Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 28:19

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

19. therefore ] i. e. because Christ hath all power in heaven and earth. The word however is omitted in the leading MSS.

teach ] Properly, make disciples of. The same mistranslation occurs Act 14:21, “having taught,” see ch. Mat 13:52, Mat 27:57, where the same word is used. Teaching, Mat 28:20, = “instructing.” “Make disciples of all nations by baptism and by instruction.”

in the name ] Rather, into the name. Jewish proselytes were baptized into the name of the Father; Jesus adds the names of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. In the instances of baptism recorded in the Act 2:38; Act 8:16; Act 10:48; Act 19:5, the name of Jesus Christ (or the Lord Jesus) alone occurs in the baptismal formula, but the promise of the Holy Ghost is given (Act 2:38), or the gift of the Holy Ghost follows the rite (Mat 8:17, Mat 19:6), or precedes it (Act 10:44; Act 10:47).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Go ye therefore – Because all power is mine, go! I can defend you. The world is placed under my control. It is redeemed. It is given me in promise by my Father, as the purchase of my death. Though you are weak, yet I am strong! Though you will encounter many troubles and dangers, yet I can defend you! Though you die, yet I live, and the work shall be accomplished!

Teach all nations – The word rendered teach, here, is not the one that is usually so translated in the New Testament. This word properly means to disciple, or to make disciples of. This was to be done, however, by teaching, and by administering baptism.

All nations – This gracious commission was the foundation of their authority to go to the Gentiles. The Jews had expected that the offers of life under the Messiah would be confined to their own nation. Jesus broke down the partition wall, and commissioned his disciples to go everywhere, and bring the world to the knowledge of himself.

Baptizing them – as an emblem of the purifying influences of the Christian religion through the Holy Spirit, and solemnly devoting them to God.

In the name … – This phrase does not mean, here, by the authority of the Father, etc. To be baptized in the name of the Father, etc., is the same as to be baptized unto the Father; as to believe on the name of Christ is the same as to believe on Christ, Joh 1:12; Joh 2:23; Joh 3:18; 1Co 1:13. To be baptized unto anyone is publicly to receive and adopt him as a religious teacher or lawgiver; to receive his system of religion. Thus, the Jews were baptized unto Moses, 1Co 10:2. That is, they received the system that he taught; they acknowledged him as their lawgiver and teacher. So Paul asks 1Co 1:13, Were ye baptized in the name of Paul? – that is, Were you devoted to Paul by this rite? Did you bind yourselves to him, and give yourselves away to him, or to God? So to be baptized in the name of the Father, or unto the Father, means publicly, by a significant rite, to receive his system of religion; to bind the soul to obey his laws; to be devoted to him; to receive, as the guide and comforter of the life, his instructions, and to trust to his promises. To be baptized unto the Son, in like manner, is to receive him as the Messiah – our Prophet, Priest, and King – to submit to his laws, and to receive him as a Saviour. To be baptized unto the Holy Spirit is to receive him publicly as the Sanctifier, Comforter, and Guide of the soul. The meaning, then, may be thus expressed: Baptizing them unto the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by a solemn profession of the only true religion, and by a solemn consecration to the service of the sacred Trinity.

The union of these three names in the form of baptism proves that the Son and Holy Spirit are equal with the Father. Nothing would be more absurd or blasphemous than to unite the name of a creature – a man or an angel – with the name of the ever-living God in this solemn rite. If Jesus was a mere man or an angel, as is held by many who deny his divinity, and if the Holy Spirit was a mere attribute of God, then it would have been the height of absurdity to use a form like this, or to direct the apostles to baptize people under them. How absurd would be the direction – nay, how blasphemous – to have said, Baptize them unto God, and unto Paul, and unto the wisdom or power of God! Can we believe that our Saviour would have given a direction so absurd as this? Yet, unless he himself is divine, and the Holy Spirit is divine, Jesus gave a direction substantially the same as this. The form of baptism, therefore, has been always regarded as an unbreakable argument for the doctrine of the Trinity, or that the Son and Holy Spirit are equal with the Father.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 28:19

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.

A plea for missions

There are many lessons in these words.

1. A lesson as to the result of death. Some thought that death had taken all power from Christ. They that follow Christ as well as the Master are not robbed by death; but on the other side of it they say, Power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

2. The reward of labour. The reward of toil is a call to a wider task, to conquer the world for Christ.

3. The cure of doubt. But some doubted. And Jesus said, Go ye, and preach the gospel.

I. The largeness of the Saviours purpose-GO ye, and teach all nations. What an amplitude there is in the gaze of Christ. What a reach in His merciful design. Calvary has not robbed Him of His love. With the freshness of the resurrection power upon Him, He bids men to look at mankind and conquer the world for Him. Our hearts are wofully small, and the little heart projects its littleness into everything at which it looks. From this littleness of hope and faith lift up yourself to the dream of the Saviour. His eye has never rested upon the man of whom He despaired.

II. The lowly methods which Christ adopts-go ye, therefore. The instrumentality is weak only in our conception of it. Christ knows what the gospel will effect. Christ is a true force, and can touch the heart. He knows the power of the cross in its very gentleness. He chose men to preach it. He knew the weakness of the twelve; He also knew the power there is in each one of us; He knew the power of sympathy to enter the soul.

III. The encouragements to obey the Saviours call-All power is given unto Me. Lo, I am with you always. Error says, All power is given unto me. Sin, death, say the same. But truth says, All power is given unto Christ. All things work together on behalf of the gospel.

IV. How this charge has been obeyed. (R. Glover.)

Each church contributing to the mission-plan of God

It has been a constant joy to me that from year to year this church has been one of its affluents; and as the Amazon does not disdain any side-stream which rolls its treasure into the bosom of that ocean river, so every single church, every sidestream, is not disdained that rolls its golden sands into this great movement which is the river of God that is fertilizing the whole globe. (H. W. Beecher.)

The work of the Church

I. The nature of the work which Christ has entrusted to His Church.

1. Work of spiritual enlightenment.

2. Work of ingathering into His Church. Manifold, yet one. Let us arouse ourselves to the duty of gathering all suitable persons into its fellowship.

3. Work of incitement to holiness. As holiness is characteristic of God, so it ought to be of His people. Thus the work is rapidly sketched by the Redeemer.

II. The extent of the work Christ has committed to His Church. Christs preaching prepared the way for the doctrine of universal brotherhood. No people, near or remote, are to be neglected. This distinguishes Christianity from all other systems of religion. It is not let them come if they will and receive the gospel, but go forth, leave all, and proclaim the gospel, etc.

III. The encouragements to the work which Christ has entrusted to His Church. There are many discouragements in the execution of this commission. The kings of the earth have set themselves together, etc.

1. The power of Christ. We have might as well as right on our side.

2. The presence of Christ. (A. A. Southerns.)

I. A great truth was revealed-All power, etc.

II. A great trust was imparted.

1. They were to make disciples of all nations.

2. They were to administer the ordinance of Christian Baptism.

3. They were to instruct their converts in the mind and will of the great Master and Saviour. Who is sufficient for these things?

III. A great promise. (J. R. Thompson.)

The great commission

I. the nature of the command.

1. It gives authority for missionary undertakings.

2. Obedience to it is a test of a disciples love.

3. Connected with the Saviours promise-I am with you.

4. It is binding until Jesus comes again.

II. What encouragement is derived from it?

1. Encouragement as to Gods purposes concerning our fallen world.

2. That human instrumentality is appointed for the furtherance of Gods purposes.

3. This explains the opposition we meet with in doing Gods work: Satan is the god of this world.

4. We may reckon on our Masters sympathy.

5. We have a certain hope of final success. (W. Cadman, M. A.)

The great commission

A church, even of five hundred, represented by eleven unknown and inexperienced workmen, looked a very poor engine with which to convert the world, but the least thing became a mighty thing in the service of a mighty agent.

I. The first point to be considered in this great charter of missionary enterprize was that the churchs missionary work reposed upon Christs elevation to supreme command.

1. On the eve of His mortal shame, when His feelings seemed to lie at the lowest, He still knew that the Father had given all things into His hands; and after the resurrection, within a few days of His ascension, He claimed it as a gift given to His crowned mediatorship-all power in heaven and in earth. The sphere in which He had been thus constituted rightful Master was the whole universe; as stated by the eloquent apostle, it extended far above all principalities, and powers, etc. It is on this universal range of lawful control held now by Jesus in virtue of His office, that the world-wide missionary activity of His Church depends. Christs rule was the basis of their mission. It was only when He was on the point of ascending to the throne above the heavens that He revoked His former restriction, which was, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but now, in the room of that revoked restriction, He issued His commission to His ambassadors in the widest terms, Go ye now and convert all the nations. This gave the legal authorization to their missionary enterprize, justifying the missionary in setting aside the edicts of magistrates, and braving their threats of persecution.

2. What was the work to which Jesus committed His Church in this authoritative fashion? The word translated teach in the text would read better disciple; the apostles were to be the representation to other men in other lands of that same spiritual process which had passed upon themselves. The two processes which made up conversion were discriminated as baptizing and teaching. Christ first brought His disciples to that point at which they were willing to accept Him by a public profession and a symbolic sacrament, and then built up their Christian life in knowledge and service. What he had done for them He desired them to do for others. To do the work of baptizing and teaching required a combination of qualities which were very rarely blended in a single character. It was necessary to combine enthusiasm with patience, faith with labour; the former for the first, the latter for the second, stage in the Christianizing process. In the glorious warfare in which we are engaged there is room for every temperament. All are soldiers.

II. The churchs missionary success depends upon the spiritual support and presence of the Lord Jesus.

1. The results of mission labour ought to be less discouraging than they sometimes seem to be. The friends of missions are too prone to credit the disparaging representations made by their enemies. They speak of this great enterprize, more than they need do, in a tone of apology.

2. We are living near the beginning of what might be called the third great missionary era-and what might prove to be the last age of Christian propagandism.

3. The conversion of the world is the task for which the Church of this country has girt itself. Much has already been accomplished, and on the ground of natural likelihood alone-to say nothing at all of Divine promises-the conversion of the world to Christianity began to appear to the candid eye of an onlooker but a mere question of time.

4. The promised presence of Christ has not failed.

5. Let us throw ourselves with new heart and soul into this most cheering and hopeful of all enterprizes. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)

The great command

The command to teach all nations implies-

1. That Christianity is a universal religion; not merely one of the religions of the world from which, with others, we, in this later day, are to select an eclectic or universal religion.

2. That it is adapted to all nations and all classes (Rom 1:6), a claim which history has abundantly justified, but which was urged by early opponents as a conclusive objection to 2:3. That not a natural development, but obedience to the principles inculcated by Jesus Christ, constitutes the secret of true civilization among all nations, and thus that Christian missions are the mother of civilization.

4. That from all nations the members of Christs Church triumphant are to be gathered to God by obedience to this commission. (L. Abbott.)

The great commission

I. The time of it, or the occasion and circumstances under which it was given.

II. The obligation of it, or the authority by which it is enforced.

III. The extent of it, or the sphere of its operation.

IV. The nature of it, or the message to be communicated. (A. L. R. Foote.)

The false and the true universalism

This incident-the concluding one of Christs earthly sojourn-is extremely valuable, among other reasons, as bringing forward what may be called the universal element in Christianity. There is a false universalism, and dangerous as false, and common, too, as dangerous. How to meet it? Not, surely, by running into an opposite extreme of exclusiveness, but by exhibiting the true universalism. For there is a valid universalism in the gospel, and what is it? Not Christ in every man-which is the latest form of error in this matter-but Christ for every man. Not Christ at the root of human nature, in some inexplicable way, waiting only to be developed, but Christ at the root of the gospel, waiting only to be received by a simple faith. (A. L. R. Foote.)

Practical missionary zeal

The heathen are perishing; they are dying by millions without Christ, and Christs last commandment to us is, Go ye, teach all nations: are you obeying it? I cannot go, says one, I have a family and many ties to bind me at home, My dear brother, then, I ask you, Are you going as far as you can? Do you travel to the utmost length of the providential tether which has fastened you where you are? Can you say Yes? Then, what are you doing to help others to go? As I was thinking over this discourse, I reflected how very little we were most of us doing towards sending the gospel abroad. We are, as a church, doing a fair share for our heathen at home, and I rejoice at the thought of it; but how much a year do you each give to foreign missions? I wish you would put down in your pocket-book how much you give per annum for missions, and then calculate how much per cent. It is of your income. There let it stand-Item: Gave to the collection last April ls. One shilling a year towards the salvation of the world! Perhaps it will run thus-Item: Income, 5000; annual subscription to mission, 12 How does that look? I cannot read your hearts, but I could read your pocket-books and work a sum in proportion. I suggest that you do it yourselves, while I also take a look at my own expenditure. Let us all see what more can be done for the spread of the Redeemers kingdom. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The slow progress of Christianity

Now one of the laws which God has arranged, and which He observes is this-the higher the form of life, the longer it is in coming to the fulness of its power, to maturity and perfection. For instance, a child continues helpless longer, and takes far more time and care to rear and train than does the offspring of any one of the lower animals. It is even so among these lower animals themselves, for the lion has a longer infancy than the sheep, and the sagacious elephant than either. Take, again, a more abstract illustration. For example, how rapidly does a mans physical life grow and develop compared with his mental or moral. So, too, with society: shops grow faster than schools, and a nation, as our own has done, may progress in a most marked manner in the region of politics or commerce, and yet, like our own again, lag sadly behind in the matter of education. Besides, how much more is education than the diffusion of information or the quickening of intelligence? Is there not the difficult task of upbuilding character, and, alas! how marked often is the discrepancy between the intellectual standard and the moral tone? Thus the law runs: the higher the goal to be gained or the good to be sought, the slower is the race or the individual in its pursuit, the longer in its attainment. In the light of this law, we at once see that it is just what might be expected, that Christianity, as the highest possible form or principle of life, should be, speaking of it as a whole, the most gradual in its progress and realization, and, further, that it is according to all nature and analogy that Christianity, as the grandest and most delicate order of life, should be at once the most sensitive to the unfavourable touch of man, as well as the soonest subject to the prejudicial effects of his mistakes or defects. (J. T. Stannard.)

Baptizing them.–

Christian baptism

I. The command-to make disciples of all nations.

1. They preached the gospel.

2. They baptized the proselytes.

(1) Proselytes were baptized without delay-that same day (Act 2:41; Act 8:26; Act 8:40).

