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πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος·
Matthew 28:19
5. Jews Seek a Sign
In Mark’s version of the Great Commission, we see something else that points strongly to a Jewish-only apostleship:
In Acts 14:8-12, the Gentiles thought Barnabas and Paul were Jupiter and Mercury respectively when Paul healed the cripple in Lystra. The “barbarous people” of Melita thought Paul himself was a god when he didn’t die from a viper bite (Acts 28:6); and this was one of the specific “signs following” of Mark 16:18. It was Paul who summed it up for us in 1 Corinthians 1:22
Given that, and the exclusivity of the Apostles evangelism, we must conclude that the so-called Great Commission wasn’t seen by them to be a commission to make Gentile disciples of every nation, but only to evangelize other Jews of every nation.
Of course, that being so, it still doesn’t explain the Apostolic inertia. To do that, we must examine the Greek text of the Great Commission verses.
6. The Greek Commission
In researching this study, I came across an online essay by Wendell E. Miller called Rethinking the Great Commission on the Biblical Counseling Association website. In Part I: Questioning the Command to Go, I read the following surprising statement (my emphasis added):
Let me just explain to those of you who are grammatically challenged what that statement is all about. An “imperative verb” is an “action word”, like run, jump, lie, put in a form that makes it a command or an order; which is often punctuated with an exclamation mark to show that it is emphatic (imperative).
For example, if a sergeant wants his soldiers to change from marching to running, he would yell “run”; he would not say “ran”. That’s because the “imperative verb” form of the action of running is the word “run”, whereas “ran” is the past tense form. In Greek, the different forms of verbs are much more numerous and distinct that in English. Where the imperative of “run” is similar in appearance to other forms of “run”, in Greek the imperative is completely distinct.
Well, in the Greek text of Matthew 28:19-20 (and Mark 16:15), the word translated “go” is not in the command form and should not have been translated as if it were.
Additionally, in the sister verse of Luke 24:47, there is no command at all. Instead it simply asserts “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
So, nowhere in the Greek texts of the Synoptic Gospels did Jesus command the disciples to “Go!” anywhere.
Here is the Greek text of Matthew 28:19-20:
Very simply put, the participle poreuthentes in English would be an “-ing” word, like “continuing” or “going”. Therefore, the sense conveyed by it is more like “while living” or “as you go on your way”
To get an idea of the difference between this form and an imperative form, we need only look at Matthew 8:32, where Jesus gives a clear command to the unclean spirits to “go” into the pigs. The word used here is ὑπάγετε [hupagete], the present active imperative form of ὑπάγω [hupago], meaning “to lead or bring under” or “to depart”. It is tellingly translated as “go”, “go (one’s) way”, “go away”, “get thee”, “depart” and “get thee hence”. Clearly, this imperative is the equivalent to our command “to go”.
Over 100 times in the KJV, the word poreuthentes has been translated as a command to go, even though it is not an imperative verb form. Furthermore, with regards to the occurrence in the Great Commission, Miller, citing a Greek lexicon,2 tells us that poreuthentes is used to “enliven the narrative” and that “in any case the idea of going or traveling is not emphasized”.
What is emphasized is the verb “teach”, as it is an imperative command (as is the verb “preach” in Mark 16:15). The word translated “teach” is the verb μαθητεύσατε [matheteusate], the aorist active imperative of ὑπάγω [matheteuo]; which means “to be or make a disciple of someone”. There is no exact equivalent in English, but if you think of it as “disciple-ize”, you’ll get the sense.
In light of this, if you combine the imperative matheteusate with the participle poreuthentes, you get a whole different command in Matthew’s Great Commission:
Just like what happened in the second Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
7. Acts Two: The Kosmos Comes to Jerusalem
As with poreuthentes and matheteusate in Matthew, so with poreuthentes and the imperative command “preach!” in Mark 16:15.
Here is the Greek text:
Okay, although it is now understood that there is no command to go into the world, there is still the problem of what is meant by “into all the world”. Does this phrase not imply that the disciples were to eventually make it “into all the nations of the world”?
Not necessarily. The word translated “into” is the Greek primary preposition εἰς [eis]. It is the same preposition translated “among” in Luke’s phrase “among all nations” (Luke 24:47); which actually includes the definite article, in the Greek, and so should read “among all the nations.
This, then, means that, in harmony with Luke’s “among all nations”, Mark could actually have recorded Jesus saying
The word for “world” is a bit more complex. In the NT, there are five words that the KJV translators interpreted as “world”, but in Mark 16:15, the word in Greek is κόσμος [kosmos]. Thayer’s Lexicon3 gives us two primary definitions: “an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government” or an “ornament, decoration, adornment, i.e. the arrangement of the stars, ‘the heavenly hosts’, as the ornament of the heavens”, as it is translated in 1 Pet. 3:3. (The latter definition helps explain how we got the cognates “cosmos” and “cosmetic” from a word the Bible says means “world”.)
