Who Will See “The Kingdom of God Coming with Power” 27 2. “They Will See …” and “You Will See …”: Mark 8,38-9,1 in Retrospect Retrospection, as a unifying narrative thread which clarifies or amplifies earlier events by later events, is particularly appropriate when it comes to understanding the identity of those who will “see the coming of the kingdom of God with power”. If the coming of the son of man in glory in 8,38 and the coming of the kingdom of God with power in 9,1 are in a synonymous relationship, then the other two references to the future coming of the son of man in Mark 13,26 (“with power and glory”) and 14,62 (“at the right hand of power”) serve as important literary connections in a “series of three”, which is one of the most recognizable patterns in Mark (20). The repetition of words and phrases, especially memorable ones like allusions to the same scripture texts, not only signal to the readers (or performers) and to their audience earlier occurrences and accumulate meaning, but invite them to draw connections between various parts of the narrative, sometimes from the perspective of the third scene (21). Literary critics have repeatedly shown that Markan episodes are not connected so much by linear progression, but by the repetition of words and phrases, similarities of scenes, foreshadowing and retrospection (22). Moreover, when Mark’s story was first read/ performed and heard, a degree of prior aurality and orality would have communicated much of the content of Mark. Hearers would have listened with a Vorverständnis, a “fore-understanding” of the totality of the story. And Mark certainly would not have intended a single reading. In this sense, the implied reader becomes the rereader who is sensitized to echoes within the story, and especially so if they are similar in diction, discourse and concept like the present triad (23). (20) V.K. ROBBINS, “Summons and Outline in Mark: The Three Step Progression”, New Boundaries in Old Territory. Form and Social Rhetoric in Mark (New York 1994) 119-136. (21) D. RHOADS – J. DEWEY – D. MICHIE, Mark as Story. An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel (Minneapolis 21999) 48-49, 54-55. (22) See especially, J. DEWEY, “Mark as Interwoven Tapestry: Forecasts and Echoes for a Listening Audience”, CBQ 52 (1991) 221-236; ID., “The Gospel of Mark as an Oral-Aural Event: Implications for Interpretation”, The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament (ed. E.S. MALBON – E.V. MCKNIGHT) (JSNTSup 109; Sheffield 1994) 148-149. (23) On rereading in the Markan community, see KERMODE, The Genesis of Secrecy, 70, 88-89; E.S. MALBON, “Echoes and Foreshadowings in Mark 4–8: Reading and Rereading”, JBL 112 (1993) 211-230.