(2) They administered baptism with water. This was symbolical of the renewing influences of the Holy Ghost.

(3) Apostolic baptism was administered in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

3. The apostles taught the baptized persons to observe all things whatsoever Christ had commanded them.

II. The encouragement. Lo, I am with you, etc.

1. This encouragement was intended primarily and especially for the apostles.

2. It was intended also for all other ministers and teachers in every age.

(1) Ministers still need the gracious assurance of their Lord.

(2) Baptism teaches parents what things they should teach their children. (H. March.)

Significance of the form of baptism

I. This form of baptizing in the name Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost may refer to their authority as giving rise to this institution.

II. It may refer to the whole scheme of Christian doctrine, which centres in the discoveries that are made us concerning the sacred Three.

III. It refers to the distinct dedication to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that is required as to all that are baptized, which the ancients reckoned to be signified by the triune immersion that was commonly used among them. (Edward Calamy.)

The form of baptism

I. By being baptized in the name of God, can be meant no less than entering into covenant with a person, as God; professing faith in Him as such; enlisting ones self into His service; and vowing all obedience and submission to Him.

II. What has Scripture revealed at large concerning the Divinity of the three names into which we are baptized?

1. Concerning the Divinity of the Father there is no dispute.

2. Divine titles are given to the Son in Holy Scripture.

3. The Holy Spirit is described as the immediate author and worker of miracles. The very same things are said in different places of Scripture of all the three Divine Persons, and the very same actions are ascribed to them.

III. What interest have we in the doctrine of the Trinity?

1. Many regard this as a speculative doctrine only.

2. Our religion is founded upon it. For what is Christianity but a manifestation of the three Divine persons, as engaged in the great work of mans redemption, begun, continued, and to be ended by them, in their several relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, Three Persons, One God? If there be no Son of God, where is our Redemption? If there be no Holy Spirit, where is our sanctification? Without both, where is our salvation? (Bishop Horne.)

Christian baptism

Baptism is a religious rite, which was generally practised before our Saviour instituted it; for the Gentiles, in their solemn acts of devotion, made use of sprinkling and ablutions, and the Jews baptized all proselytes to their religion. To explain this part of our religion we must consider-

I. What that belief is which qualifies persons for baptism.

II. What is the end and design of baptism.

III. What is meant by being baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

IV. How baptism is to be performed. (J. Jortin.)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.–

The doctrine of the Trinity practically considered

I. Let me remind you that the scriptural Trinity implies that God is one. The trinity of our faith means a distinction of persons within one common indivisible Divine nature. It implies, therefore, at its base, that the Divine nature is one and indivisible. For this reason God revealed the essential oneness of His being first; and it was only after many centuries that Jesus could disclose to His disciples the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. On polytheistic soil no such revelation could have been intelligible; it was to monotheistic Israel that it was made. The new revelation of a Trinity in God left quite unaltered the faith of the apostles that God is one. What is the chief spiritual benefit which we derive from the knowledge of the unity of God? It is the only religious basis for a moral law of perfect and unwavering righteousness. Rival gods, who care each for his own separate interests, and for no other, must neglect moral law in pursuit of their partial ends. You have no central power raised above the contention of inconsistent passions, whose only care is to make for righteousness and the common weal. Throughout the Old Testament there runs a stern denial of all secondary divinities, stern insistence upon one only true God, to whose single will all the wide fields of creation lie subject, and all the nations of men. The single will is righteous. It is the sole source of law; religion becomes the basis of virtue. Thus the Christian doctrine of the Trinity has preserved to us in undiminished power all the moral advantages which Hebrew religion drew from its revelation of the one God.

II. What religious advantage do we reap from the fresh christian discovery of a trinity within this unity of the divine nature?

1. The doctrine of the Trinity has heightened and enriched our conception of the nature of God. Such a Trinity as this leaves room in the Divine nature for the play of such moral affections as would be quite impossible to a mere single or solitary divinity. The lonely Deity whom human intellect, untaught by revelation, is able to fabricate for itself, is one utterly without passion or love till He has externalized Himself m a created world. The outcome of this is pantheism.

2. It affords a basis for those gracious relations which it has pleased God to sustain towards us in the economy of our salvation. These are facts of experience. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

The mystery of the most blessed Trinity

I. Is the greatest homage of faith.

1. By believing in this mystery we believe in the most incomprehensible of all mysteries, and consequently, we pay God the greatest homage. For I can have no sublimer conception of God than by professing Him absolutely incomprehensible. What else do we know respecting this adorable mystery but that we know nothing?

2. We sacrifice to God the noblest faculty of our nature, our intellect, by believing a mystery, of which we could not have the least idea, before God revealed it to us.

II. Is the most solid ground of our hope. Without faith, no salvation. The most necessary article of faith is the belief in the most blessed Trinity. No one can be saved, except he knows and believes

(1) that there are three Persons in one God; and

(2) that the second Divine Person became man for us.

III. Is the most urgent motive of charity.

1. It is the bond of brotherly love-keeping the unity of the Spirit, etc. (Eph 4:1).

2. It is the model of brotherly love (Joh 17:11; Psa 132:1). Peroration: Oh, most adorable Trinity, unite us in this world, that we may be united in heaven, etc. (Bourdalone.)

The doctrine of the Trinity considered in relation to practical religion

Let us see what simple facts are apparent in this revelation of God, and what service they may render to us in real life.

I. The father

1. He is the Creator of all things. As such He reveals His wisdom, etc.

2. He is the preserver of all things.

3. He is King of all, bending all to His will, and overruling all by His providence.

4. He is in a peculiar sense the Parent of His spiritual family.

II. The Son. God with us. This is a revelation of the humanity of God, and serves great purposes. It helps us to know and love God, and makes the redemption of man possible.

III. The Holy Ghost. God within us. His presence is proved by its fruits (Gal 5:22-23). (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

The distinctions in the Godhead

Divine revelation makes known to us one living and true God, and prohibits all worship being paid to any being except Jehovah. But the phraseology employed obviously presents the one Jehovah under certain distinctions, involving the idea of a plurality in the Godhead. This distinction has been generally denominated the Trinity-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The doctrine has been controverted in all ages, and numerous are the theories which men have endeavoured to maintain on this deeply profound, and confessedly difficult subject.

I. It is obvious that a threefold distinction in Deity is not impossible. We have many symbols of this in nature: the sun-the light and heat thereof; man-body, soul, and spirit.

II. The Old Testament writings lead us to this conclusion (Gen 2:22; Gen 2:7; Num 6:24; Psa 14:6; Psa 41:7; Psa 110:1; Psa 136:1-3; 2Sa 23:3; Isa 6:8; Isa 42:1; Isa 48:16; Isa 59:19-20).

III. The writings of the New Testament exhibit this triune distinction (Mat 3:16-17; Joh 14:16; Joh 15:26; Act 1:4-5; Act 5:30-35; Act 10:38; Act 20:27; Act 02:28; Rom 5:5-6).

IV. The Divine works are ascribed to each of the triune persons.

1. Creation.

2. Inspiration.

3. Holiness.

4. Raising the dead.

V. That the essential titles and attributes are given to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

1. Eternity.

2. Omnipresence.

3. Omniscience.

4. Power.

5. Wisdom.

Observations:

1. With what reverence and profound veneration we should study the nature and character of God. How awfully sublime is the theme-how utterly incompetent we must be to find it out to perfection- how essentially requisite holy fear and humility of mind in its investigation.

2. We should labour to ascertain the connection between the Divine Persons in the Godhead in the exercise of devotion and worship. We are to come to God through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. We are thus, also, to praise God, and to pray to Him. The Father is chiefly the object of worship, Christ is the way, and by the Spirit we worship Him in spirit and in truth. God our Father-God our Redeemer-God our Comforter and Guide.

3. Divine honours are to be equally given to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let us labour to attain and enjoy love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit. (J. Burns, LL. D.)

Threefold manifestation of Deity

Although we shall never again paint the Almighty as Giotto painted Him, as an old man with white hair in the clouds, with a young man at His side, and a dove flying from beneath His feet; and whilst we shall never again describe God as Athanasius described Him, yet the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity is fundamental, and rests on an impregnable basis. The Unity, the Humanity, and the Affinity or Immanent Deity, these are the root conceptions of all true theology, and these remain. The conception of variety in unity, the many and the one, pervades all life and nature, and is presented to us in man in a trinity of body, mind, and spirit. So Trinity in Unity is in God a diversity of manifestation or function, combined with a unity of life and purpose. We can hardly think of the Almighty in any other way. It is the normal order of thought metaphysically. Let us see. First, our conception of God is vague and indefinite: Creative Force pervading, correlating, co-ordinating all things everywhere. It is the All-Father, the First Person. But the instant we think more closely, our only definite conception proves insensibly anthropomorphic. All power, wisdom, intelligence, love, is, in some sort, human, manifested and transferred to God, but still human in nature and thought; and thus, the Ideal Man, the God under the limitations of humanity, steps forth. This would be so in the order of thought were there no figure of Jesus in history. We cannot but-we always have made God in our own image, God the Son, or the Second Person. But in prayer and worship He is apprehended as a Spirit only, in communion, in sympathy with ours; then He is God the Holy Ghost, or the Third Person. God the Vague, God the Definite, God the Immanent, that is the inexorable order of thought, and that is the eternal doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. This would be true whether we call ourselves Christians or not. But if you are a Christian, you believe in addition that the Ideal Humanity of God has once in all time been realized, and realized in Jesus. You believe that the eternally human side of God-which was before the Life Divine in Galilee, and will be for ever after it, the life-giving and the love-giving One-that all of Him which could become incarnate did become incarnate-came forth and dwelt amongst us as it has never before or since; that then and there, in the fulness of time, amongst the chosen people and in the holy land 1,900 years ago, a special use of human nature was made for a special purpose, and that we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (H. B. Haweis, M. A.)

The mystery of the Trinity

The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-three distinct Persons: in the Name, not names-one essence. The Holy Ghost is called the finger of God, Christ the hand of the Father. Now, as the finger is in the hand, and the hand on the body, so of one and the same most pure and simple essence is the Father, Son, and Spirit. But, as it was reported of Alanus, when he promised his auditory to discourse the next Sunday more clearly of the Trinity, and to make plain that mystery; while he was studying the point by the seaside, he spied a boy very busy with a little spoon, trudging often between the sea and a small hole he had digged in the ground. Alanus asked him what he meant to do. The boy answered, I intend to bring all the sea into this pit. Alanus replies, Why dost thou attempt such impossibilities, and mis-spend thy time? The boy answered, So dost thou, Alanus: I shall as soon bring all the sea into this hole, as thou bring all the knowledge of the Trinity into thy head. All is equally possible we have begun together, we shall finish together; save that of the two my labour hath more hope and possibility of taking effect. I conclude with, It is rashness to search, godliness to believe, safeness to preach, and eternal blessedness to know the Trinity; yet let us know to praise the Trinity in the words of the Church: Glory be to the Father, etc. And let all answer, As it was Amen. (T. Adams.)

Doctrine of the Trinity: God a mystery to man

You have seen a steam threshing-machine at work. You know perhaps how the steam acts upon the machinery, and sets the wheels in motion; but does the little insect that settles on the engine know what you know? Could it be taught? Well, when we try to understand the great God, we are like the fly trying to understand the engine. The being of God is a mystery to us; that is, it is something which we cannot understand. Man is a mystery to a dog or a horse. We can no more hope to understand how God is what He is than a dog or a horse can understand what man is, or what speech and thought and memory are. (J. E. Vernon, M. A.)

Belief in the Trinity not against reason though beyond it

Though I cannot explain this mystery to you, I think I can show you in nature certain figures whereby we may get some idea of how true the mystery is, though it is beyond our understanding. If I were to shut the window of a room, and cut a slit in the shutter, and put into the slit a piece of glass called a prism, you would see on the wall on the other side of the room a streak of red, yellow, and blue light. If I take the piece of glass away, there is only a streak of white light. Now learned men have found out that all pure white light is made up of red, yellow, and blue light; and by that piece of glass a ray of light can always be separated into the parts which make it up. Now, the red ray is light, the yellow ray is light, the blue ray is light. But the three together make up only one ray of light. Then, again. In your own self you have an image of the Trinity. You are made up of spirit, and soul, and body. Your spirit thinks, it prays, and you say, I think, I pray. Your spirit is you. If anything pains your body, you say, I am in pain, speaking now of your body as yourself. Again, your soul is moved by some passion, fear, or love. You speak of your soul as yourself, and say, I fear, or I love. Well, here there is the spirit you, the body you, and the soul you; and yet you are not three different creatures, but you body, soul, and spirit, make up one being, called man. Take another illustration. You know the florin, or two-shilling piece, has a cross of shields on one side. In the corners of that cross are flowers or plants. In the first and fourth are roses, the badge of England. In the second is the thistle, the badge of Scotland. In the third is a little cluster of clover leaves. The clover leaf, called in Ireland the shamrock, is the badge of Ireland. I will tell you how the Irish obtained the clover leaf as their badge. Long ago, when the Irish were heathens, there came to their shores St. Patrick, to teach them the true Catholic faith. He was brought to the king, and he spoke before him of the religion of Christ. The king listened attentively. But when St. Patrick began to tell him that there was but one God, and yet in that Godhead there were Three Persons, the king stopped him, saying, I do not understand you. You say the Father is God? Yes. And you say that the Son is God. Yes. And you say that the Holy Ghost is God? Yes. Then, said the king, there must be three Gods. St. Patrick, instead of answering, stooped down and picked a little clover leaf which grew at his feet. The clover leaf, as you know, is made up of three little leaves, joined together by a slim stalk, so that the three leaves make only one leaf. St. Patrick held up only one division of the leaf, and said, This is a leaf? Yes, said the king. He showed the second division of the leaf, and said, This is a leaf? Yes, said the king. He showed the third, saying the same words, and receiving the same reply. Then he held up the whole leaf by its long stalk before the king, and asked, What is this? It is a leaf, replied the king. So learn from a humble plant the mystery of the Trinity, said the saint. Now all this does not make us any more able to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity; but it at least shows us that, although it is above our reason, it is not contrary to our reason to believe that God is Three Persons and yet but One God. (J. E. Vernon, M. A.)

