). Not “tasting of death” appears to be (14) TROCMÉ, “Marc 9,1: prédiction ou réprimande?”, 265. (15) Also at issue is the suggestion made by J.A.T. ROBINSON, Jesus and His Coming. The Emergence of a Doctrine [London 1957] 90, that 9,1 refers to two distinct groups. One group is represented by the third person participle tw'n eJsthkovtwn and refers to members of the “crowd”. The other group is Jesus’ audience, which he addresses by means of uJmei'", and refers to the disciples. This is a difficult distinction to draw given the parallelism between 8,38 and 9,1. Also, there is no customary turning back to the inside group, as for example, we see in chapter four. (16) Otherwise, as CRANFIELD, The Gospel According to St. Mark, 286, points out, the use of e{w" would allow for the implication that spiritual death follows upon one’s vision of the kingdom. (17) The “tasting of death” is a common expression for physical death in early Judaism and Christianity. See 4 Es 6,26; Heb 2,9; GenR 9,2; b.Yoma 78b; Tg. Ps.-J. Deut. 32,1 (see also Str-B I, 751-752). Bruce Chilton has argued that Mark wanted to encourage his audience in the certainty of God’s vindication. According to Chilton, Mark would have understood the phrase “will not taste death” in its rabbinic sense as an idiomatic reference to immortal figures like angels, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezra and Enoch. The sense is that the coming of