festation of the fact and of the identity (28:17-18; Lk. 24:37f.;
58 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
because, according to Mark 16:8, the women "said nothing to any one for they were afraid" and, according to Luke 24:11, their words seemed to the disciples "an idle tale." Incidentally this particular role of the women in relation to the disciples may be interpreted as an analogy of the relationship between the historical community of Israel and the now emerging Christian community of the end of time.
2. The stories of Jesus and the disciples. Here again the manifestation of the fact and of the identity (28:17-18; Lk. 24:37f.;
Jn. 20:19 f.) is important. However, it is overshadowed by the charge to the disciples to go and tell the world what they had seen
(28:19; Lk. 24:27; Jn. 20:21). The passage about Jesus and the disciples is missing in Mark's original text. Mark 16:9-—20 is a later addition. The charge to the disciples is validated by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. John 20:22 indicates that the fourth evangelist understood Easter and Pentecost as one and the same event. In content, they most certainly belong together. Easter together with Pentecost, Pentecost together with Easter, constitute the gathering of God's people at the end of time.
Our text clearly belongs to this second set of narratives about Jesus and his disciples. Parallel texts are Luke 24:36—49 and John 20:19-29. In addition Luke 24:13-35 relates the incident on the road to Emmaus; Luke 24:50—53 and Acts 1:4—12, the Ascension; John 21:1-23, the appearance at Lake Tiberias and the conversa-
tion with Peter. The Gospel according to Matthew, which offers the most coherent account, relates only the one appearance of Jesus before his disciples. To this we now turn our attention.
Verse 16
"The eleven disciples" (also Lk. 24:9, 33) are the first twelve of Jesus' followers, whose number is temporarily diminished by the loss of Judas. They embody and represent the Israel of the end of time. These "eleven"—according to Biblical arithmetic!—equal "twelve," for even in their incompleteness they account for the totality of Israel. 1 Corinthians 15:5 explicitly mentions Jesus' appearance to the twelve. Judas could not impair the full number.
"... went to Galilee . . ." Significantly, Matthew leads Jesus' his_ tory back to the place of its origin (Mt. 4:12-17); to the Galilee of
the Gentiles, to the people who walked in darkness and have seen
a great light. The history of the end stands in continuity with the
An Exegetical Study of Matthew 28:16-20 59
previous events in the life of Jesus and the history of Israel, which
in turn point to the end. (Luke transposes this scene to Jerusalem,
to the life center of Israel, which is seen here—Lk. 24:47—as the point of departure for the eschatological proclamation to all na-
tions.) Note how the two narratives, topographically incompatible
and with different theological emphases, nevertheless agree in
substance.
. to the mountain .. .' What mountain is referred to here— the mountain of the transfiguration or that of the Sermon on the Mount? (Cf. B. Weiss.) It might be better not to identify it geographically and merely think of a mountain opposite Mount Zion to the north.
. to which Jesus had directed them." According to verse 7 it was the angel, according to verse 10 it was Jesus himself, by means of the women, who directed the disciples, "his brethren," to go there. The order must have gone to the disciples, since now the eleven turn up. The combination with the appearance to the five hundred brethren (1 Cor. 15:6), as proposed by Olshausen and Schlatter, seems therefore unlikely.
Verse 17
"And when they saw him..." This seeing (iSevres) implies that ' the revelation of the fact of Jesus' resurrection and of the identity of the risen Lord with the crucified, earlier accorded to the women, is now to be granted to the disciples as well. The expression "he
came" (zpoceAbév) in verse 18, however, suggests for the time be- = a certain distance and Sbjecevay of this revelation.
. they worshiped him," as did the women in verse 9, and as all shall do again at the Ascension (Lk. 24:51). Thomas' confes-
- sion, "my Lord and my God," serves as a necessary commentary.
Worship is offered in the presence of the revealed God. Jesus en- — ee them as God, and they encounter him now as worshipers.