The mystery of the Trinity

An ancient writer informs us that when the Egyptians named their greatest God who was over all, they cried thrice, Darkness! Darkness! Darkness! In the name of the Father-Darkness; and of the Son-Darkness; and of the Holy Ghost-Darkness! for, however much the mind may strive to penetrate this mystery, it can never attain to its solution. Just as the eye, looking at the sun, sees the overpowering light as a dark ball, being dazzled by its excessive glory, so the eye of the mind perceives only darkness when looking into the infinite splendour of God in Three Persons. We may, indeed, see sundry likenesses here on earth which assist us in believing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; but they are helps, and helps only, not explanations. Thus, the sun may shine into a glass, and the glass reflect in clear water, and we see three suns-a sun in the heavens, a sun in the glass, and a sun in the water; and this assists us to understand how the Son of God is of the Father, and the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, and how that each is God, and yet that there are not Three Gods but One God. But, after all, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a matter of faith, and not of reason. We must believe, though we cannot understand. (S. Baring Gould.)

Mystery no bar to conviction

Sitting lately, says one, in a public room at Brighton, where an infidel was haranguing the company upon the absurdities of the Christian religion, I could not but be pleased to see how easily his reasoning pride was put to shame. He quoted those passages, I and My Father are one; I in them, and Thou in Me; and that there are Three Persons in One God. Finding his auditors not disposed to applaud his blasphemy, he turned to one gentleman, and said, with an oath, Do you believe Such nonsense? The gentleman replied, Tell me how that candle burns. Why, he answered, the tallow, the cotton, and the atmospheric air, produce the light. Then they make one light, do they not? Yes. Will you tell me how they are one in the other, and yet but one light? No, I cannot. But you believe it? He could not say but that he did. The company instantly made the application, by smiling at his folly; upon which the conversation was changed. This may remind the young and inexperienced that if they believe only what they can explain, they may as well part with their senses; for they are surrounded by the wonderful works of God, whose ways are past finding out.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 19. Go ye therefore] Because I have the authority aforesaid, and can send whomsoever I will to do whatsoever I please: – teach, , make disciples of all nations, bring them to an acquaintance with God who bought them, and then baptize them in the name of the Father. It is natural to suppose that adults were the first subjects of baptism; for as the Gospel was, in a peculiar manner, sent to the Gentiles, they must hear and receive it, before they could be expected to renounce their old prejudices and idolatries, and come into the bonds of the Christian covenant. But, certainly, no argument can be drawn from this concession against the baptism of children. When the Gentiles and Jews had received the faith and blessings of the Gospel, it is natural enough to suppose they should wish to get their children incorporated with the visible Church of Christ; especially if, as many pious and learned men have believed, baptism succeeded to circumcision, which I think has never yet been disproved. The apostles knew well that the Jews not only circumcised the children of proselytes, but also baptized them; and as they now received a commission to teach and proselyte all the nations, and baptize them in the name of the holy Trinity, they must necessarily understand that infants were included: nor could they, the custom of their country being considered, have understood our Lord differently, unless he had, in the most express terms, said that they were not to baptize children, which neither he nor his apostles ever did. And as to the objection, that the baptized were obliged to profess their faith, and that, therefore, only adults should be baptized, there is no weight at all in it; because what is spoken of such refers to those who, only at that period of life, heard the Gospel, and were not born of parents who had been Christians; therefore they could not have been baptized into the Christian faith, forasmuch as no such faith was at their infancy preached in the world. That the children and even infants, of proselytes, were baptized among the Jews, and reputed, in consequence, clean, and partakers of the blessings of the covenant, see proved at large by Wetstein, in his note on Mt 3:16. See Clarke on Mt 3:6, and particularly See Clarke on Mr 16:16.

In the name of the Father, c.] Baptism, properly speaking, whether administered by dipping or sprinkling, signifies a full and eternal consecration of the person to the service and honour of that Being in whose name it is administered but this consecration can never be made to a creature; therefore the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are not creatures. Again, baptism is not made in the name of a quality or attribute of the Divine nature; therefore the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are not qualities or attributes of the Divine nature. The orthodox, as they are termed, have generally considered this text as a decisive proof of the doctrine of the holy Trinity: and what else can they draw from it? Is it possible for words to convey a plainer sense than these do? And do they not direct every reader to consider the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as three distinct persons? “But this I can never believe.” I cannot help that – you shall not be persecuted by me for differing from my opinion. I cannot go over to you; I must abide by what I believe to be the meaning of the Scriptures. Dr. Lightfoot has some good thoughts on this commission given to the apostles: –

“I. Christ commands them to go and baptize the nations: but how much time was past before such a journey was taken! And when the time was now come that this work should be begun, Peter doth not enter upon it without a previous admonition given him from heaven. And this was occasioned hereby, that, according to the command of Christ, the Gospel was first to be preached to Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.

“II. He commands them to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; but among the Jews, they baptized only in the name of Jesus. See Ac 2:38; Ac 8:16; Ac 19:5. For this reason, that thus the baptizers might assert, and the baptized confess, Jesus to be the true Messias; which was chiefly controverted by the Jews. Of the same nature is that apostolic blessing, Grace and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Where then is the Holy Ghost? He is not excluded, however he be not named. The Jews did more easily consent to the Spirit of the Messias, which they very much celebrate, than to the person of the Messias. Above all others they deny and abjure Jesus of Nazareth. It belonged to the apostles, therefore, the more earnestly to assert Jesus (to be the Messias) by how much the more vehemently they opposed him: which being once cleared, the acknowledging of the Spirit of Christ would be introduced without delay or scruple. Moses, (in Ex 6:14,) going about to reckon up all the tribes of Israel, goes no farther than the tribe of Levi; and takes up with that to which his business and story at that present related. In like manner, the apostles, for the present, baptize in the name of Jesus, and bless in the name of the Father and of Jesus, that thereby they might more firmly establish the doctrine of Jesus, which met with such sharp and virulent opposition; which doctrine being established among them, they would soon agree about the Holy Ghost.

“III. Among the Jews, the controversy was about the true Messias; among the Gentiles, about the true God. It was therefore proper among the Jews to baptize in the name of Jesus, that he might be vindicated to be the true Messias. Among the Gentiles, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that they might be hereby instructed in the doctrine of the true God. – Let this be particularly noted.

“IV. The Jews baptized proselytes into the name of the Father, that is, into the profession of God, whom they called by the name of Father. The apostles baptize the Jews into the name of Jesus the Son, and the Gentiles, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

“V. The Father hath revealed himself in the old covenant; the Son in the new; in human flesh by his miracles, doctrine, resurrection and ascension; the Holy Ghost in his gifts and miracles. Thus the doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity grew by degrees to full maturity. For the arriving to the acknowledgment of which, it was incumbent upon all who professed the true God to be three in one to be baptized into his name.” LIGHTFOOT’S Works, vol. ii. p. 274.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

19. Go ye therefore, and teach allnationsrather, “make disciples of all nations”; for”teaching,” in the more usual sense of that word, comes inafterwards, and is expressed by a different term.

baptizing them in the name ofthe Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy GhostIt should be,”into the name”; as in 1Co10:2, “And were all baptized unto (or rather ‘into‘)Moses”; and Ga 3:27, “Foras many of you as have been baptized into Christ.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Go ye therefore,…. Into all the world; some into one place, and some into another; since his power and authority, and so now the commission he gave them, reached every where: before it was confined to Judea, but now it is extended to all the nations of the world; see Mt 10:6,

and teach all nations; Jews and Gentiles, first the one, and then the other, the doctrines of the Gospel, and the ordinances of it; whatever they had learned from Christ, or were ordered by him, or “disciple all nations”: make them disciples by teaching them; or, as the Persic version, by way of explanation, adds, “bring them to my religion and faith”: not that they were able to do this of themselves, but they were to teach men externally, or outwardly minister the word, whilst the Spirit of God internally applied it, and taught, and made men true disciples of Christ: and they are such, who have learned to know themselves, their sin, and lost estate by nature; to deny themselves, both sinful and righteous self; who have learnt to know Christ, and the way of righteousness, peace, pardon, life, and salvation by him; and who are taught and enabled to part with all for Christ, and to bear all for his sake, and to believe in him, and give up themselves to him, and follow him whithersoever he goes:

baptizing them; not all nations, for the antecedent to the relative “them”, cannot be “all nations”; since , the words for “all nations”, are of the neuter gender, whereas , “them”, is of the masculine: nor can it be thought that it should be the mind of Christ, that all the individuals of all nations should be baptized, as Heathens, Turks, and Jews; but , “disciples”, supposed and contained in the word , “teach”, or “make disciples”; such as are taught, and made disciples by teaching, or under the ministry of the word by the Spirit of God: Christ’s orders are to “baptize”: , “dip” them, as Munster’s Hebrew Gospel renders it; that is, in water, which, though not expressed, is implied; for with no other baptism could the apostles baptize: not with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; for this was Christ’s peculiar prerogative; but with water, which they in obedience to this commission practised, Ac 8:36, and which was to be done

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; by the authority of these three divine persons, who all appeared, and testified their approbation of the administration of this ordinance, at the baptism of Christ: and as they are to be invocated in it, so the persons baptized not only profess faith in each divine person, but are devoted to their service, and worship, and are laid under obligation to obedience to them, Hence a confirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity, there are three persons, but one name, but one God, into which believers are baptized; and a proof of the true deity both of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and that Christ, as the Son of God, is God; since baptism is administered equally in the name of all three, as a religious ordinance, a part of divine instituted worship, which would never be in the name of a creature. This is the first, and indeed the only, place in which the Trinity of persons is expressed in this order, and in the selfsame words. Galatinus f pretends, that the ancient Jews used the same way of speaking. It would be well if proof could be made of it: he asserts it to be in Zohar on De 6:4, and in the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on Isa 6:3. In the former he says, it is expressed thus, “hear, O Israel; the Lord”, he is called “the Father; our God”, he is called the Son; “is one Lord”, this is “the Holy Ghost”, who proceeds from both; and again, by the same R. Simeon, it is said, “holy”, this is , “the Father”; “holy”, this is , “the Son”; “holy”, this is , “the Holy Ghost”: and in the latter after this manner, “Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Holy Ghost”; but no such words are now to be found in either of these places. He affirms, that he himself saw a copy of Jonathan’s Targum that had these words. The Jews often speak of the Tetragrammaton, or name of four letters, the name Jehovah, which they say is not lawful to be pronounced; and also of the name of twelve letters, which the above writer g makes to be “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”; and of forty two letters, which from a book called Gale Razia, he says is,

“Father God, Son God, Holy Ghost God, three in one, and one in three;”

which in the Hebrew language make up so many letters; but this wants better authority.

f L. 2. c. 1. g Ib. c. 11, 12. Vid. Buxtorf. Lex. Heb. in voce

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

All the nations ( ). Not just the Jews scattered among the Gentiles, but the Gentiles themselves in every land. And not by making Jews of them, though this point is not made plain here. It will take time for the disciples to grow into this Magna Charta of the missionary propaganda. But here is the world program of the Risen Christ and it should not be forgotten by those who seek to foreshorten it all by saying that Jesus expected his second coming to be very soon, even within the lifetime of those who heard. He did promise to come, but he has never named the date. Meanwhile we are to be ready for his coming at any time and to look for it joyfully. But we are to leave that to the Father and push on the campaign for world conquest. This program includes making disciples or learners () such as they were themselves. That means evangelism in the fullest sense and not merely revival meetings. Baptism in (, not into) the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Trinity. Objection is raised to this language in the mouth of Jesus as too theological and as not a genuine part of the Gospel of Matthew for the same reason. See Mt 11:27, where Jesus speaks of the Father and the Son as here. But it is all to no purpose. There is a chapter devoted to this subject in my The Christ of the Logia in which the genuineness of these words is proven. The name of Jesus is the essential part of it as is shown in the Acts. Trine immersion is not taught as the Greek Church holds and practices, baptism in the name of the Father, then of the Son, then of the Holy Spirit. The use of name () here is a common one in the Septuagint and the papyri for power or authority. For the use of with in the sense here employed, not meaning into, see Mt 10:41f. (cf. also 12:41).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Teach [] . Rev., rightly, make disciples of.

In the name [ ] . Rev., correctly, “into the name.” Baptizing into the name has a twofold meaning.

1. Unto, denoting object or purpose, as eijv metanoian, unto repentance (Mt 3:11); eijv afesin aJmartiwn, for the remission of sins (Act 2:38).

2. Into, denoting union or communion with, as Rom 6:3, “baptized into Christ Jesus; into his death;” i e., we are brought by baptism into fellowship with his death. Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with him. Eijv, into, is the preposition commonly used with baptize. See Act 8:16; Act 19:3, 5; 1Co 1:13, 15; 1Co 10:2; Gal 3:27. In Act 2:38, however, Peter says, ” Be baptized upon [] the name of Jesus Christ; and in Act 10:48, he commands Cornelius and his friends to be baptized in [] the name of the Lord. To be baptized upon the name is to be baptized on the confession of that which the name implies : on the ground of the name; so that the name Jesus, as the contents of the faith and confession, is the ground upon which the becoming baptized rests. In the name [] has reference to the sphere within which alone true baptism is accomplished. The name is not the mere designation, a sense which would give to the baptismal formula merely the force of a charm. The name, as in the Lord ‘s Prayer (” Hallowed be they name “), is the expression of the sum total of the divine Being : not his designation as God or Lord, but the formula in which all his attributes and characteristics are summed up. It is equivalent to his person. The finite mind can deal with him only through his name; but his name if of no avail detached from his nature. When one is baptized into the name of the Trinity, he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that he is and in all that he does for man. He recognized and depends upon God the Father as his Creator and Preserver; receives Jesus Christ as his only Mediator and Redeemer, and his pattern of life; and confesses the Holy Spirit as his Sanctifier and Comforter.

Alway [ ] . Lit., all the days. Wyc., in all days.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

19. Go out, therefore, and teach all nations. Though Mark, after having related that Christ appeared to the eleven disciples, immediately subjoins the command to preach the gospel, he does not speak of these as an unbroken series of events, for we learn from the enumeration of them which is given by Matthew, that the latter event did not take place before they had gone into Galilee. The meaning amounts to this, that by proclaiming the gospel everywhere, they should bring all nations to the obedience of the faith, and next, that they should seal and ratify their doctrine by the sign of the gospel. In Matthew, they are first taught simply to teach; but Mark expresses the kind of doctrine, that they should preach the gospel; and shortly afterwards Matthew himself adds this limitation, to teach them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord hath commanded.

