Matthew 28:18-20

 Mt. 28:18-20

A.) Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· 

B.) πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, 

C.) βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, 

B’.) διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· 

A’.)καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.

A.) All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 

B.) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, 

C.) baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

B’.) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; 

A’.) and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

You have a command (B-C-B’) standing in the middle of a statement, one that ends in a promise. Notice that baptism stands at the center of Jesus’ statement. Baptism is not just “in” the name of the Holy Trinity, but “into” the name. It is baptism into union with the Triune God, which is baptism into His Church. It is a transition from a former state of being into a new state of being, and into a new set of relationships.

Jesus issues a threefold command, reflective of the triune God to which all true believers are united and which stands at the center of the command and of the chiasm.

The evidence for the chiasm exists not only in Jesus’ threefold command, but in the fact that the two verbs often translated “disciple” (μαθητεύσατε) and “teach” (διδάσκοντες) have essentially the same semantic range. The two phrases mirror one another. In addition, Jesus’ promise to forever be with His disciples points back to His first statement and to His authority everywhere and over all that exists. His disciples need not fear anything, because there is no place they can go where He is not King and in complete control.

The disciples are to “go” (πορευθέντες), and where they are to go is in the preceding word, the “world” or “earth” (γῆς). They are to leave Israel, to leave the Jewish people, and go to “πάντα τὰ ἔθνη”. Often translated “all the nations”, it simply means “all who aren’t Jews”, or “all the Gentiles”. The word for “nations” or “Gentiles” here has no implications for any particular structure of government. It does not support a modern nationalistic conception of country or government in any way. The passage is clear in its teaching, however, of Theocracy. Jesus is king over all people, all places, and of all things. And it is the duty of all creatures to submit to him.

But to pull vs. 19 out of context, force a meaning on the translated  word “nations”, and begin to argue for, or even assume, a certain structure of government or country beyond this is bad scholarship. And given the modern usage of the word “nationalism”, the use of the word in relation to this passage is obfuscatory and unhelpful.