Of course, as with ethnos, the lexical meaning of kosmos is only part of the story; the usage of the word must be examined, too. In his short defense of how he defined “the world” when explaining John 3:16, A. J. Pink looks at all the usages of the word kosmos and concludes that it “has at least seven clearly defined different meanings in the New Testament.” The sixth one on his list, the one synonymous with ethnos is the one that is applicable in Mark 16:15.
It was “all” of this representative part of the “kosmos of Gentiles in contrast from Jews” that was the target for the Great Commission; that the Apostles were to “continue among” and disciple-ize. The kosmos from which the devout men of Israel faithfully made their way to Jerusalem on that blessed Pentecost in 33AD.
We now see the reason for the Apostles’ inertia; they had already completed the Great Commission by the end of Acts three.
The idea of the Great Commission being done by the end of Acts three will strike most believers as absurd, but I have a feeling that that is in part the result of their being taught that the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world is a sign of the End Times. This is because the order given to the Eleven to preach to all the world has been conflated with the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:14.
Therefore, the Lord is saying in Matthew 24:14 that the end will come once the Gospel has been preached to the inhabited oikoumene outside of Israel. In Mark, He is saying that it will be preached to the Jews living in the kosmos under heaven.
8. In Conclusion
So, in conclusion, we see that the The Great Commission was not, as is believed and taught by nearly every Christian denomination today, the first step in taking the Gospel to the world, but rather the final step in taking the Gospel to the Jew first. The Apostles were commissioned by Jesus to evangelize their brethren and they accomplished all that was asked of them, before and after the Lord’s death and resurrection. And because they did, the Apostle Paul could, in words that echo the Lord’s commandment recorded in Mark, declare that the so-called Great Commission was completed.
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In Mark’s version of the Great Commission, we see something else that points strongly to a Jewish-only apostleship:
16:17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.The word correctly translated “signs” here is σημεῖα [semeia], the plural of σημεῖον [semeion]. In the NT the semeia were miracles (as the word was often translated in the KJV; scroll down this page to see all 22 occurrences) that proved the person performing them was of God—they were God’s confirmation “signature” on a person. All the miracles Jesus ever did were signs to prove to the Jews that He was the Messiah. To the Jews, only those sent from God could perform miracles. Nicodemus, the Pharisee who came to Jesus secretly, expresses this typical belief in John 3:2:
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these [semeia] that thou doest, except God be with him.Hence the wording of the final statement regarding signs in Mark 16:20:
...and confirming the word with [semeia] following.The semeia were to follow the Gospel to confirm that the Apostles were who they said they were, too. That is what points to a Jewish-only Great Commission, because only believing Jews could recognize these signs as signs. Pagan Gentiles, not having been instructed to expect a miracle-working Messiah, would misinterpret them.
In Acts 14:8-12, the Gentiles thought Barnabas and Paul were Jupiter and Mercury respectively when Paul healed the cripple in Lystra. The “barbarous people” of Melita thought Paul himself was a god when he didn’t die from a viper bite (Acts 28:6); and this was one of the specific “signs following” of Mark 16:18. It was Paul who summed it up for us in 1 Corinthians 1:22
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.Basically, because they were unable to recognize them as the signature of the one and only Jehovah-God, the semeia would have been wasted on Gentiles. They were, therefore, only for the Jews.1
Given that, and the exclusivity of the Apostles evangelism, we must conclude that the so-called Great Commission wasn’t seen by them to be a commission to make Gentile disciples of every nation, but only to evangelize other Jews of every nation.
Of course, that being so, it still doesn’t explain the Apostolic inertia. To do that, we must examine the Greek text of the Great Commission verses.
6. The Greek Commission
In researching this study, I came across an online essay by Wendell E. Miller called Rethinking the Great Commission on the Biblical Counseling Association website. In Part I: Questioning the Command to Go, I read the following surprising statement (my emphasis added):
It is a well-known fact that the Greek text of Matthew 28:19-20 does not include an imperative verb that must be translated "go". Instead, the Greek text has a participle from which the command to go has been translated.“Well known fact”? Well known by whom? I certainly didn’t know; not until doing this study. And I'm certain that very few non-Greek-reading Christians know either. If it is a well known fact that there is no command to go in the Great Commission, it is only so amongst NT Greek teachers and seminary staff and they’ve done a great job in keeping it that way! If anyone knows of any large Christian denomination that teaches this “well known fact” to its membership, please let me know immediately.