Let us learn from this passage, that the apostleship is not an empty title, but a laborious office; and that, consequently, nothing is more absurd or intolerable than that this honor should be claimed by hypocrites, who live like kings at their ease, and disdainfully throw away from themselves the office of teaching. The Pope of Rome and his band proudly boast of their succession, as if they held this rank in common with Peter and his companions; and yet they pay no more regard to doctrine than was paid by the Luperci, or the priests of Bacchus and Venus. (324) And with what face, pray, do they claim to be the successors of those who, they are told, were appointed to be preachers of the gospel? But though they are not ashamed to display their impudence, still with every reader of sound judgment this single word is sufficient to lay prostrate their silly hierarchy—that no man can be a successor of the apostles who does not devote his services to Christ in the preaching of the gospel. In short, whoever does not fulfill the duties of a teacher acts wickedly and falsely by assuming the name of an apostle; and what is more—the priesthood of the New Testament consists in slaying men, as a sacrifice to God, by the spiritual sword of the word. Hence it follows, that all are but pretended and spurious priests who are not devoted to the office of teaching.

Teach all nations. Here Christ, by removing the distinction, makes the Gentiles equal to the Jews, and admits both, indiscriminately to a participation in the covenant. Such is also the import of the term: go out; for the prophets under the law had limits assigned to them, but now,

the wall of partition having been broken down, (Eph 2:14,)

the Lord commands the ministers of the gospel to go to a distance, in order to spread the doctrine of salvation in every part of the world. For though, as we have lately suggested, the right of the first-born at the very commencement of the gospel, remained among the Jews, still the inheritance of life was common to the Gentiles. Thus was fulfilled that prediction of Isaiah, (Isa 49:6,) and others of a similar nature, that Christ was

given for a light of the Gentiles, that he might be the salvation of God to the end of the earth.

Mark means the same thing by every creature; for when peace has been proclaimed to those that are within the Church, the same message reaches those who are at a distance, and were strangers, (Eph 2:17.) How necessary it was that the apostles should be distinctly informed of the calling of the Gentiles, is evident from this consideration, that even after having received the command, they felt the greatest horror at approaching them, as if by doing so they polluted themselves and their doctrine.

Baptizing them. Christ enjoins that those who have submitted to the gospel, and professed to be his disciples, shall be baptized; partly that their baptism may be a pledge of eternal life before God:, and partly that it may be an outward sign of faith before men. For we know that God testifies to us the grace of adoption by this sign, because he engrafts us into the body of his Son, so as to reckon us among his flock; and, therefore, not only our spiritual washing, by which he reconciles us to himself, but likewise our new righteousness, are represented by it. But as God, by this seal confirms to us his grace, so all who present themselves for baptism do, as it were, by their own signature, ratify their faith. Now since this charge is expressly given to the apostles along with the preaching of the word, it follows that none can lawfully administer baptism but those who are also the ministers of doctrine. When private persons, and even women, are permitted to baptize, nothing can be more at variance with the ordinance of Christ, nor is it any thing else than a mere profanation. Besides, as doctrine is placed first in order, this points out to us the true distinction between this mystery and the bastard rites of the Gentiles, by which they are initiated into their sacred mysteries; for the earthly element does not become a sacrament until God quickens it by his word. As superstition improperly counterfeits all the works of God, foolish men forge various sacraments at their pleasure; but as the word, which is the soul, is not in them, they are idle and unmeaning shadows. Let us therefore hold that the power of the doctrine causes the signs to assume a new nature; as the outward working of the flesh begins to be the spiritual pledge of regeneration, when it is preceded by the doctrine of the gospel; and this is the true consecration instead of which, Popery has introduced to us the enchantments of sorcery.

Accordingly, it is said in Mark, He that shall believe and be baptized shall be saved. By these words Christ not only excludes from the hope of salvation hypocrites who, though destitute of faith, are puffed up only by the outward sign; but by a sacred bond he connects baptism with doctrine, so that the latter is nothing more than an appendage of the former. But as Christ enjoins them to teach before baptizing, and desires that none but believers shah be admitted to baptism, it would appear that baptism is not properly administered unless when it is preceded by faith. On this pretense, the Anabaptists have stormed greatly against infant baptism. But the reply is not difficult, if we attend to the reason of the command. Christ orders them to convey to all nations the message of eternal salvation, and confirms it by adding the seal of baptism. Now it was proper that faith in the word should be placed before baptism, since the Gentiles were altogether alienated from God, and had nothing in common with the chosen people; for otherwise it would have been a false figure, which offered forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit to unbelievers, who were not yet members of Christ. But we know that by faith those who were formerly despised are united to the people of God.

It is now asked, on what condition does God adopt as children those who formerly were aliens? It cannot, indeed, be denied that, when he has once received them into his favor, he continues to bestow it on their children and their children’s children. By the coming of Christ God manifested himself as a Father equally to the Gentiles and to the Jews; and, therefore, that promise, which was formerly given to the Jews, must now be in force towards the Gentiles,

I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee, (Gen 17:7.)

Thus we see that they who entered by faith into the Church of God are reckoned, along with their posterity, among the members of Christ, and, at the same time, called to the inheritance of salvation. And yet this does not involve the separation of baptism from faith and doctrine; because, though infants are not yet of such an age as to be capable of receiving the grace of God by faith, still God, when addressing their parents, includes them also. I maintain, therefore, that it is not rash to administer baptism to infants, to which God invites them, when he promises that he will be their God.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This passage shows that the full and clear knowledge of God, which had been but darkly shadowed out under the Law and the Prophets, is at length fully discovered under the reign of Christ. True, indeed, the ancients would never have ventured to call God their Father, if they had not derived this assurance from Christ their Head; and the Eternal Wisdom of God, who is the fountain of light and life, was not wholly unknown to them. It was even one of their acknowledged principles, that God displays his power by the Holy Spirit. But at the commencement of the gospel God was far more clearly revealed in Three Persons; for then the Father manifested himself in the Son, his lively and distinct image, while Christ, irradiating the world by the full splendor of his Spirit, held out to the knowledge of men both himself and the Spirit.

There are good reasons why the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are expressly mentioned; for there is no other way in which the efficacy of baptism can be experienced than when we begin with the unmerited mercy of the Father, who reconciles us to himself by the only begotten Son; next, Christ comes forward with the sacrifice of his death; and at length, the Holy Spirit is likewise added, by whom he washes and regenerates us, ( Titus 3:5,) and, in short, makes us partakers of his benefits. Thus we perceive that God cannot be truly known, unless our faith distinctly conceive of Three Persons in one essence; and that the fruit and efficacy of baptism proceed from God the Father adopting us through his Son, and, after having cleansed us from the pollutions of the flesh through the Spirit: creating us anew to righteousness.

(324) The God Pan, in honor of whom the grossest indecency was practiced at the festival of the Lupercalia, — Bacchus, the patron of drunkenness, — and Venus, the patroness of licentiousness, — recall to every one who is familiar with classical literature the degraded state of morals into which Rome had sunk amidst the proudest triumphs of civilization. Ancient Heathenism, like the Braminism of modern Hindostan, offered a ready apology for every species of crime, and associated with the history of its gods, and with the most sacred duties of religion, scenes so utterly impure, and so much fitted to inflame the basest passions, that the bare recital of them would offend a modest ear. By the present allusion, Calvin means something more than meets the eye, and reminds us that the Pope and his clergy not only “paid as little regard to Christian doctrine as the priests of Pan, and Bacchus, and Venus,” but that they too closely resembled them in the flagrant immorality of their lives. Above all, he points to the refinements of casuistry, the shocking disclosures of the confessional, and the profligacy of monastic life, in all of which, under the cloak of religion, practices, of which it is a shame even to speak, (Eph 5:12,) received the most direct encouragement. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(19) Teach all nations.Better, make disciples of all the heathen. The Greek verb is the same as that which is rendered instructed in Mat. 13:52, and is formed from the noun for disciple. The words recognise the principle of a succession in the apostolic office. The disciples, having learnt fully what their Master, their Rabbi, had to teach them, were now to become in their turn, as scribes of the kingdom of heaven, the teachers of others. It is, to say the least, suggestive that in this solemn commission, stress should be laid on the teaching, rather than on what is known as the sacerdotal element, of the Christian ministry; but the inference that that element is altogether excluded requires to be balanced by a careful study of the words of Joh. 20:23, which seem at first sight to point in an opposite direction. (See Note on Joh. 20:23.)

The words rendered all nations are the same as those in Mat. 25:32. and, as commonly used by the Jews, would point to the Gentile nations of the world, as distinguished from the people of Israel. They are therefore an emphatic expansion of the commission given in Mat. 10:5. And it is every way interesting that this full declaration of the universality of the Gospel should be specially recorded in the Gospel written, as we see throughout, specially for Jews.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father.We have to deal (1) with the form, (2) with the substance. As regards (1) we have to explain why, with this command so recently given, the baptisms recorded in the Acts (Act. 2:38; Act. 10:48; Act. 19:5), and referred to in the Epistles (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27). are in (or rather, into) the name of the Lord Jesus, or of Christ. What has been noted as to the true meaning of the word nations seems the best solution of the difficulty which thus presents itself. It was enough for converts from the house of Israel, already of the family of God, to be baptised into the name of Jesus as the Messiah, as the condition of their admission into the Church which He had founded. By that confession they gave a fresh life to doctrines which they had partially received before, and belief in the Father and the Spirit was virtually implied in their belief in Jesus as the incarnate Son. For the heathen the case stood otherwise, They had worshipped gods many and lords many (1Co. 8:5), had been without God in the world (Eph. 2:12), and so they had not known the Father. (2) There remains the question, What is meant by being baptised into a name? The answer is to be found in the fact so prominent in the Old Testament (e.g. Exo. 3:14-15), that the Name of God is a revelation of what He is. Baptism was to be no longer, as it had been in the hands of John as the forerunner, merely a symbol of repentance, but was the token that those who received it were brought into an altogether new relation to Him who was thus revealed to them. The union of the three names in one formula (as in the benediction of 2Co. 13:14) is in itself a proof at once of the distinctness and equality of the three Divine Persons. We cannot conceive of a command given to. and adopted by, the universal Church to baptise all its members in the name (not the names) of God and a merely human prophet and an impersonal influence or power.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

19. Go ye therefore Therefore, that is, because all power is given unto me. Being, as I am now, the fountain of all authority; crowned, as I now am, with a rightful dominion, go forth and win it to a willing subjection by grace. All nations Both organically and individually. Teach Literally, Disciple them. And he shows how: First, by baptizing them into the faith, and then teaching. Of course, if they are at responsible age, they must become willing subjects of a true conversion. And a true baptism cannot take place unless the subject be a justified person, either by faith, or, as an infant, without faith. As infants are a large part of all nations, they are to be discipled by baptism, and subsequent teaching as soon as susceptible of it.

Upon this we may remark, 1. That our Lord here adds baptism to the Lord’s Supper as permanent institutes of the Christian Church. He is commissioning his apostles to preach among all nations. He is confirming them in their duty to that effect by a promise that shows that he is commissioning to the end of the world. To the end of the world their commission includes baptism. 2. Baptism, being the first part of the process of disciplining, is the proper initiating rite into the Christian Church. It is to circumcision what the Lord’s Supper is to the passover the substitution of a milder rite to answer the same purpose. 3. As baptism and the Lord’s Supper are obligatory institutions in the Christian Church, binding upon every individual Christian, so it is the obligation of every Christian to be a member of the visible Church of God. There are those who imagine that they can be good Christians just as well without the Church as in. Such persons are probably self-deceived. They imagine to themselves a religion which does not intend to obey the plain commands of Christ. So far as they are concerned, the ordinances of Christ would perish. The death of Christ would never be commemorated. A piety of so loose a kind is never-likely to save the soul.

In regard to the inclusion of all nations, we may remark that it includes the idea that all nations, and every creature, as another evangelist expresses it, shall be discipled, baptized, and taught. As Christ is a universal Saviour, so his Gospel is framed to be a universal Gospel, and his religion a universal religion. It knows no distinction of race, clime, or colour. It belongs to man, and holds that humanity is a unit; and claiming to be a blessing for all, and to possess a right over all, it designs to spread that blessing and assert that right.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Go you therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

And it is because this authority is to be seen as over the whole earth that His disciples are to go out, not spreading lies like the soldiers did, but in order to make disciples of all nations, baptising them into the Name of the Triune God. ‘Making disciples’ involves bringing men and women into long term commitment. There is no room here for ‘being saved’ and then just drifting along. All are to be committed to Christ as Teacher, Master and Lord.

‘Make disciples of all nations.’ This is the primary command. The baptising and teaching then follow. First we have the bringing to discipleship (repent for the Kingly Rule of Heaven is drawn near), and then the baptising and teaching must follow. There is no point in baptising or teaching those who are not committed to discipleship for they will not benefit by it. Such people rather need to have the Gospel proclaimed to them. (Unlike a participle preceding an imperative, a participle following an imperative, as here, rarely in the New Testament indicates imperative force. It is rather consequential). But once a person has become a disciple, he is then to be baptised and taught.

The idea of going out to ‘all nations’ confirms Mat 24:14 and Mat 12:18; Mat 12:21. See also Mat 8:11. It is the fulfilment of the fact that He is the son of Abraham (Mat 1:1) through Whom ‘all the nations of the earth are to be blessed’ (Gen 12:3). They are to go to both Jews and Gentiles (in the same way as they will be hated by both Jews and Gentiles – Mat 24:9; compare Mat 10:17-18; Mat 10:22). And in going they are to baptise them into ‘the Name’, that is, the Name above every Name, the Name of YHWH (or ‘LORD’) (Php 2:9-11). This is the first mention of baptism in Matthew since the time of John the Baptist. Then it symbolised the drenching with the Holy Spirit that was coming through the Coming One. Now it is an indication that all who receive Him by repenting and believing, will be deluged with the Holy Spirit. Thus they will have responded to the call of the Father, they will have come under the Kingly Rule of the Son, and they will have been drenched with the Holy Spirit. That is why they will be baptised into the Name of all three. It is the indication of a new beginning, a new Spirit endowed Israel responsive to the Father through the Son. We can compare here Mat 3:16-17 where the ideas of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are also combined at Jesus’ baptism. But the fact that all three have the same Name is an indication of their oneness. We should note that this is not a baptismal formula (the very early church mainly baptised in the Name of Jesus) but simply a statement of what this baptism is to signify in the terms already expressed in Matthew. It sums up the whole message of Matthew and of Jesus Himself, God as ‘My Father’ and ‘your Father’, and thus taking a personal interest in their lives, Jesus as ‘the Son, the Beloved’ (Mat 3:17; Mat 11:27; Mat 17:5; Mat 21:37; Mat 22:2) Who has come to save (Mat 1:21; Mat 8:17; Mat 12:17-21; Mat 20:28), and promises that He will be with them always (Mat 28:20), and the Holy Spirit as the Empowerer Who will be bestowed on men by Him Who drenches men with the Holy Spirit (Mat 3:11; Mat 12:18; Mat 12:28). All three are clearly closely involved whan a person is baptised.

