βαπτίζοντες] αὐτοὺς "εἰς τὸ "ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ a "Ἁγίου Πνεύματος, 20. διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς *rypeiv πάντα ὅσα λα Τ. α ατα A ε ~ > 3 ε
i.13; x.2. ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν: καὶ ἰδού, ἐγὼ pel” ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας
᾽Αμήν."Σ
Gal. fii. 27 - ri a
(al with ἕως τῆς © συντελείας τοῦ © αἰῶνος. εις an
aceus.). f vide at Ch. xix. 17. g vide at Ch. xiii. 39.
1 Bawruravres in BD (W.H. margin).
βαπτιζοντες (T.R., W.H., text). The
reading of Τ.Ε. (ΝΔΣ) is probably a conformation to διδασκοντες in next clause. 2 The Αµην is not found in SABD 1, 33, and is left out by modern editors.
by the opponents of infant baptism as referring to μαθητὰς in μαθητεύσατε, and the verb was held to mean ‘teach ”. For some references to this extinct con- troversy vide Wetstein, ad loc., and Her- mann’s Viger, p. 61.—eis τὸ ὄνομα, into the name, 1.6., as confessing the name which embodies the essence of the Christian creed.—rot πατρὸς, etc.: it is the name not of one but of three, form- ing 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 ofa Trinity constituting at the same time a Divine Unity. But this would probably be reading more into the words han was intended.—Ver. 20. διδάσκοντες a., teaching them, present participle, im- plying that Christian instruction is to be a continuous process, not subordinate to and preparing for baptism, but con- tinuing after baptism with a view to enabling disciples to walk worthily of their vocation.—rmpetv : the teaching is with a view not to gnosis but to practice ; the aim not orthodox opinion but right Ἠνίης.-- πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ἡμῖν: the materials of instruction are to be Christ’s own teaching. This points to the desirableness for the Church’s use of an oral or written tradition of Christ’s words: these to be the rule of faith and practice.—kat ἰδοὺ, introducing an im- portant promise to the missionaries of the new universal religion to keep them in courage and good hope amid all diffi- culties.—éy@ ped’ ὑμῶν, J the Risen, Exalted, All-powerful One, with you my apostles and representatives engaged in the heroic task of propagating the faith.— εἰμὶ, am, not will be, conveying the feel- ing of certainty, but also spoken from the eternal point of view, sub specie aeternitatis, for which distinctions of here and there, now and then, do not exist.
Cf. John viii. 58, ‘‘ before Abraham was Iam”. Inthe Fourth Gospel the cate- gories of the Absolute and the Eternal dominate throughout. —mwdoas τὰς Ἠμέρας, all the days, of which, it is implied, there may be many; the vista of the future is lengthening.—éws τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος, until the close of the current age, when He is to come again; an event, however, not indispens- able for the comfort of men who are to enjoy an uninterrupted spiritual presence. This great final word of Jesus is worthy of the Speaker and of the situation. Perhaps it is not to be taken as an exact report of what Jesus said to His disciples at a certain time and place. In it the real and the ideal seem to be blended ; what Jesus said there and then with what the Church of the apostolic age had gradually come to regard as the will of their Risen Lord, with growing clearness as the years advanced, with perfect clearness after Israel’s crisis had come. We find here (1) a cosmic significance assigned to Christ (all power in heaven and on earth); (2) an absolutely universal destination of the Gospel; (3) baptism as the rite of admission to discipleship ; (4) a rudimentary baptismal Trinity ; (5) a spiritual presence of Christ similar to that spoken of in the Fourth Gospel, To this measure of Christian enlighten- ment the Apostolic Church, as repre- sented by our evangelist, had attained when he wrote his Gospel, probably after the destruction of Jerusalem. Therein is summed up the Church’s confession of faith conceived as uttered by the lips of the Risen One. ‘“ Ex- pressly not as words of Jesus walking on the earth, but as words of Him who appeared from heaven, the evangelist here presents in summary form what the Christian community had come to re- cognise as the will and the promise of their exalted Lord” (Weiss-Meyer).