Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 16:28

"Verily I say unto you, there are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." — Matthew 16:28 (ASV)

There are some standing here who will not taste death... — The immediate sequence of this prediction—the vision of the Son of Man transfigured from the humble state in which He then lived and moved into the "excellent glory" witnessed by the three disciples—has led many interpreters to see the Transfiguration as its fulfillment. A closer examination of the words, however, requires us to set aside that interpretation, except insofar as the Transfiguration testified to the greatness that had, until then, been latent in Him. It would hardly be natural to describe something that would happen in six days as an event that some of those listening would live to see before they taste death (compare to John 8:52 and Hebrews 2:9 for this expression). Moreover, the vision itself does not satisfy the meaning of the words "coming in His kingdom."

The solution to the problem is found in the great prophecy of Matthew 24. In a real, though partial, sense, the judgment that fell upon the Jewish religious system, the destruction of the Holy City and the Temple, and the onward march of the Church of Christ, was the coming of the Son of Man in His kingdom. His people felt that He was not far from any of them. He had come to them in "spirit and in power," and this coming was both a guarantee and a foreshadowing of the "great, far-off event"—the final day and hour of which were hidden from the angels of God and even from the Son Himself (Mark 13:32). These words find a parallel in the declaration, This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled (Matthew 24:34).

The fact that the Gospel writers recorded and published these words is itself a proof of one of two things. Either they accepted this interpretation—that the "coming" referred to the destruction of Jerusalem—if they were writing after that event occurred; or, if we assume the words led them to expect the "end of all things" was near, it proves they wrote before the generation of those who stood by Jesus had passed away. Therefore, the very difficulty that has perplexed people becomes evidence for the early date of the three Gospels that contain this record.