So, that Jesus should speak of ‘the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ in this way is in fact merely the culmination of all that His teaching has been pointing to. He has constantly spoken of the Father as ‘My Father’ in a very distinctive way, especially in the second part of the Gospel (Mat 7:21; Mat 10:32-33; Mat 11:27; Mat 12:50; Mat 16:17; Mat 18:10; Mat 18:19; Mat 20:23; Mat 24:36; Mat 25:34; Mat 26:29; Mat 26:39; Mat 26:42; Mat 26:53), and sometimes in apposition to Himself as ‘the Son’ (Mat 11:27; Mat 24:36), and as ‘your Father’ when intimating that God takes a detailed interest in their lives. He has spoken of Himself in terms of sonship in Mat 11:27; Mat 21:37; Mat 22:2, and He has in His hearing had witness borne to Him as the Son by the Father in Mat 3:17 and Mat 17:5. Furthermore He presses that claim further in Mat 17:26. Now therefore that His Sonship has been confirmed by His restoration to heavenly glory this was only the natural way for Him to speak. And as the One Who acted continually through the power of the Holy Spirit (Mat 12:28) and is now to drench men throughout the world in the Holy Spirit (which is the significance of the idea of baptism and promised in Mat 3:11), how could He not mention the Holy Spirit? The work of the Holy Spirit is above all what baptism pictured. Having been united with His Father in Heaven therefore the idea of Father, Son and Holy Spirit arises naturally here as expressing the tripartite working of Those Who in Jesus’ eyes were active in bringing about salvation.

Some would suggest that the singular ‘name’ is to be seen as signifying ‘each of their names’. But, even if that were so, the fact that the Name of Jesus is paralleled with the Names of Father and Holy Spirit in His designation as the Son, and what is more is placed between them, is to indicate quite clearly that He enjoys an equal divine status. He is the equivalent of the Angel of the Lord in Genesis.

Some have suggested that the thought is too advanced, but as we have shown the idea is intrinsic throughout the Gospel which has made clear that activity of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit which is bringing about salvation (Mat 1:21). If we deny that Jesus ever rose again, that He ever appeared to His disciples, and that He ever ascended to glory, we might take that view. But then it would hardly matter anyway. But if we acknowledge that having risen to His Father Jesus now appeared among men as the One anointed at His ‘right hand’ we will expect something special. He has been in the very centre of Truth with the One Who is Truth Himself and where the most advanced thinking that is conceivable (and inconceivable) takes place. The wonder of it is not that He produced wonderful truth, but that it had been so well prepared for beforehand while He was on earth. That is the miracle. And the idea is constantly found throughout the New Testament from the earliest times (Rom 8:11; 1Co 12:4-6; 2Co 13:14; Gal 4:6: Eph 4:4-6; 2Th 2:13; 1Pe 2:2). It must have come from somewhere.

Some would ask why, if Jesus taught them this about the whole world, the Apostles did not immediately go to the Gentiles. But the answer lies in their insular thinking. At first their idea of ‘all nations’ was Jews in ‘all nations under Heaven’ (Act 2:5). It was only later, with some prompting, that they remembered all that Jesus had taught and therefore expanded their mission to Gentiles, eventually welcoming all who would come to Him. It is simply another example of the slowness of the disciples’ thinking. (As Acts demonstrates, had they in fact been left to themselves they would probably never have left their successful mission in Jerusalem).

‘Baptising them.’ This is an unexpected introduction of the idea only found elsewhere in chapter 3. What began there is now coming to greater fulfilment. The time of drenching in the Holy Spirit is now here in the person of the One Who drenches with Holy Spirit (Mat 3:11). What began as a local movement must now move worldwide. All limits have now been removed. The Holy Spirit must be poured out like rain on all kinds of people (Act 2:17). And this will be evidenced by their being baptised. That Jesus must have said something like this comes out in the fact that from the earliest record of post-resurrection preaching those who responded were called on to be baptised (Act 2:38; Act 2:41). And it was assumed ever after. There is no hesitation anywhere.

‘Into the Name.’ The idea is that now they are seen as belonging to Him (Tit 2:14; 1Pe 2:9) and are sealed by His Spirit (Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mat 28:19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, &c. And disciple all nations. This commission of our Lord marks out the difference between the Mosaic and the Christian dispensation: the one was confined to the Jews; the other was extended to all the sons and daughters of Adam. The whole tenor of the succeeding books of the New Testament shews, that Christ’s design by this commission was, that the Gospel should be preached to all mankind without exception, not only to the Jews, but to all the idolatrous Gentiles: but the prejudices of the apostles led them at first to mistake the sense, and to imagine that it referred only to their going to preach the Gospel to the Jews among all nations, or to those who should be willing to become Jews. The word , is very properly rendered proselyte, or make disciples of, to distinguish it duly from , teaching, in the next verse. The former seems to import instruction in the essentials of religion, which it was necessary that adult persons should know and submit to, before they could be admitted to baptism: the latter may relate to those more particular admonitions in regard to Christian faith and practice, which were to be built upon that foundation. Because proselyting is here enjoined as previous to baptism, it has been inferred by some that infants are not to be baptized: but if this argument were good, it would follow from Mar 16:16 that infants cannot be saved; nay, it is there declared, that he who believeth not, shall be damned. The truth is, both passages must be interpreted according to the subjects treated of in them, which are plainly adult persons; and therefore no argument can be drawn from them concerning either the baptism or the salvation of infants. In or into the name, is a Hebraism, which signifies to devote one’s self to any particular person, and to be desirous of being called after his name,to profess one’s self his disciple. Thus St. Paul says, 1Co 1:13; 1Co 1:31 that he had baptized no one in his name, that is to say, that he had made no one a convert to himself as the founder of a new religion: see also 1Co 10:2. Though perhaps we should not positively affect, that the use of these very words is essential to Christian baptism, yet surely the expression must intimate the necessity of some distinct regard to each of the sacred Three, which is always to be maintained in the administration of this ordinance; and consequently it must imply, that more was said to those of whose baptism we read in the Acts, than is there recorded, before they were admitted to it. The Christian church in succeeding ages has acted a safe and wise part in retaining these words; and they contain so strong an intimation, that each of these Persons is properly GOD, and that worship is to be paid, and glory ascribed to each, that we cannot doubt but they will be a means of maintaining the belief of the one, and the practice of the other, to the end of the world. See Doddridge, Grotius, and Waterland’s Sermons on the Trinity, p. 286.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 28:19 The of the Received text (see the critical remarks) is a gloss correctly representing the connection of the thoughts. The fact stated in Mat 28:18 is itself the reason why all nations should be brought under His government , and made subject to His sway by means of the , etc.

] make them my (Joh 4:1 ); comp. Mat 13:52 ; Act 14:21 . This transitive use of the verb is not met with in classical Greek. Observe how here every one who becomes a believer is conceived of as standing to Christ in the personal relation of a , in accordance with which view the term came to be applied to Christians generally.

] all nations without exception , Mat 25:32 , Mat 24:14 , Mat 26:13 . With these words and this is the new feature in the present instructions the previous prohibition, Mat 10:5 , was cancelled, and the apostolic mission declared to be a mission to the whole world . On this occasion Jesus makes no mention of any particular condition on which Gentiles were to be admitted into the church, says nothing about whether it was or was not necessary that they should in the first instance become Jewish proselytes (Act 15:1 ; Gal 2:1 ), though He certainly meant that it was not necessary; and hence, because of this omission, the difficulty which the apostles had at first about directly and unconditionally admitting the Gentiles. If this latter circumstance had been borne in mind, it could hardly have been asserted, as it has been, that the special revelation from heaven, for the purpose of removing the scruples in question, Act 10 , tells against the authenticity of the commission recorded in our passage (in answer to Credner, Einleit . I. p. 203; Strauss, Keim).

, . . .] in which the is to be consummated , not something that must be done after the (Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 164; comp. also, on the other hand, Theod. Schott, p. 18), as though our passage ran thus, . Besides, that the phrase . . . did not require in every case the performance of the ceremony by the apostles themselves , was distinctly manifest to them in the discharge of their functions even from the first (Act 2:41 ). Comp. also 1Co 1:17 .

] means to baptize with reference to . The particular object to which the baptism has reference is to be gathered from the context. See on Rom 6:3 , and thereon Fritzsche, I. p. 359; comp. also on 1Co 10:2 . Here, where the is regarded as that through which the is operated, and through which, accordingly, the introduction into spiritual fellowship with, and ethical dependence upon Christ is brought about, it must be understood as denoting that by baptism the believer passes into that new phase of life in which he accepts the name of the Father (of Christ) and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as the sum of his creed and confession , , because it is precisely the name of him who is confessed that expresses his whole specific relation considered by itself, and with reference to him who confesses, and accordingly the three names, “Father, Son, and Spirit,” are to be understood as expressing the sum-total of the distinctive confession which the individual to be baptized is to accept as his both now and for all time coming. [42] Consequently the Corinthians were not baptized (1Co 1:13 ), because it was not the name “ Paul ,” but the name “ Christ ,” that was to constitute the sum of their creed and their confession. For a similar reason, when the Samaritans circumcised, they did so (see Schttgen on the passage), because the name “Gerizim” represented the specific point in their distintive creed and confession (their shibboleth ). The dedication of the believer to the Father, etc., is of course to be regarded as practically taking place in the course of the . . . ; for though this is not directly intimated by the words themselves (in opposition to Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 163; Thomasius, Chr. Pers. u. Werk, III. 2, p. 12), it is implied in the act of baptism, and could have been expressed by the simple use of (without ), as in 1Co 10:2 ; Rom 6:3 ; Gal 3:27 . Further, is not to be taken as equivalent to (Francke in the Schs. Stud . 1846, p. 11 ff.), as though the meaning of the baptism consisted merely in calling God the Father , Christ the Son, and the Spirit the Holy Spirit . Such a view certainly could not apply in the last-mentioned case, for, like Father and Son , must be understood to be a specifically Christian designation of the Spirit, is rather intended to indicate the essential nature of the Persons or Beings to whom the baptism has reference, that nature being revealed in the gospel, then expressed in the name of each Person respectively, and finally made the subject of the Christian’s confession and creed. Finally, in opposition to the utterly erroneous view of Bindseil (in the Stud. u. Krit . 1832, p. 410 ff.), that means: to lead to the adoption of the name through baptism, i.e. to get the person who is to be baptized to call himself after the particular name or names in question , see Fritzsche as above. But as for the view of Weisse (Evangelienfr. p. 186 f.) and of Volkmar, p. 629, as well, that Christ’s commission to baptize is entirely unhistorical, it is only of a piece with their denial of the actual bodily resurrection of Jesus. Ewald, too ( Gesch. d. Apost. Zeit . p. 180), is disposed to trace the origin of the commission to the inner world of a later apostolic consciousness.

It is a mistake to speak of our passage as the formula of baptism ; [43] for Jesus is not to be understood as merely repeating the words that were to be employed on baptismal occasions (and accordingly no trace of any such use of the words is found in the apostolic age; comp. on the contrary, the simple expression: , Rom 6:3 ; Gal 3:27 ; , . , Act 8:16 , and . . , Act 2:38 ), but as indicating the particular aim and meaning of the act of baptism. See Reiche, de baptism, orig. , etc., 1816, p. 141 ff. The formula of baptism (for it was so styled as early as the time of Tertullian, de bapt. 13), which in its strictly literal sense has no bearing whatever upon the essence of the sacrament (Hfling, I. p. 40 ff.), was constructed out of the words of the text at a subsequent period (see already Justin, Ap. 1:61), as was also the case, at a still later period, with regard to the baptismal confession of the three articles (see Kllner, Symbol. d. Luth. K. p. 14 ff.). There is therefore nothing here to justify those who question the genuineness of our passage (Teller, Exc. 2, ad Burnet de fide et officiis Christianorum , 1786, p. 262; see, on the other hand, Beckhaus, Aechth. d. s. g. Taufformel , 1794), or those who of late have doubted its originality , at least in the form in which it has come down to us (Strauss, Bruno Bauer, de Wette, Wittichen in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol . 1862, p. 336; Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Scholten, Keim), and that because, forsooth, they have professed to see in it a . Exception has been taken, again, partly to the , though it is just in these words that we find the broader and more comprehensive spirit that characterized, as might be expected, our Lord’s farewell commission, and partly to the “studied summary” (de Wette) of the New Testament doctrine of the Trinity. But surely if there was one time more than another when careful reflection was called for, it was now, when, in the course of this calm and solemn address, the risen Redeemer was endeavouring to seize the whole essence of the Christian faith in its three great leading elements as represented by the three substantially co-equal persons of the Godhead with a view to its being adopted as a constant to be used by the disciples when they went forth to proclaim the gospel (Chrysostom: ). The conjecture put forward by Keim, III. p. 286 f., that Jesus instituted baptism though without any specific reference to all nations on the night of the last supper , to serve the purpose of a second visible sign of His continued fellowship with the church after His departure from the world, is inadmissible, because there is no trace of this in the text, and because, had such a contemporaneous institution of the two sacraments taken place, it would have made so deep an impression that it could never have been forgotten, to say nothing of the impossibility of reconciling such a view with Joh 4:1 f.

