Matthew 28:20


Matthew 28:20 is the twentieth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This verse is part of the Great Commission narrative, containing the follow-up command to teach the whole teaching of Jesus and his promise of 'ever graceful divine presence'.

Content

The original Koine Greek, according to the Textus Receptus and Byzantine/Majority Text, reads:
In the King James Version of the Bible it is translated as:
The modern World English Bible translates the passage as:
For a collection of other versions see

Analysis

The word "all" are found multiple times in the verses 18–20, tying them together: all power/authority, all nations, all things and all the days.
Allison notes a persistent correlation of the Great Commission narrative with Moses, starting with "the mountain", as 'Moses ended his earthly course on a mountain'; the commissioning of Joshua by God through Moses; and the close parallels in, ; and, which are 'all about God'. In, Joshua was commanded to 'go' and cross the Jordan river, whereas in Joshua was to 'act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you', then in God promises his presence: 'for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go'. The undeniable strong presence of a Moses typology in the Gospel Matthew rises up suggestions that this passage, like the commissioning stories in and, 'deliberately borrows from the traditions about Moses'. Just as Moses, at the end of his life on earth, commissioned Joshua to 'go into the land peopled by foreign nations' and 'to observe all the commandments in the law', then further promised 'God's abiding presence', so similarly is Jesus at the end of his earthly ministry commands his disciples 'to go into all nations' and 'to teach the observance of all the commandments' of the "new Moses", and then further promises 'his continual assisting presence'.
Matthew's narrative up to this point portrays Jesus as "teacher", but here the verb "teach" is linked to the disciples as the subject, but they are to teach "what Jesus has commanded", not their own ideas. The "commandments" given by Jesus is to be the basis of living for the believers, in comparison to the "commandments" given by God through Moses.
"I am with you always" forms an inclusio with the Isaiah's prophecy quoted in that 'they shall name him "Emmanuel", which means, God is with us'.
The phrase "the end of the age" recurs in,;, and points to Jesus' teachings about the end of times.