Let me just explain to those of you who are grammatically challenged what that statement is all about. An “imperative verb” is an “action word”, like run, jump, lie, put in a form that makes it a command or an order; which is often punctuated with an exclamation mark to show that it is emphatic (imperative).
For example, if a sergeant wants his soldiers to change from marching to running, he would yell “run”; he would not say “ran”. That’s because the “imperative verb” form of the action of running is the word “run”, whereas “ran” is the past tense form. In Greek, the different forms of verbs are much more numerous and distinct that in English. Where the imperative of “run” is similar in appearance to other forms of “run”, in Greek the imperative is completely distinct.
Well, in the Greek text of Matthew 28:19-20 (and Mark 16:15), the word translated “go” is not in the command form and should not have been translated as if it were.
Additionally, in the sister verse of Luke 24:47, there is no command at all. Instead it simply asserts “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
So, nowhere in the Greek texts of the Synoptic Gospels did Jesus command the disciples to “Go!” anywhere.
Here is the Greek text of Matthew 28:19-20:
πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος.Notice the first word Jesus uses is πορευθέντες [poreuthentes]. This is the aorist passive deponent participle form of the verb πορεύω [poreuo], which means “to carry over” or “transfer” or “to continue on one’s journey”.
Very simply put, the participle poreuthentes in English would be an “-ing” word, like “continuing” or “going”. Therefore, the sense conveyed by it is more like “while living” or “as you go on your way”
To get an idea of the difference between this form and an imperative form, we need only look at Matthew 8:32, where Jesus gives a clear command to the unclean spirits to “go” into the pigs. The word used here is ὑπάγετε [hupagete], the present active imperative form of ὑπάγω [hupago], meaning “to lead or bring under” or “to depart”. It is tellingly translated as “go”, “go (one’s) way”, “go away”, “get thee”, “depart” and “get thee hence”. Clearly, this imperative is the equivalent to our command “to go”.
Over 100 times in the KJV, the word poreuthentes has been translated as a command to go, even though it is not an imperative verb form. Furthermore, with regards to the occurrence in the Great Commission, Miller, citing a Greek lexicon,2 tells us that poreuthentes is used to “enliven the narrative” and that “in any case the idea of going or traveling is not emphasized”.
What is emphasized is the verb “teach”, as it is an imperative command (as is the verb “preach” in Mark 16:15). The word translated “teach” is the verb μαθητεύσατε [matheteusate], the aorist active imperative of ὑπάγω [matheteuo]; which means “to be or make a disciple of someone”. There is no exact equivalent in English, but if you think of it as “disciple-ize”, you’ll get the sense.
In light of this, if you combine the imperative matheteusate with the participle poreuthentes, you get a whole different command in Matthew’s Great Commission:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations...You get this:
While continuing, therefore, disciple-ize all the nations...In speculating on the meaning of the lack of an imperative "to go" in the Greek text, Miller offers this:
Instead of issuing a command to go, Jesus may have been emphasizing that the Gospel is for all nationalities, not just the descendants of Abraham. As we read the book of Acts, we see that the early Jewish believers had a hard time accepting the fact that the Gospel was for the Gentiles, too.Or, perhaps the Lord didn’t issue a command to go because He was emphasizing that the Apostles were to spread the Gospel and make disciples of Jews from every nation, not in every nation.
Just like what happened in the second Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
7. Acts Two: The Kosmos Comes to Jerusalem
As with poreuthentes and matheteusate in Matthew, so with poreuthentes and the imperative command “preach!” in Mark 16:15.
Here is the Greek text:
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Πορευθέντες εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἅπαντα κηρύξατε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει.The first word in red text is poreuthentes; the second one is the word translated “preach”. This is the verb κηρύξατε [keruxsate], the aorist active imperative of κηρύσσω [kerusso]. So, retranslating Mark's command as we did Matthew's above, we go from this:
Go ye into all the world, and preach......to this:
While continuing into all the world, preach...By the way, for some reason, the word “and” that appears in the KJV of this verse is not placed in italics, even though it does not occur in the Greek text (the word καί [kai]). It was required in their English text because the translators turned the participle into an imperative.
Okay, although it is now understood that there is no command to go into the world, there is still the problem of what is meant by “into all the world”. Does this phrase not imply that the disciples were to eventually make it “into all the nations of the world”?
Not necessarily. The word translated “into” is the Greek primary preposition εἰς [eis]. It is the same preposition translated “among” in Luke’s phrase “among all nations” (Luke 24:47); which actually includes the definite article, in the Greek, and so should read “among all the nations.