[42] Had Jesus used the words instead of , then, however much He may have intended the names of three distinct persons to be understood, He would still have been liable to be misapprehended, for it might have been supposed that the plural was meant to refer to the various names of each separate person. The singular points to the specific name assigned in the text to each of the three respectively , so that is, of course, to be understood both before and ; comp. Rev 14:1 : . We must beware of making any such dogmatic use of the singular as to employ it as an argument either for (Basilides, Jerome, Theophylact) or against (the Sabellians) the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. We should be equally on our guard against the view of Gess, who holds that Christ abstained from using the words “ of God the Father,” etc., because he considers the designation God to belong to the Son and the Holy Spirit as well. Such a dogmatic idea was not at all likely to be present to His mind upon an occasion of leave-taking like the present, any more than was the thing itself on which the idea is supposed to be based, for He was never known to claim the name either for Himself or for the Holy Spirit. Still the New Testament, i.e . the Subordinatian, view of the Trinity as constituting the summary of the Christian creed and confession lies at the root of this whole phraseology. Observe, further, that the baptismal formula: “ in nomine ,” and: “ in the name ,” rests entirely on a mistranslation on the part of the Itala and Vulgate, so that there is accordingly no ground for the idea, adopted from the older expositors, that the person who baptizes acts as Christ’s representative (Sengelmann in the Zeitschr. f. Protestantism . 1856, p. 341 ff.), neither is this view countenanced by Act 10:48 . Tertullian ( de bapt . 13) gives the correct rendering in nomen , though as early as the time of Cyprian ( Ep. lxxiii. 5) in nomine is met with. The practice of dipping three times dates very far back (being vouched for even by Tertullian), but cannot be traced to the apostolic age.

[43] It is no less erroneous to suppose that our passage represents the first institution of baptism. For long before this the disciples had been baptizing in obedience to the instructions of Jesus , as may be seen from Joh 4:1 f., where baptism by the disciples is spoken of as tantamount to baptism by Jesus Himself, and where again there is as little reason to suppose the mere continuation of the baptism of John to be meant as there is in the case of our present passage (Joh 3:5 ). In the passage before us we have the same commission as that just referred to, only with this difference, that it is now extended so as to apply to all nations . This at once disposes of the question as to whether baptism should not occupy merely a secondary place as a sacrament (Laufs in the Stud. u. Krit . 1858, p. 215 ff.). Comp. also, on the other hand, 1Co 10:1-3 , where there is an unmistakeable reference to baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the two great and equally important sacraments of the Christian church. Of these two, however, it is clearly not the Lord’s Supper, but baptism, on which the greatest stress is laid as forming the divine constituent factor in the work of redemption, and that above all in the Epistles of Paul, in which the only instance of anything like a full treatment of the subject of the Lord’s Supper is that of First Corinthians, and even then it is of a somewhat incidental character.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Ver. 19. Go ye therefore ] In this my strength, as Gideon did against the Midianites, Jdg 7:13 ; and though but a barley cake, coarse and contemptible, yet shall ye overthrow the world’s tents, yea, the strongholds of Satan; though you have but lamps and pitchers in your hands, yet shall ye achieve great matters. The apostles were those white horses whereupon the Lord Christ sitting went forth conquering and to conquer. Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo patuerunt, saith Tertullian. The Burgundians, much afflicted by the Huns, fled to Christ the God of the Christians; whom, after a long dispute, they determined to be a great God, and a great King above all gods. Sir Francis Drake tells us of twelve martyrs burnt for religion at Lima in Mexico, not two months before his coming thither. And he that set forth New England’s firstfruits, assures us of some of those natives, that being converted to the faith, lived Christianly, and died comfortably.

And teach all nations ] Gr. disciple them, , Discipulate, make them Christians first, and then teach them to observe, &c., Mat 28:20 , as in baptism they have promised; for otherwise it was pity that font water was ever spilt upon their faces. In the kingdom of Congo, in Africa, many different heathens, by the persuasion of the Portugals, arriving there, were content to become Christians, and to be baptized; allowing of the principles of religion, and professing Christ, till the priests pressed them to lead their lives according to their profession; which the most of them in no case enduring, they returned back again to their Gentilism. As for the Spanish converts in Mexico, they so little remember their covenant made with Christ in baptism, that many times they forgot their very names soon after they have been baptized.

Baptizing them into the name of, &c. ] That is, consecrating them unto the sincere service of the sacred Trinity, and confirming them by this holy sacrament, in the faith of the forgiveness of their sins, and in the hope of life eternal. This is the end, use, and efficacy of baptism; which, Piscator saith, few of the Fathers rightly understood; those Popish asses certainly did not, who moved this foolish question, An asinus bibens ex baptismo bibat aquam baptismi, et sic asinus dicendus sic baptisatus. a Pity but these questionites had been present, when the young scholar reading publicly the fifth of the First of Corinthians for probation sake, at the college of Bamberg, when he came to that passage, Expurgate vetus fermentum, &c. Sicut estis Azymi, he not understanding the word Azymi, unleaven bread, read, Sicut estis asini. The wiser sort of prebendaries (clergy) there present said among themselves, Cum a sapientioribus nolumus huiusmodi audire, a pueris audire cogimur. Children and fools usually tell the truth.

a Melancth. apud Manl.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

19. ] (in rec [196] .) is probably a gloss, but an excellent one. It is the glorification of the Son by the Father through the Spirit, which is the foundation of the Church of Christ in all the world. And when we baptize into the Name (i.e. into the fulness of the consequence of the objective covenant, and the subjective confession) of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it is this which forms the ground and cause of our power to do so that this flesh of man, of which God hath made , is glorified in the Person of our Redeemer , through whom we all have access by one Spirit to the Father.

[196] The Textus Receptus or received text of the Greek Testament. Used in this Edition when elz and Steph agree

. . ] Demonstrably, this was not understood as spoken to the Apostles only , but to all the brethren. Thus we read, ( Act 8:2 ): (ibid. Mat 28:4 ).

There is peculiar meaning in . All power is given me go therefore and subdue? Not so: the purpose of the Lord is to bring men to the knowledge of the truth to work on and in their hearts, and lift them up to be partakers of the divine Nature. And therefore it is not ‘subdue,’ but make disciples of (see below). again is closely connected with .

] all nations, including the Jews. It is absurd to imagine that in these words of the Lord there is implied a rejection of the Jews , in direct variance with his commands elsewhere, and also with the world-wide signification of above. Besides, the (temporary) rejection of the Jews consists in this, that they are numbered among , and not a peculiar people any longer: and are become, in the providence of God, the subjects of that preaching, of which by original title they ought to have been the promulgators. We find the first preachers of the gospel, so far from excepting the Jews, uniformly bearing their testimony to them first . With regard to the difficulty which has been raised on these words, that if they had been thus spoken by the Lord, the Apostles would never have had any doubt about the admission of the Gentiles into the Church, I would answer, with Ebrard, Stier, De Wette, Meyer, and others, ‘that the Apostles never had any doubt whatever about admitting Gentiles, only whether they should not be circumcised first.’ In this command, the prohibition of ch. Mat 10:5 is for ever removed.

] Both these present participles are the conditioning components of the imperative aor. preceding. The consists of two parts the initiatory , admissory rite , and the subsequent teaching . It is much to be regretted that the rendering of . ‘ teach ,’ has in our Bibles clouded the meaning of these important words. It will be observed that in our Lord’s words, as in the Church, the process of ordinary discipleship is from baptism to instruction i.e. is, admission in infancy to the covenant , and growing up into . . . the exception being, what circumstances rendered so frequent in the early Church, instruction before baptism , in the case of adults . On this we may also remark, that baptism as known to the Jews included, just as it does in the Acts (ch. Act 16:15 ; Act 16:33 ) whole households wives and children .

As regards the command itself, no unprejudiced reader can doubt that it regards the outward rite of BAPTISM, so well known in this Gospel as having been practised by John, and received by the Lord Himself. And thus it was immediately, and has been ever since, understood by the Church. As regards all attempts to explain away this sense, we may say even setting aside the testimony furnished by the Acts of the Apostles, that it is in the highest degree improbable that our Lord should have given, at a time when He was summing up the duties of his Church in such weighty words, a command couched in figurative or ambiguous language one which He must have known would be interpreted by his disciples, now long accustomed to the rite and its name, otherwise than He intended it.

. ] Reference is apparently made to the Baptism of the Lord Himself, where the whole Three Persons of the Godhead were in manifestation.

Not but setting forth the Unity of the Godhead.

It is unfortunate again here that our English Bibles do not give us the force of this . It should have been into, (as in Gal 3:27 a [197] .,) both here and in 1Co 10:2 , and wherever the expression with is used. It imports, not only a subjective recognition hereafter by the child of the truth implied in . . ., but an objective admission into the covenant of Redemption a putting on of Christ . Baptism is the contract of espousal ( Eph 5:26 ) between Christ and his Church. Our word ‘ in ’ being retained both here and in our formula of Baptism, it should always be remembered that the Sacramental declaration is contained in this word ; that it answers (as Stier has well observed, vii. 268) to the in the other Sacrament. On the difference between the baptism of John , and Christian baptism , see notes on ch. Mat 3:11 : Act 18:25 ; Act 19:1-5 .

[197] alii = some cursive mss.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 28:19 . : the omitted in many texts aptly expresses the connection. The commission to the Apostles arises out of the power claimed = all power has been given to me on earth, go ye therefore , and make the power a reality. : make disciples (act., cf. at Mat 27:57 ) of all the nations ( cf. Mat 10:5 , “go not into the way of the Gentiles”). : baptism the condition of discipleship = make disciples by baptising; the sole condition, circumcision, and everything particularistic or Judaistic tacitly negatived. Christian baptism referred to here only in this Gospel. refers to , a constr. ad sensum , as in Act 15:17 ; Rom 2:14 . In the anabaptist controversy was taken by the opponents of infant baptism as referring to in , and the verb was held to mean “teach”. For some references to this extinct controversy vide Wetstein, ad loc. , and Hermann’s Viger , p. 61. , into the name, i.e. , as confessing the name which embodies the essence of the Christian creed. , etc.: it is the name not of one but of three, forming a baptismal Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is not said into the names of, etc., nor into the name of the Father, and the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost. Hence might be deduced the idea of a Trinity constituting at the same time a Divine Unity. But this would probably be reading more into the words han was intended.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Go ye, &c. See App-167.

teach = disciple. Not the same word as in Mat 28:20.

nations = the nations.

baptizing . . . in. See App-115Tr. and WI m. read “having baptized”.

in = into. Denoting object and purpose. Compare Mat 3:11. Act 2:38.

the name. Singular. Not “names”. This is the final definition of “the Name” of the One true God.

Father. App-98.

the Holy Ghost = the Holy Spirit. Greek. pneuma. See App-101.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

19.] (in rec[196].) is probably a gloss, but an excellent one. It is the glorification of the Son by the Father through the Spirit, which is the foundation of the Church of Christ in all the world. And when we baptize into the Name (i.e. into the fulness of the consequence of the objective covenant, and the subjective confession) of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it is this which forms the ground and cause of our power to do so-that this flesh of man, of which God hath made , is glorified in the Person of our Redeemer, through whom we all have access by one Spirit to the Father.

[196] The Textus Receptus or received text of the Greek Testament. Used in this Edition when elz and Steph agree

. .] Demonstrably, this was not understood as spoken to the Apostles only, but to all the brethren. Thus we read, (Act 8:2): (ibid. Mat 28:4).

There is peculiar meaning in . All power is given me-go therefore and subdue? Not so: the purpose of the Lord is to bring men to the knowledge of the truth-to work on and in their hearts, and lift them up to be partakers of the divine Nature. And therefore it is not subdue, but make disciples of (see below). again is closely connected with .

] all nations, including the Jews. It is absurd to imagine that in these words of the Lord there is implied a rejection of the Jews, in direct variance with his commands elsewhere, and also with the world-wide signification of above. Besides, the (temporary) rejection of the Jews consists in this, that they are numbered among , and not a peculiar people any longer: and are become, in the providence of God, the subjects of that preaching, of which by original title they ought to have been the promulgators. We find the first preachers of the gospel, so far from excepting the Jews, uniformly bearing their testimony to them first. With regard to the difficulty which has been raised on these words,-that if they had been thus spoken by the Lord, the Apostles would never have had any doubt about the admission of the Gentiles into the Church,-I would answer, with Ebrard, Stier, De Wette, Meyer, and others, that the Apostles never had any doubt whatever about admitting Gentiles,-only whether they should not be circumcised first. In this command, the prohibition of ch. Mat 10:5 is for ever removed.

] Both these present participles are the conditioning components of the imperative aor. preceding. The consists of two parts-the initiatory, admissory rite, and the subsequent teaching. It is much to be regretted that the rendering of . teach, has in our Bibles clouded the meaning of these important words. It will be observed that in our Lords words, as in the Church, the process of ordinary discipleship is from baptism to instruction-i.e. is, admission in infancy to the covenant, and growing up into …-the exception being, what circumstances rendered so frequent in the early Church, instruction before baptism, in the case of adults. On this we may also remark, that baptism as known to the Jews included, just as it does in the Acts (ch. Act 16:15; Act 16:33) whole households-wives and children.

As regards the command itself, no unprejudiced reader can doubt that it regards the outward rite of BAPTISM, so well known in this Gospel as having been practised by John, and received by the Lord Himself. And thus it was immediately, and has been ever since, understood by the Church. As regards all attempts to explain away this sense, we may say-even setting aside the testimony furnished by the Acts of the Apostles,-that it is in the highest degree improbable that our Lord should have given, at a time when He was summing up the duties of his Church in such weighty words, a command couched in figurative or ambiguous language-one which He must have known would be interpreted by his disciples, now long accustomed to the rite and its name, otherwise than He intended it.

.] Reference is apparently made to the Baptism of the Lord Himself, where the whole Three Persons of the Godhead were in manifestation.

Not -but -setting forth the Unity of the Godhead.

It is unfortunate again here that our English Bibles do not give us the force of this . It should have been into, (as in Gal 3:27 a[197].,) both here and in 1Co 10:2, and wherever the expression with is used. It imports, not only a subjective recognition hereafter by the child of the truth implied in …, but an objective admission into the covenant of Redemption-a putting on of Christ. Baptism is the contract of espousal (Eph 5:26) between Christ and his Church. Our word in being retained both here and in our formula of Baptism, it should always be remembered that the Sacramental declaration is contained in this word; that it answers (as Stier has well observed, vii. 268) to the in the other Sacrament. On the difference between the baptism of John, and Christian baptism, see notes on ch. Mat 3:11 : Act 18:25; Act 19:1-5.

