Add parallel Print Page Options

The Great Commission

16 So[a] the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. 17 When[b] they saw him, they worshiped him,[c] but some doubted.[d] 18 Then Jesus came up and said to them,[e] “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Matthew 28:16 tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Jesus’ instructions in v. 10.
  2. Matthew 28:17 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
  3. Matthew 28:17 tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
  4. Matthew 28:17 tn The Greek text reads here οἱ δὲ ἐδίστασαν (hoi de edistasan). Some scholars argue that the article is functioning like a personal pronoun, thus “they doubted” (e.g., D. A. Hagner, Matthew [WBC], 2:884). If so, then all the disciples would be in view. The translation of the text takes οἱ as an alternative pronoun which has a partitive notion (i.e., some of the disciples doubted, but not all). The difficulty with the personal pronoun view is that there are no examples of it in Matthew in which the same subject immediately precedes with its own verb (as would be the case in “they worshiped…they doubted”). Such, in fact, would be quite awkward, for the article would be unnecessary since the pronominal referent is already embedded in the verb. The only reason for the article here would be to distinguish the subject in some way; but if the same subject is in view, no distinction is being made.
  5. Matthew 28:18 tn Grk “coming, Jesus spoke to them, saying.” The participle λέγων (legōn, “saying”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.