This, then, means that, in harmony with Luke’s “among all nations”, Mark could actually have recorded Jesus saying
While continuing among all the world, preach...In any case, the world and the nations are clearly synonymous. The word for “nation” is ἔθνος [ethnos], which, in pagan Greek, means a “grouping of men or beasts living together”, but in the Hebraic Greek of 1st Century Judea it meant a “Gentile person or nation”.
The word for “world” is a bit more complex. In the NT, there are five words that the KJV translators interpreted as “world”, but in Mark 16:15, the word in Greek is κόσμος [kosmos]. Thayer’s Lexicon3 gives us two primary definitions: “an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government” or an “ornament, decoration, adornment, i.e. the arrangement of the stars, ‘the heavenly hosts’, as the ornament of the heavens”, as it is translated in 1 Pet. 3:3. (The latter definition helps explain how we got the cognates “cosmos” and “cosmetic” from a word the Bible says means “world”.)
Of course, as with ethnos, the lexical meaning of kosmos is only part of the story; the usage of the word must be examined, too. In his short defense of how he defined “the world” when explaining John 3:16, A. J. Pink looks at all the usages of the word kosmos and concludes that it “has at least seven clearly defined different meanings in the New Testament.” The sixth one on his list, the one synonymous with ethnos is the one that is applicable in Mark 16:15.
“Kosmos” is used of Gentiles in contrast from Jews: Rom. 11:12 etc. "Now if the fall of them (Israel) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them (Israel) the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their (Israel’s) fulness." Note how the first clause in italics is defined by the latter clause placed in italics. Here, again, "the world" cannot signify all humanity for it excludes Israel!Along the same lines as that last point of A. J. Pink’s explanation, that “the world” doesn’t always signify all of humanity, we must add that “all” doesn’t always mean “every single one of something”. “All the world” or “all the nations” is often a synecdoche, a whole used to represent a part. Preaching to all the nations of the world means simply to preach to a representative part of all nations of the world, in the same way that a newspaper’s headline saying “Washington arrived in London” means that the U.S. delegation to Britain has landed, not than the entire city of Washington made a transatlantic journey to see the Prime Minister.
It was “all” of this representative part of the “kosmos of Gentiles in contrast from Jews” that was the target for the Great Commission; that the Apostles were to “continue among” and disciple-ize. The kosmos from which the devout men of Israel faithfully made their way to Jerusalem on that blessed Pentecost in 33AD.
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Acts 2:7These Gentile nations in Acts 3—considered “under heaven” because Jews, the worshippers of the true God, lived there—are enumerated for us in vv. 9-11:
9Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians...As it did every year, the “world” came to Jerusalem, but this time it had the Gospel preached to it and 3,000 disciples made from it—every one of them taught by the Apostles and sent back home to all those nations in order to preach to their Jewish compatriots, who either couldn’t make it to the Holy City or were not obligated to.
We now see the reason for the Apostles’ inertia; they had already completed the Great Commission by the end of Acts three.
The idea of the Great Commission being done by the end of Acts three will strike most believers as absurd, but I have a feeling that that is in part the result of their being taught that the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world is a sign of the End Times. This is because the order given to the Eleven to preach to all the world has been conflated with the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:14.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.But, once again, the Greek text shows us that this “world” is not kosmos, but οἰκουμένη [oikoumene], which originally meant “the portion of the earth inhabited by the Greeks”, in distinction from the land of the barbarians. However, just as the term “Greek” came to mean any civilized Gentile, so oikoumene came to mean the civilized Gentile-controlled world.
Therefore, the Lord is saying in Matthew 24:14 that the end will come once the Gospel has been preached to the inhabited oikoumene outside of Israel. In Mark, He is saying that it will be preached to the Jews living in the kosmos under heaven.
8. In Conclusion
So, in conclusion, we see that the The Great Commission was not, as is believed and taught by nearly every Christian denomination today, the first step in taking the Gospel to the world, but rather the final step in taking the Gospel to the Jew first. The Apostles were commissioned by Jesus to evangelize their brethren and they accomplished all that was asked of them, before and after the Lord’s death and resurrection. And because they did, the Apostle Paul could, in words that echo the Lord’s commandment recorded in Mark, declare that the so-called Great Commission was completed.
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [be] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, [and] which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.
Colossians 1:24
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1. There is much more that can be said about the miracles, signs and wonders of Jesus that can’t be included in this study. If you wish to look into it further, I direct you to the highly detailed Crandall University page Jesus as Miracle Worker.
2. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament & Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition, Copyright 1958, page 692
3. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by Joseph Henry Thayer, 1889, public domain
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