[197] alii = some cursive mss.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 28:19. [1232] , ., go ye therefore, etc.) This injunction, to go forth, presupposes the waiting for the Paraclete mentioned in Luk 24:49. It is the sum of the Acts, which may with that view be profitably compared with the Gospels, the sum of which is all things whatsoever I have commanded.–, discipulize-baptizing) The verb, , signifies to make disciples; it includes baptism and teaching; cf. Joh 4:1, with the present passage.-, them) sc. , the nations, a synthesis[1233] of frequent occurrence; see ch. Mat 25:32, etc. The Jews who had been already brought into covenant with God by circumcision, were to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; see Act 2:38. It is plainly commanded by these words of Institution, that the Gentiles should be baptized In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; they had been altogether aliens from God; see Gnomon on Eph 3:6, and cf. Gnomon on Act 11:21. The Gentiles, mentioned in Acts 10 were not altogether ignorant of the God of Israel, nor altogether aliens from Him. The Jews, who had once acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, could not but by that very act acknowledge the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of the Son.- , …, into the name, etc.[1234]) This formula of Baptism is most solemn and important; in fact it embraces the sum of all piety.[1235] After our Lords resurrection, the mystery of the Holy Trinity was most clearly revealed, together with the relations of the Divine Persons to each other and to us (see Gnomon on Rom 8:9); and since the confession of the Holy Trinity was so closely interwoven with Baptism, it is not to be wondered at, that it is not frequently put thus expressly in the Scriptures of the New Testament.

[1232] The Saviour, when brought back from the dead, very frequently enjoined upon His Apostles the office of preaching the Gospel (Joh 20:21; Joh 21:15). The Evangelists, therefore, might present a summary of such injunctions, according as this or that opportunity presented itself. Matthew connects this summary with His appearance in Galilee; Luke records it after that appearing, ch. Mat 24:49, nay, at Jerusalem, up to and upon the day of His ascension. Comp. Act 1:2, etc. And we may conjecture the same as to Mark, from ch. Mat 16:15; Mat 16:19.-Harm., p. 612.

[1233] The word synthesis is not used here in its logical or mathematical sense, but as a technico-grammatical term, representing the figure otherwise called synesis; i.e. a joining together of words with respect to the idea conveyed, and not to the word by which it is expressed: see Riddle in vocc. In the present passage , the nations, are neuter and aggregate; , them, masculine and individual. This is Bengels meaning.-(I. B.)

[1234] Engl. Vers. In the name.-(I. B.)

[1235] At the baptism of Christ Jesus Himself, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost manifested themselves [cf. Gnomon on ch. Mat 3:16-17]. The entire Sum of Saving knowledge and doctrine is bound up with Baptism: and all the Ancient Creeds and Confessions of Faith are, in fact, a Periphrasis and Working-out [Ausfhrung, rendered by E. B. ] of this incomparably momentous Formula of Baptism.-B. G. V.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Go

With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ begins the “dispensation of the grace of God” Eph 3:2, which is defined as “his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”; and, “the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Eph 2:7-9, under grace God freely gives to the believing sinner eternal life Rom 6:23 accounts to him a perfect righteousness; Rom 3:21; Rom 3:22; Rom 4:4; Rom 4:5 and accords to him a perfect position Eph 1:6

The predicted results of this sixth testing of man are

(1) the salvation of all who believe Act 16:31.

(2) judgment upon an unbelieving world and an apostate church. Mat 25:31-46; 2Th 1:7-10; 1Pe 4:17; 1Pe 4:18; Rev 3:15; Rev 3:16.

(1) Man’s state at the beginning of the dispensation of Grace Rom 3:19; Gal 3:22; Eph 2:11; Eph 2:12.

(2) Man’s responsibility under grace Joh 1:11; Joh 1:12; Joh 3:36; Joh 6:28; Joh 6:29.

(3) His predicted failure Mat 24:37-39; Luk 18:8; Luk 19:12-14.

(4) The judgment 2Th 2:7-12.

Name

The word is in the singular, the “name,” not names. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the final name of the one true God. It affirms:

(1) That God is one.

(2) That He subsists in a personality which is threefold, indicated by relationship as Father and Son; by a mode of being as Spirit; and by the different parts taken by the Godhead in manifestation and in the work of redemption, e.g. Joh 3:5; Joh 3:6 (Spirit), Joh 3:16; Joh 3:17 (Father and Son). In; Mat 3:16; Mat 3:17; Mar 1:10; Mar 1:11; Luk 3:21; Luk 3:22 the three persons are in manifestation together.

(3) The conjunction in one name of the Three affirms equality and oneness of substance. See O.T. Names of God:

(See Scofield “Gen 1:1”) See Scofield “Gen 2:4” See Scofield “Gen 14:18” See Scofield “Gen 15:2” See Scofield “Gen 17:1” See Scofield “Gen 21:33” See Scofield “1Sa 1:3”

The next reference, Mal 3:18, provides a Summary

(See Scofield “Mal 3:18”)

See “Lord” (See Scofield “Mat 8:2”)

“Word” (Logos), (See Scofield “Joh 1:1”) “Holy Spirit,” See Scofield “Act 2:4” See “Christ, Deity of,” See Scofield “Joh 20:28”

teach

Or, disciple. See Mar 16:15; Mar 16:16; Luk 24:47; Luk 24:48; Act 1:8.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

ye therefore: Psa 22:27, Psa 22:28, Psa 98:2, Psa 98:3, Isa 42:1-4, Isa 49:6, Isa 52:10, Isa 66:18, Isa 66:19, Mar 16:15, Mar 16:16, Luk 24:47, Luk 24:48, Act 1:8, Act 13:46, Act 13:47, Act 28:28, Rom 10:18, Col 1:23

teach all nations: or, make disciples, or Christians, of all nations

baptizing: Act 2:38, Act 2:39, Act 2:41, Act 8:12-16, Act 8:36-38, Act 9:18, Act 10:47, Act 10:48, Act 16:15-33, Act 19:3-5, 1Co 1:13-16, 1Co 15:29, 1Pe 3:21

the name: Mat 3:16, Mat 3:17, Gen 1:26, Num 6:24-27, Isa 48:16, 1Co 12:4-6, 2Co 13:14, Eph 2:18, 1Jo 5:7, Rev 1:4-6

Reciprocal: Num 6:27 – put my 1Ki 7:25 – General 2Ch 4:4 – three 2Ch 17:9 – the book Psa 49:1 – inhabitants Psa 65:5 – the confidence Psa 67:2 – saving Psa 96:3 – General Pro 8:1 – General Isa 52:15 – sprinkle Isa 60:3 – the Gentiles Mic 4:2 – for Mic 5:7 – as a dew Zec 14:9 – and Mal 1:11 – my name Mat 9:37 – The harvest Mat 10:1 – he gave Mat 23:34 – I send Mat 26:13 – Wheresoever Mar 13:10 – General Luk 14:23 – Go Joh 3:5 – cannot Joh 4:21 – worship Joh 5:23 – all men Joh 10:30 – General Joh 14:26 – Holy Ghost Joh 15:16 – ordained Act 1:2 – given Act 2:21 – whosoever Act 8:16 – only Act 8:37 – If Act 10:42 – he commanded Act 11:26 – taught Act 14:21 – taught many Act 15:35 – teaching Act 18:8 – hearing Rom 3:29 – General Rom 6:3 – as were Rom 12:7 – or he Rom 16:26 – according Gal 3:27 – as many Eph 1:21 – every Eph 3:9 – to Eph 4:4 – one Spirit Eph 4:5 – one baptism Col 1:6 – is come Col 3:17 – in the 1Ti 2:4 – and 2Ti 2:19 – Let Tit 2:11 – hath appeared Heb 6:2 – the doctrine 2Pe 1:17 – God 1Jo 5:8 – the spirit

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

8:19

Teach is from MATHETEUO and is defined by Thayer, “to make a disciple; to teach, instruct.” Its main application is to bring persons into a relationship with Christ that they never had before. All nations is equiva lent to “every creature” in Mar 16:15. The Mosiac system was given to the Jews only, while the Gospel was given to both Jew and Gentile. To do this teaching among all nations would require ability to speak in every

language, and none but the apostles had that ability. It is a perversion of scripture, therefore, to apply this commission to preachers of today. In is from EIS which means “into” as used here. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are a unit in the Godhead and hence “name” is singular. Whoever is baptized into one is baptized into all

three, therefore one baptism is all that is necessary and right. The scripture in no place presents this as a formula to be spoken by the administrator of baptism, and when he says these words he is merely announcing to the hearers what he is doing.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

[Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, etc.] I. The enclosure is now thrown down, whereby the apostles were kept in from preaching the gospel to all the Gentiles, Mat 10:5. For, first, the Jews had now lost their privilege, nor were they henceforward to be counted a peculiar people; nay, they were now become “Lo-ammi.” They had exceeded the heathens in sinning, they had slighted, trampled upon, and crucified the Creator himself, appearing visibly before their eyes in human flesh; while the heathens had only conceived amiss of the Creator, whom they neither had seen nor could see, and thereby fallen to worship the creature. Secondly, Christ had now by his blood paid a price for the heathens also. Thirdly, he had overcome Satan, who held them captive. Fourthly, he had taken away the wall of partition: and fifthly, had exhibited an infinite righteousness.

II. Make disciples. Bring them in by baptism, that they may be taught. They are very much out, who from these words cry down infant-baptism, and assert that it is necessary for those that are to be baptized to be taught before they are baptized. 1. Observe the words here, make disciples; and then after, teaching; in the twentieth verse. 2. Among the Jews, and also with us, and in all nations, those are made disciples that they may be taught. A certain heathen came to the great Hillel, and saith, Make me a proselyte, that thou mayest teach me. He was first to be proselyted, and then to be taught. Thus first, make them disciples by baptism; and then, teach them to observe all things; etc.

III. Baptizing. There are divers ends of baptism: — 1. According to the nature of a sacrament it visibly teacheth invisible things, that is, the washing of us from all our pollutions by the blood of Christ, and by the cleansing of grace, Eze 36:25. 1. According to the nature of a sacrament, it is a seal of divine truth. So circumcision is called, Rom 4:11; “And he received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of faith,” etc. So the Jews, when they circumcised their children, gave this very title to circumcision. The words used when a child was circumcised you have in their Talmud. Among other things, he who is to bless the action saith thus, “Blessed be he who sanctified him that was beloved from the womb, and set a sign in his flesh, and sealed his children with the sign of the holy covenant;” etc.

But in what sense are sacraments to be called seals? Not that they seal (or confirm) to the receiver his righteousness; but that they seal the divine truth of the covenant and promise. Thus the apostle calls circumcision ‘the seal of the righteousness of faith’: that is, it is the seal of this truth and doctrine, that ‘justification is by faith,’ which righteousness Abraham had when he was yet uncircumcised. And that is the way whereby sacraments confirm faith, namely, because they do doctrinally exhibit the invisible things of the covenant; and, like seals, do by divine appointment sign the doctrine and truth of the covenant. 3. According to the nature of a sacrament, it obligeth the receivers to the terms of the covenant: for as the covenant itself is of mutual obligation between God and man; so the sacraments, the seals of the covenant, are of like obligation. 4. According to its nature, it is an introductory into the visible church. And, 5. It is a distinguishing sign between a Christian and no Christian, namely, between those who acknowledge and profess Christ, and Jews, Turks, and Pagans, who do not acknowledge him. Disciple all nations, baptizing. When they are under baptism, they are no longer under heathenism; and this sacrament puts a difference between those who are under the discipleship of Christ, and those who are not. 6. Baptism also brings its privilege along with it, while it opens the way to a partaking of holy things in the church, and placeth the baptized within the church, over which God exerciseth a more singular providence than over those that are out of the church.

And now, from what hath been said, let us argue a little in behalf of infant-baptism. Omitting that argument which is commonly raised form the words before us, namely, that when Christ had commanded to baptize all nations, infants also are to be taken in as parts of the family, these few things may be observed:

I. Baptism, as a sacrament, is a seal of the covenant. And why, I pray, may not this seal be set on infants? The seal of divine truth hath sometimes been set upon inanimate things, and that by God’s appointment. The bow in the cloud is a seal of the covenant: the law engraven on the altar, Joshua_8, was a seal of the covenant. The blood sprinkled on the twelve pillars that were set up to represent the twelve tribes was a seal and bond of the covenant, Exodus_24. And now tell me, why are not infants capable, in like manner, of such a sealing? They were capable heretofore of circumcision; and our infants have an equal capacity. The sacrament doth not lose this its end, through the indisposition of the receiver. Peter and Paul, apostles, were baptized: their baptism, according to its nature, sealed to them the truth of God in his promises concerning the washing away of sins, etc. And they, from this doctrinal virtue of the sacrament, received confirmation of their faith. So also Judas and Simon Magus, hypocrites, wicked men, were baptized: did not their baptism, according to the nature of it, seal this doctrine and truth, “that there as a washing away of sins?” It did not, indeed, seal the thing itself to them; nor was it at all a sign to them of the ‘washing away’ of theirs: but baptism doth in itself seal this doctrine. You will grant that this axiom is most true, “Abraham received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of faith.” And is not this equally true? Esau, Ahab, Ahaz, received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of faith: is not circumcision the same to all? Did not circumcision, to whomsoever it was administered, sign and seal this truth, that there ‘was a righteousness of faith’? The sacrament hath a sealing virtue in itself, that doth not depend on the disposition of the receiver.

II. Baptism, as a sacrament, is an obligation. But now infants are capable of being obliged. Heirs are sometimes obliged by their parents, though they are not yet born: see also Deu 29:11; Deu 29:15. For that to which any one is obliged obtains a right to oblige from the equity of the thing; and not from the apprehension of the person obliged. The law is imposed upon all under this penalty, “Cursed be every one that doth not continue in all,” etc. It is ill arguing from hence, that a man hath power to perform the law; but the equity of the thing itself is very well argued hence. Our duty obligeth us to every thing which the law commands; but we cannot perform the least tittle of it.

III. An infant is capable of privileges, as well as an old man; and baptism is privilegial. An infant hath been crowned king in his cradle: an infant may be made free who is born a salve. The Gemarists speak very well in this matter; “Rabh Houna saith, They baptize an infant proselyte by the command of the bench.” Upon what is this grounded? On this, that baptism becomes a privilege to him. And they may endow an absent person with a privilege; or they may bestow a privilege upon one, though he be ignorant of it. Tell me then, why an infant is not capable of being brought into the visible church, and of receiving the distinguishing sign between a Christian and a heathen, as well as a grown person.

IV. One may add, that an infant is part of his parent: upon this account, Gen 17:14; an infant is to be cut off if he be not circumcised, when, indeed, the fault is his parents’; because thus the parents are punished in a part of themselves, by the cutting off of their child. And hence is that of Exo 20:5; “Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children,” because children are a part of their fathers, etc. From hence ariseth also a natural reason of infant-baptism: the infants of baptized parents are to be baptized, because they are part of them, and that the whole parents may be baptized. And upon this account they used of old, with good reason, to baptize the whole family, with the master of it.