. but some doubted"; as in Luke 24:37 f. and John 20:24 f. (Thomas has suffered great injustice at the hands of exegetes. His insistence upon touching the body of Jesus to relieve his doubt —
is quite normal and apostolic!) Older exegetes (Starke, Rieger, = Olshausen) found it inadmissible to ascribe the doubt to the pee tles, and accordingly assumed the presence of others. But this is improbable in the light of verse 17. J. Weiss finds the hats
linguistically crude, disruptive, isolated, and "against the temper of
60 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
this harmonious ending." Yet the comparison with Luke and John indicates the necessity of the element of doubt even for Matthew. Calvin correctly interpreted: worship and doubt have a common cause; the servant figure of the man Jesus was garbed in the glory of God. Revelation always has a terminus a quo and a terminus ad quem. Veiled, it arouses doubt; unveiled, it commands worship. All of us waver again and again between the two. Rieger is therefore right when he says that this sentence was included "as a reminder that faith requires struggle. Don't be surprised if your belief is a continuous conquest of unbelief." This element of doubt to be conquered by faith is represented here by "some" (oi 8¢), as in John by Thomas, and in Luke by almost all apostles. Only the gift of the Holy Spirit puts an end to the struggle and casts out doubt. Doubting apostles and a doubting church after Pentecost truly have no place in the New Testament. Spiritus sanctus non est scepticus, said Luther. But here the apostles are only at the beginning. They stand in the shadow of the death of Christ. They reenact the doubtful role they displayed at the time of the Passion.
Verse 18
"And Jesus came and said to them": with these words Matthew perhaps hints at the event of Pentecost, not mentioned elsewhere in his record. It is at any rate certain that when Jesus drew near the objective revelation was subjectively appropriated. Bengel comments, "eo ipso dubitantibus fidem faciens." By approaching them Jesus awakened faith in the doubters! This, then, is the "sequence" to the doubting in verse 17 which J. Weiss missed. ~ "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. According to the "therefore" (oiv) of verse 19, this affirmation of power is the objective presupposition on the part of Jesus for the immediately following imperative. As the one described in verse
x' 399
18, Jesus has the power and authority to address the disciples the way he does in verse 19. Hence the disciples' carrying out of the charge will not at all be determined by the excellency and strength of their own will and work; nor will it be jeopardized by their deficiencies. Behind the command of verse 19 stands the commander himself, Jesus, as described in verse 18. He assures the execution of the command over against both the disciples' weakness
_ and any interference by a third party.
An Exegetical Study of Matthew 28:16-20 61
efovota means "right and power" and corresponds to the Latin term potestas. The parallel is only seemingly missing in Luke. The fact that Jesus is invested with the highest authority as a guarantee for his command is also attested by Luke inasmuch as Jesus is there both the content and the interpreter of the Scriptures. According to Matthew's version, Jesus' prophecy to the high priests
(26:64) has now been fulfilled, "Hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds
of heaven," and with it Daniel 7:14, "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom." The kingdom is truly his, and he will deliver it to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24). God-has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name above every name, the name of
kyrios, that at this name every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:9 f.). He disarmed, according to
1 Corinthians 15:24 even destroyed, the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him
(Col. 2:15). He is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this
age, but also in that which is to come." God "has put all things under his feet" (Eph. 1:21-22). "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15). What does all this mean? © It means that the divine claim to all-things created in heaven and on earth is, very concretely, Jesus' claim; the divine authority is Jesus' authority; the divine acting, ruling, and judging is Jesus'
affair. As the holder of this éfovaia Jesus stands behind the command in verse 19; he is the authority to those whom he sends out, and as such guarantees the implementation of the command to the disciples as well as against interference of third parties. Those who accept the command fall under this éfovoia; they are responsible to and covered by this authority. 2
All authority in heaven and on earth! This affirmation is exclusive. Objectively speaking, there is no authority besides the authority of Jesus. All power, all right, belongs to Jesus. Remaining are only principalities and powers already subjected to him, of which he is the head (Col. 2:10). There are therefore no such things as natural law and natural power, asserting their own domain over against Jesus', deserving homage, trust, fear, and obedience in © their own right. Thus it is impossible to postulate, on the basis oe
62 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
the éfovota (Rom. 13:1f.) a secular power instituted by God alongside the kingdom of Christ, a political realm that would not be included in the kingdom of Christ.
But who is the holder of such éfovaia? Because all authority has been "given" to him we are prevented from thinking in the abstract of an eternal, nonincarnate Son of God, of the Adyos dcapxos. TO him authority need not be given; he holds it from eternity to eternity. The New Testament constantly speaks of this Son of God, yet never abstractly. The eternal Son is always man at the same time. Of him our text speaks. To the man Jesus is given the éfovcia. The man Jesus is the commanding Lord in verse 19.
