Matthew 28:16–20

Text

Οἱ δὲ ἕνδεκα μαθηταὶ ἐπορεύθησαν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν εἰς τὸ ὄρος οὗ ἐτάξατο αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς, καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν προσεκύνησαν, οἱ δὲ ἐδίστασαν. καὶ προσελθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς λέγων, Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς. πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ' ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.

And the eleven students went into Galilee to the hill to where Jesus stationed them, and seeing him, some made obeisance and some hesistated. And coming forward, Jesus spoke to them, saying "All power in heaven and upon the land has been given to me. Therefore going out teach all the nations, plunging them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things such as I have commanded you; and behold I will be with you all the days until the completion of this life."

Commentary

μαθηταὶ: I am trying not to translate words in deference to tradition (see my whole crisis about translating ancilla here), so I am rendering this as the more general "students" rather than the context-specific "disciples".

ἐλάλησεν: This word was a little jarring: in classical Greek at least, it has an almost derogratory sense, more like "prattle" or "chat" than "speak". Apparently this sense had fallen away even by the time of Aristotle, but still, as someone who mostly reads older texts, it was weird to see the Great Commission introduced by, basically, "Jesus chatted with them".

Ἐδόθη: This is a passive verb, meaning something like "has been given to me". I did want to emphasize that Jesus never says who gave Him the authority.

ἐξουσία: I decided to read this passage in Greek in part because I wanted to see what word was here; I'm always interested in how the Bible uses terminology of authority. The answer is a word that does mean "power" or "authority", but which is often used in the particular sense of a magistracy or office.

βαπτίζοντες: Again, I am on purpose creating a sense of alienation here; this would more traditionally be translated "baptizing".

συντελείας: This is "completion" in the sense of the realization of a plan, not only "end".

I'll be honest: I'm personally uncomfortable with the Great Commission. I have yet to make sense of it. It's pretty obvious to me that the way it has been interpreted historically has done enormous and irreparable harm, but I don't know how to read it in a way that wouldn't further that harm. I guess I was hoping I'd find something in here that made it make sense, but unfortunately, Greek can't solve everything.