Matthew 28:19
Matthew 28:19 is the nineteenth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This verse is part of the Great Commission narrative, containing the command to go, teach and baptize new disciples with the trinitarian formula. Content. The original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort/[NA27 and UBS4 variants], reads: In the King James Version of the Bible it is translated as: The modern World English Bible translates the passage as: Analysis. The word "all" (, "") is found multiple times in the verses 18–20, tying them together: "all" power/authority, "all" nations , "all" things ("that I have commanded you") and "all" the days ("always"). "All nations" comprises 'non-Jews as well as Jews'. Dale Allison notes a persistent correlation of the Great Commission narrative (verses 16–20) with Moses, starting with "the mountain", as 'Moses ended his earthly course on a mountain'; the commissioning of Joshua by God through Moses; and the close parallels in , ; and , which are 'all about God'. In , Joshua was commanded to 'go' (cf. Matthew 28:19) and cross the Jordan River, whereas in Joshua was to 'act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you ', then in (the pericope's conclusion) God promises his presence: 'for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go'. The undeniable strong presence of a Moses typology in the Gospel of Matthew raises up suggestions that this passage, like the commissioning stories in and , 'deliberately borrows from the traditions about Moses'. Just as Moses, at the end of his life on earth, commissioned Joshua to 'go into the land peopled by foreign nations' and 'to observe all the commandments in the law', then further promised 'God's abiding presence', so similarly Jesus, at the end of his earthly  ministry, commands his disciples 'to go into all nations' (the world) and 'to teach the observance of all the commandments' of the "new Moses", and then further promises 'his continual assisting presence'. The word "therefore" ties Jesus' universal authority () to the words of the commission: because Jesus "now" has this authority, "therefore" he sent his disciples to "go" spreading his rule over "all nations" by "making" more "disciples"; the disciples can go in confidence that their Lord/Master is 'in sovereign control of "everything in heaven and on earth"' (cf. ). The phrase "in the name of" denotes 'to whom allegiance  is pledged in baptism', which is tied to the unique trinitarian formula: "the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit". This refers to the close association of "the Son" with "the Father" has been revealed in ; , whereas 'all three persons' in the "Trinity" were involved in the baptism of Jesus (–). Use in early Christianity. Some early Christian writings appealed to Matthew 28:19. The Didache, written at the turn of the 1st century, borrows the baptismal Trinitarian formula found in Matthew 28:19. The seventh chapter of the Didache reads "Having first said all these things, baptize  into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". In addition, Tertullian, writing around the turn of the 2nd century, also cites the bapstismal Trinitarian formula from this Matthean passage twice in his writings. In the 26th chapter of his "Against Praxeas", arguing against a Unitarian understanding of God, Tertullian cites this formula, writing "He commands them to baptize into the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, not into a unipersonal God." In addition, in the 13th chapter of Tertullian's "On Baptism", he cites the formula in order to establish the  necessity of the practice of baptism, writing "For the law of baptizing has been imposed, and the formula prescribed: "'Go,' He says, 'teach the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.'"