That all authority has been "given" to him must however not be interpreted to mean that he received it only in his resurrection. Such an assumption is refuted by a number of very clear texts in the Gospels where the affirmation made in verse 18 undeniably refers to Jesus before his death. " 'All things have been delivered to me by my Father' " (Mt. 11:27). "The Father .. . has given all things into his hand" (Jn. 3:35). Jesus knew "that the Father had given all things into his hands" (Jn. 13:3). " 'Thou hast given him power over all flesh' " (Jn. 17:2). "He taught them as one who had authority" (Mt. 7:29). " "The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins' " (Mt. 9:6). See also Matthew 21:23 f. efovoia is given to the man Jesus as divine authority can alone be given to a human creature. Only when man prays for it, believes in God, is obedient
to Him, is it given as free grace. Because God's free grace is eternal,
authority is given everlastingly; potentially in God's design to create and save the world, actually in the incarnation of the Word. "Er
ist ein Kindlein worden klein, der alle Ding erhalt allein." By forgiving sins and accomplishing signs and miracles, Jesus made at least a partly visible use of his authority long before his resurrection. There was never a time when he was devoid of it. His ""emptying himself" (Phil. 2:7) was nothing but the hiddenness of his
_ majesty, caused by human blindness. What he achieved in the
_ state of utmost weakness, his death upon the cross, was truly a
_ manifestation of his might. "Sa divinité se tenoit pour un peu de
_ temps comme cachée, c'est a dire elle ne démonstroit point sa
: vertu" (Calvin). In the Resurrection, however, Jesus reveals him- —
_ self to the disciples as the one who held, holds, and will hold all
Benny; a fact that had nee been hidden from the eae :
An Exegetical Study of Matthew 28:16-20 63
as well as from the world. It is of this revelation of the risen Lord
that verse 18 speaks.
Verses 19-20a
This is the crucial affirmation of the whole text. It is the charge and commission of the risen Jesus, the authority for which was asserted in verse 18.
"Go therefore and make disciples..." Make them what you yourselves are! Have them learn here, with me, where you yourselves have learned! Call them into the twelve of the eschatological Israel! Let them share in its place and task in the world!
We have already noticed the strangeness of Biblical arithmetic. The twelve are designed to be countless. In the same manner as Jesus "made" apostles from the first disciples (Mk. 3:14-15), the
apostles are called to make apostolic Christians of all others. The kingly ministry of the Messiah is here entrusted to the first disciples constituting the king's troops.
The sweeping imperative, "Go therefore," rests on the authority which is given to Jesus. As soon as his authority is announced in verse 18 there follows the charge, "make disciples!" The reminiscence of the "sending" in Matthew 10 and of its parallel in Mark ae 16:15, " 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole — creation," largely obscures the peculiarity of our text. The same reality is envisaged here as in chapter 10. Yet there it appears in
its implicit and hidden form, while here in its explicit and visible form. In both instances the founding, through Jesus' word, of the apostolic Church is envisaged. It is the Church that receives the apostles' word and actively transmits it. " 'As the Father has sent — me, even so I send you' " (Jn. 20:21). This apostolic Church, existing not for itself, but "for Christ," on behalf of him (2 Cor. 5:20),
is the decisive event of the eschaton that has broken into time. The" existence of the new community consists not only in the apostles' preaching of the Gospel and their fellow men's listening. It is constantly renewed as the listeners themselves become "apostolic" and, — as new disciples, begin to proclaim the good news. Consequently the charge is not only xypvgare but pabyrevoare, "make disciples." _ John 17:20-23 might well be the appropriate commentary to this charge. " 'I do not pray for these only, but also for those who are to believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even
64 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me... and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.' "
And now the great problem of our text: ". all nations..." xévra ra 26vy. On the basis of these words the text is called "the great commission." What does "all nations" mean?
It means, first of all, people from among all nations who are received into discipleship. They become significant for the existence of their respective nations because the nations now come within reach of the apostolate and its proclamation and receive their concealed center through the Christian community living in their midst. Note the airovs, which occurs twice. It cannot refer to é6vn. Not the nations as such are made disciples. This interpretation once infested missionary thinking and was connected with the painful fantasies of the German Christians. It is worthless.
"All nations" means, furthermore, people from Gentile lands, from the goyim. This does not exclude Israel. Her right of the firstborn, her dignitas primogeniturae, as Calvin called it, remains unimpaired. Yet the disciples are summoned to go out to the Gentile people and nations. For now the eschatological Israel shall appear, the people gathered by the Messiah who appeared at the end of time. This is the new eschatological community. It is gathered from among the Jews and Gentiles. The doors and windows of the house of Israel, so far closed, must open. The apostles' mission is "to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16). Accordingly, Mark
16:15 states, " 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.' '' Matthew expresses the same idea, only in more concrete terms, when he speaks of "all nations." Through this mission the community of Jesus becomes manifest in_his resurrection as the universal community. It is the eschatological Israel, the . Israel which receives into its life and history the chosen ones from among the Gentiles. In fact it had never been anything else. Even during his life before death Jesus had never given it any other foundation than that which now became apparent: not as a special community within Israel, and hence not as a new form of the previous Israel in history, but as the Israel of the end of time, fulfilling the destiny of the historical Israel, as ''a covenant to the people, a light to the nations" (Is. 42:6, 49:8). It is important to see this. Already the relationship to verse 18 and its parallels rules out any
An Exegetical Study of Matthew 28:16—20 65
limitation of Jesus' dominion. How could he, to whom all power
is given, have ever intended founding a pious little Jewish club? The name of the "Son of man" is the name of him whom "all peoples, nations, and languages" shall serve (Dan. 7:14). The
field where the Son of man sows the good seed is the world (Mt.