[In the name of the Father, etc.] I. Christ commands them to go and baptize the nations; but how much time was past before such a journey was taken! And when the time was now come that this work should be begun, Peter doth not enter upon it without a previous admonition given him from heaven. And this was occasioned hereby, that, according to the command of Christ, the gospel was first to be preached to Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.

II. He commands them to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; but among the Jews they baptized only in the name of Jesus; which we have observed before, from Act 2:38; Act 8:16; Act 19:5. For this reason, that thus the baptizers might assert, and the baptized confess, Jesus to be the true Messias; which was chiefly controverted by the Jews.

Of the same nature is that apostolic blessing, “Grace and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” Where then is the Holy Ghost? He is not excluded, however he be not named. The Jews did more easily consent to the Spirit of the Messias, which they very much celebrate, than to the person of the Messias. Above all others, they deny and abjure Jesus of Nazareth. It belonged to the apostles, therefore, the more earnestly to assert Jesus (to be the Messias), by how much the more vehemently they opposed him: which being once cleared, the acknowledging of the Spirit of Christ would be introduced without delay or scruple. Moses (in Exo 6:14) going about to reckon up all the tribes of Israel, goes no further than the tribe of Levi only; and takes up with that to which his business and story at that present related. In like manner the apostles, for the present, baptize in the name of Jesus; bless in the name of the Father and of Jesus, that thereby they might more firmly establish the doctrine of Jesus, which met with such sharp and virulent opposition; which doctrine being established among them, they would soon agree about the Holy Ghost.

III. Among the Jews, the controversy was about the true Messiah; among the Gentiles, about the true God; it was, therefore, proper among the Jews to baptize in the name of Jesus; that he might be vindicated to be the true Messias: among the Gentiles, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; that they might be hereby instructed in the doctrine of the true God. Hear this, O Arian and Socinian!

IV. The Jews baptized proselytes into the name of the Father; that is, into the profession of God, whom they called by the name of Father. The apostles baptize the Jews into the name of Jesus, the Son; and the Gentiles, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

V. The Father hath revealed himself in the old covenant, the Son in the new; in human flesh, by his miracles, doctrine, resurrection, and ascension; the Holy Ghost; in his gifts and miracles. Thus the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity grew by degrees to full maturity: for the arriving at the acknowledgment of which it was incumbent upon all who professed the true God to be three in one to be baptized into his name.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 28:19. Therefore. The glorification of Christ is the ground of His sending them, and the blessed reason why in their weakness and insufficiency they can go. Evidently addressed to all the brethren, not to the Apostles only, and so understood in the early Church (comp. Act 8:1; Act 8:4).

Make disciples of. More than teach. It includes the two means which follow: baptizing teaching (Mat 28:20), probably referring to the whole process of Christianizing, from beginning to end. Because Christ rules (Mat 28:18), go, not to conquer men by force, but to work on their heartsmake them disciples, docile pupils in the school of Christ.

All the nations. The limitation of chap. Mat 10:5 is now removed. Then the disciples needed time to learn; now their commission is made universal. Yet the Jewish prejudice could not be overcome at once, and the Apostles themselves, until further revelation came (Acts 10), were in doubt whether circumcision were not first necessary. This fact shows that we could never have had the gospel, if the Gospel history had not been explained by the further revelation, which some now seek to underrate.

Baptizing them. The discipling consists of two parts: baptism, the rite of admission, and the subsequent instruction. This is the ordinary process in the Christian Church. And it has been usually understood as referring to admission into the covenant in infancy; then a growing up in Christian instruction. Too often, parents have clung to the former with superstitious scrupulousness, and neglected the latter. This method can apply only to Christian churches already established. As the Jewish religion began with the promise of God, and the faith and circumcision of adult Abraham (see Rom 4:11), so the Christian Church was founded in the beginning, and is now propagated in all heathen countries by the preaching of the Gospel to, and by the baptism of, adults. But even in the case of adult converts, a full instruction in the Christian religion does not, as a rule, precede, but succeed baptism, which is an initiatory rite, the sacramental sign and seal of regeneration, i.e., of the beginning of the new life, not of sanctification or growth in holiness.

Into the name, etc. This includes the idea of by the authority of, also dedicated into communion and fellowship with. It implies, not only a confession on the part of the one baptized, but an admission to privilege: the rite, the sign and seal of both. It is into one name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is impossible that this means, the one name of God, of a mere man, and of an attribute of God. It is the one name of One God, existing (as well as manifested), as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Comp, the baptism of Jesus, where all three persons of the Godhead revealed themselves.The doctrine of the Trinity receives powerful support from passages like this, but it rests even more on facts, on the whole Scripture revelation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the three great works of creation, redemption, and sanctification. All of which are signified and sealed in this formula of baptism. Since God reveals Himself as He is: this Trinity of revelation (oeconomical Trinity) involves the Trinity of essence (ontological Trinity).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 28:19. Go ye therefore, and teach Greek, , disciple, or make disciples of, or, as Dr. Doddridge renders it, proselyte all nations. This includes the whole design of Christs commission. Baptizing and teaching are the two great branches of that general design: and these were to be determined by the circumstances of things; which made it necessary, in baptizing adult Jews or heathen, to teach them before they were baptized; in disciplining their children, to baptize them before they were taught, as the Jewish children in all ages were first circumcised, and after taught to do all God had commanded them. It must be observed, that the word rendered teaching, in the next verse, (namely, ,) though in our translation confounded with the word used in this verse, yet is a word of a very different sense: and properly implies instructing, which the word used in this verse does not necessarily imply, but, as has been observed, merely to proselyte, or make disciples. The argument, therefore, that some draw from this verse, as if our Lord enjoined all to be taught before they were to be baptized, is without foundation. Our Lords words, taken together, in both verses, distinctly enjoin three things, and that in the following order, , , , that is, to proselyte men to Christ, to baptize, and to teach them. It is true, however, that adult persons, before they can be made Christs disciples, or be proselyted, must be instructed and brought to believe the great essential truths of Christianity, and even to profess their faith in them. But the case is different with infants, who may be admitted to baptism, as the children of the Jews were to the rite of circumcision, and be instructed afterward. And, as Dr. Doddridge justly observes, if Christ had sent out these missionaries to propagate Judaism in the world, he might have used the same, or similar language: Go and proselyte all nations, circumcising them in the name of the God of Israel, and teaching them to observe all that Moses commanded. The whole tenor of the succeeding books of the New Testament shows, that Christ designed, by this commission, that the gospel should be preached to all mankind without exception; not only to the Jews, but to the idolatrous Gentiles: but the prejudices of the apostles led them, at first, to mistake the sense of it, and to imagine that it referred only to their going to preach the gospel to the Jews among all nations, or to those who should be willing to become Jews.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, &c. Concerning the general nature of baptism, see note on Mat 3:6. But we are here instructed respecting the appropriation of this institution to the Christian dispensation, in its most complete form. The apostles, and their successors in the ministry of the word, are ordered to baptize those whom they made Christs disciples, , into the name, (not names,) of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Words which have been considered, in all ages of the Christian Church, as a most decisive proof of the doctrine of the Trinity; implying not only the proper personality and Deity of the Father, but also those of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For it would be absurd to suppose that either a mere creature, or a mere quality, or mode of existence of the Deity, should be joined with the Father in the one name into which all Christians are baptized. To be baptized into the name of any one implies a professed dependance on him, and devoted subjection to him; to be baptized, therefore, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, implies a professed dependance on these three divine persons, jointly and equally, and a devoting of ourselves to them as worshippers and servants. This is proper and obvious, upon the supposition of the mysterious unity of three coequal persons in the unity of the Godhead; but not to be accounted for upon any other principles. Scott. Our Lord, says Mr. Fletcher, enjoining us to be equally baptized in the name (equally consecrated to the service) of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaches us to honour the Son as we honour the Father, and to honour the Holy Ghost as we do the Son; and when the Socinians assert that the Son is a mere man, they indirectly tell us, that he is as improperly joined with the Father to be the great object of our faith in baptism, as a taper would improperly be joined with the sun to enlighten the universe. And when they represent the Holy Ghost as a mere power, and a power whereby we must not now hope to be influenced, they might as well tell us, that he is as unfit to have a place among the Three who bear record in heaven; as their power of motion, or the energy of their minds, would be absurdly mentioned as parties in a contract, where their names and persons are particularly specified. Thus, they take from us the two Comforters, with whom we are particularly blessed under the gospel. If we believe them, the one is a mere man, who cannot hear us; and the other is a mere property, or an unconscious energy, by which we shall be no way benefited, and as insensible to our faith as to our unbelief: and when our Lord bids all nations to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, (if the word Son do not mean the proper Son of God; if it mean only, the son of the carpenter, Joseph, and if the Holy Ghost be only the Fathers energy, and an energy whereby we can neither be quickened nor comforted,) this gospel charter is far more extraordinary than would be the royal patents by which gentlemen are created lords, if they all began thus: Be it enacted, in the name, or by the supreme authority, of King George the Third, of Josiah the carpenters son, and of the royal power or energy, that A.B., Esq., be numbered among the peers of the realm. Such is the wisdom displayed by philosophers, who call the divinity of the Son the leading corruption of Christianity, and who pretend to reform all the Reformed Churches! See his Works, vol. 9. p. 26, octavo edit. Though perhaps, we ought not to assert that the use of these very words is essential to Christian baptism, yet surely, as Dr. Doddridge observes, the expression must intimate the necessity of some distinct regard to each of the Sacred Three, which is always to be maintained in the administration of this ordinance; and consequently it must imply, that more was said to those of whose baptism we read in the Acts than is there recorded, before they were admitted to it. The Christian Church, in succeeding ages, has acted a wise and safe part in retaining these words; and they contain so strong an intimation that each of these persons is properly called God, and that worship is to be paid, and glory ascribed to each, that I cannot but hope they will be a means of maintaining the belief of the one, and the practice of the other, among the generality of Christians, to the end of the world.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

28:19 {5} Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them {f} in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:

(5) The sum of the apostleship is the proclaiming of the doctrine received from Christ throughout all the world, and the ministering of the sacraments: the efficacy of which things depends not on the minsters but on the Lord.

(f) Calling upon the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus’ disciples should go and make disciples because Jesus now has universal authority. He gave them a new universal mission in keeping with His new universal authority. Previously He had limited their work to Israel (Mat 10:1-8; cf. Mat 15:24). Now He sent them into all the world. They could go confidently knowing that Jesus has sovereign control over everything in heaven and on earth (cf. Rom 8:28). Note the similarity between the original cultural mandate to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Gen 1:28; Gen 9:1) and this new mandate for believers.

In the Greek text there is one imperative verb, "make disciples" (Gr. matheteusate), modified by three participles, "going," "baptizing," and "teaching." [Note: See Robert D. Culver, "What Is the Church’s Commission? Some Exegetical Issues In Mat 28:16-20," Bibliotheca Sacra 125:499 (July-September 1968):239-53.] This does not mean that we should make disciples wherever we may happen to go. The participle "going" is not just circumstantial, but it has some imperatival force. [Note: Cleon Rogers, "The Great Commission," Bibliotheca Sacra 130:519 (July-September 1973):258-67.] In other words, Jesus commanded His disciple to reach out to unreached people to make disciples, not just to make disciples among those with whom they happened to come in contact.

Making disciples involves bringing people into relationship with Jesus as pupils to teacher. It involves getting them to take His yoke of instruction upon themselves as authoritative (Mat 11:29), accepting His words as true, and submitting to His will as what is right. A good disciple is one who listens, understands, and obeys Jesus’ instructions (Mat 12:46-50). Disciples of Jesus must duplicate themselves in others. [Note: See James G. Samra, "A Biblical View of Discipleship," Bibliotheca Sacra 160:638 (April-June 2003):219-34.]

The "all nations" (Gr. panta ta ethne) in view are all tribes, nations, and peoples, including Israel (cf. Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18). [Note: John P. Meier, "Nations or Gentiles in Mat 28:19," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 39 (1977):94-102.] The phrase does not mean Gentiles exclusive of Jews. Matthew hinted at the Gentiles’ inclusion in God’s plan to bless humanity throughout his Gospel (Mat 1:1; Mat 2:1-12; Mat 4:15-16; Mat 8:5-13; Mat 10:18; Mat 13:38; Mat 24:14; et al.). Jesus’ disciples should make disciples among all people without distinction.

Baptizing and teaching are to characterize making disciples. Baptizing is to be into the name of the triune God (cf. 1Co 12:4-6; 2Co 13:14; Eph 4:4-6; 2Th 2:13-14; 1Pe 1:2; Rev 1:4-6). The "into" (Gr. eis) suggests coming into relationship with God as a disciple. Baptism indicates both coming into covenant relationship with God and pledging submission to His lordship. [Note: G. R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New Testament, pp. 90-92.] Obviously water baptism rather than Spirit baptism is in view (cf. Mat 3:6; Mat 3:11; Mat 3:13-17).

This baptism differs from John the Baptist’s baptism. This one is universal whereas John’s baptism was for Israelites. This baptism rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ, but John’s baptism prepared people for Jesus’ person and work. [Note: Lenski, p. 1178.]

Jesus placed Himself on a level with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

"It is one thing for Jesus to speak about his relationship with God as Son with Father (notably Mat 11:27; Mat 24:36; Mat 26:63-64) and to draw attention to the close links between himself and the Holy Spirit (Mat 12:28; Mat 12:31-32), but for ’the Son’ to take his place as the middle member, between the Father and the Holy Spirit, in a threefold depiction of the object of the disciple’s allegiance is extraordinary." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 1118.]

"The Trinity of God is confessedly a great mystery, something wholly beyond the possibility of complete explanation. But we can guard against error by holding fast to the facts of divine revelation: that (1) with respect to His Being or essence, God is one; (2) with respect to His Personality, God is three; and (3) we must neither divide the essence, nor confuse the Persons." [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 1046.]

The early Christians evidently did not understand the words "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" as a baptismal formula that they needed to use whenever they baptized someone (cf. Act 2:38; Act 8:16; Act 10:48; Act 19:5; Rom 6:3). Jesus apparently meant that His disciples were to connect others with the triune God of the Bible in baptism. Jesus did not specify a mode of baptism, though immersion was common in Judaism and is consistent with the meaning of the Greek word baptizo, "to immerse or submerge." His command to baptize disciples seems to rule out baptism for infants and others who cannot consciously understand and agree with what baptism signifies.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)