HEBREW WORD STUDY – TASTE DEATH – TIMA MAUTA טמא אאמט
Matthew 16:28: “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”
Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic and the Aramaic seems to shed some light on this passage. The Aramaic word for taste is taim. I searched through Jewish literature and found in the Targum some first century understanding of this word taim. I found the word is actually used to express the value of what is eaten.
Thus Jesus could be saying that many will not understand the value of death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom. We fear death, we seek to avoid death at any cost and when we give our lives for the sake of Jesus we see it as a sacrifice. That is because we do not understand the value of death. Death is a doorway to something better and greater. The Talmud teaches there is no way to explain what meat taste like until one actually tastes it. There is no way for us to see the value of death until we actually pass through death into a world beyond time and see the Son of man coming in His kingdom. Then we have a full comprehension and will wonder why we so feared death.