13:38). The ransom for many (dvri woA\ov Mk. 10:45) and the shedding of blood for many (itp woAddv) certainly imply Jesus'
identification with the suffering servant of God in Isaiah 53 (see in
particular verses 11-12). Of him it is said, " 'It is too light a thing
that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and
to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the
nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth' " (Is.
49:6). "He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
. So shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths
because of him" (Is. 52:13 f.). From the very beginning Jesus calls
his disciples "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world"
(Mt. 5:13—-14). Already John the Baptist had proclaimed that God would raise up children to Abraham from the stones (Mt.
3:9). Jesus himself spoke of the many that will come from east
and west and sit at table with the patriarchs (Mt. 8:11); of the
angels whom the Son of man shall send out at the Parousia to
gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to
the other (Mt. 24:31; see also 25:311.); of the servants that will
go out to the streets and gather all they find, both bad and good
(Mt. 22:9 f.); even of the testimony his disciples will bear also
before the Gentiles (Mt. 10:18).
Jesus at first kept this universality of the new community rela-
tively hidden, as he did with the power and authority given him
(verse 18), and with the name of Messiah (Mt. 16:20). Why? The
previous, historical, Israel had not yet run its course before Jesus'
death. His life had not yet been spent as a ransom for many. Not —
everything was ready yet. The table had not been set. The guests
could not yet be invited. Israel was not ss fully ee Bees to fulfill
its eschatological mission. Aware of this "not yet," Jesus under-
stood his mission to be—temporarily—to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. But even as he pronounced this rule, he made an _
exception (Mt. 15:24). In the very strange passage of Mark 4:10-
12 an even stricter rule is announced. Initially he did "not ye
address himself directly and properly to the whole people of Israel, —
but only to his disciples. Aware of this "not yet" he charged his —
aera
66 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
disciples to go—temporarily—nowhere among the Gentiles and
to enter no town of the Samaritans (Mt. 10:5). This "not yet" again overshadows the relative seclusion of the primitive apostles in Jerusalem. They had first to overcome their reluctance to get in touch with the Gentiles (Acts 10), and finally entrusted Paul with the mission to the Gentiles (Gal. 2). Nevertheless, while this "not yet" casts its shadows even over the time after Easter, it was in fact overcome. The great turning point in history had since been marked. The "delivering" of Jesus to the Gentiles, foretold in the second and third announcements of his imminent suffering, had taken place (Mt. 27:2). This event separates the times. Now the eschatological Israel begins. Jesus' rejection by the Jews becomes the offer of grace to the Gentiles. In the rejection and death of its Messiah, the history of Israel has reached its end and goal; the hidden church of Jews and Gentiles awaits its revelation. The messianic Israel is in fact revealed by the words of verse 19. What does it matter if the revelation was apparently not fully realized right away? The number twelve of the eschatological Israel is even externally again complete by the addition of Paul. The activity of the apostles must set in with this very revelation: "Make disciples of all nations."
This "all nations" in no way contradicts the earlier teaching and practice of Jesus. The narrow path within Israel had to branch out
into the wide world of all nations, and the inroad into the wide world had to begin as the narrow path within Israel. "Salvation
is from the Jews" (Jn. 4:22). From the Jews—this is the first,
limited, and hidden form of the eschatological community, represented by the eleven. Salvation comes from the Jews—to the Gentiles—this is its second, unlimited, and manifest form, represented by the eleven plus one.
To say that the primitive apostles acted as if they had not heard the Great Commission (J. Weiss, Klostermann) is misleading. Already the eleven, as Jesus saw and addressed them, are the eleven plus one who shall carry out the mission. The Church as a body
hae a
_ will obey the command: its proclamation, first exclusively addressed
_ to Israel, is immediately understood by the Jews of all lands in their —
_ own language (Acts 2:6f.). Spread by Paul, the twelfth apostle,
it becomes the message to the Gentiles.
_ It is therefore not necessary to draw upon the assumption of a = backward projection on the part. of the later Church" Closter: